Kitchen Renovation "Lite" - Just Cabinets, Countertops, Sink, Faucet, Paint

[Anonymous]

Whoops, sub "comprise" for "compromise" above. Duh.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you're looking to do it on a budget, visit Ikea. I know it sounds odd, but two of my relatives had their kitchens redone using Ikea cabinets, and they look great. I believe Ikea can refer you to installers also.

Consumer Reports gives IKEA cabinets high ratings.

[Anonymous]

19:45 back.

How tall are your ceilings? Standard wall cabinets are 12" deep and run from 12" to 42", generally in the 3" or 6" increments, so if you're willing to fudge the countertop to base of wall cabinet height or use crown molding to bridge the gap you should almost certainly be able to make it work. I just looked at the Kraftmais site and you can get all their cabinet specs online -scroll down their page and under 'Support' their is a link for 'cabinet specs' which will show you the full range of their standard cabinets. Since they use pretty standard measurements that should give you a good idea of what's generally available across makers. And not trying to imply you should use Kraftsmaid, I just seem to remember that their materials were pretty easy to understand, so useful for planning out a layout. I also just noticed they have an online planning tool, though I haven't used it so can't say if it's useful or not. But if you decide to try your own hand on the layout issues there are a number of good online tools.

[Anonymous]

(And sorry for the typos- dang autocorrect. I really do know the difference between their and there, among other issues with that last post.)

[Anonymous]

Measure very, very carefully (and have your contractor do the same) and let the designers at Lowes help you. We ordered a whole kitchen and had the cabinets put in by our handyman/contractor. Cabinets were the main cost. Contractor was about 5K, + another 3K for granite. cabinets really vary in price. It looks like 50K but we did not pay that much.

[Anonymous]

PP here ^ Pretty much everyone in our neighborhood has done the same. We just do not go for the 50-60K kitchen.

[Anonymous]

I think that it will cost more than you think, even if you are "just" doing the cabinets and counters. Codes may have changed and once the contractors touch anything with plumbing or electrical, it is likely that they will need to bring it up to code. I use Home Depot and used a mid-range cabinet and countertop and the experience was really pretty good. Your contract is with Home Depot so if you have problems with the contractor, you call Home Depot and they deal with it. They have high end cabinets at Home Depot as well.