redoing a kitchen on a budget -- second-hand cabinets

[Anonymous]

I want to install new cabinets in my kitchen but I don't have a big budget to work with. Has anyone installed second-hand cabinets in their kitchen? If so, was it a lot of hassle? How did it work out?

[Anonymous]

It depends on your vision. We got a great set of 1960s wood base cabinets from a friend who was remodeling. They look fabulous - so much more character than new stuff. We also found a single base cabinet that we're using in the kitchen, but in a different area. This is between the dishwasher and the wall and the whole area is topped by a wooden counter from ikea. The motley aesthetic works for us.

If you want matching upper and lower cabinets that fit perfectly into the shape of your kitchen, you're probably not going to find that used.

[Anonymous]

Check out Young House Love http://www.younghouselove.com. This is a youngish couple who DIY their home and blog about it. Over the last 4 years, they've created a huge following. They are right now in the midst of a kitchen renovation for which they are doing the general contractor work and they did get some cabinets from the Habitat for Humanity ReStore and matched them to their existing cabinets. Check out the blog and see how they did it. Then think whether you want to do all that work or not.

[Anonymous]

Depends on the look you want and how muchyou Like to design. I've seen some lovely kitchens with three styles of cabinet work and some ugly kitchens with matching cabinets. And vice versus.

Live Ikea kitchens for new on the cheap.

[Anonymous]

You can also check out Habitat for Humanity's ReStore - they have one in Chantilly, I believe. People donate old cabinets and they sell them at very discounted prices. I'm guessing around here some people probably redo perfectly adequate kitchens just because they don't like the decor...

[Anonymous]

I've done a kitchen remodel and I'm baffled as to how you could possibly find used cabinets that would fit in your unique space.

I too worked on a strict budget, but saved for a few years to do it right, no purpose in half assing it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've done a kitchen remodel and I'm baffled as to how you could possibly find used cabinets that would fit in your unique space.

I too worked on a strict budget, but saved for a few years to do it right, no purpose in half assing it.

The perfect is the enemy of the good.

I have a weirdly-shaped kitchen, so I probably couldn't have found used cabinets that work, but I can see how someone with a nice galley or U-shaped kitchen would be able to find something, and maybe have some shelves built to fill in the gaps.

[Anonymous]

Check out Gardenweb's kitchens forum; most of these people are doing kitchen renovations that probably cost more than my house, but there is a dedicated minority of folks who have DIYd it, sometimes using Ikea or other ready-to-assemble cabinets, sometimes scavenging via CL, Habitat stores, etc. There are some amazing kitchens done this way - stuff that really looks high end. It helps if you have DIY skills, and if you're willing to paint older cabinets (which can take a lot of time and effort to do right.) Also, I've seen recommendations for some DC area place that often has great materials ala Habitat stores - it's called Community Forklift. Haven't been there but it sounds like a place worth checking out. One last tip - look at Green Demolitions website. It's NJ based, I think, but sells "recycled" kitchens often at a great price. The Gardenweb crowd claims that the shipping costs aren't necessarily as insane as I"d presume.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've done a kitchen remodel and I'm baffled as to how you could possibly find used cabinets that would fit in your unique space.

I too worked on a strict budget, but saved for a few years to do it right, no purpose in half assing it.

I have a galley kitchen, so fit is a little more open ended. I have money saved up, but I'd rather not toss so much of it into my kitchen if I can help it. I'm cheap like that. Plus, recycling is environmental!

[Anonymous]

I've read about people doing it, where they buy the contents of high-end kitchens that are being gutted and reconfigure the cabinets to work in their space. I would think you would need to be exceptionally handy or have a great carpenter. It would add labor time/costs, but maybe it could work for you.

[Anonymous]

If your existing cabinetry is has at least a good skeleton, have you thought of recovering the existing cabinets?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If your existing cabinetry is has at least a good skeleton, have you thought of recovering the existing cabinets?

I agree. If it's hardwood box then you can refinish, paint, or reface and get new doors/hardware/counter top/appliances.

[Anonymous]

We looked into refinishing our old cabinets at our previous home - it wound up being almost as expensive as an IKEA kitchen remodel. We chose IKEA, and liked it so much we went IKEA cabinets in our new home, where we had to completely gut the old kitchen.

Obviously, IKEA appeals to a certain segment of the population. Good luck, whatever you decide to do!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've done a kitchen remodel and I'm baffled as to how you could possibly find used cabinets that would fit in your unique space.

I too worked on a strict budget, but saved for a few years to do it right, no purpose in half assing it.

Half sweat and half the luck of the gods. This is why I recommended YoungHouseLove above. They were reusing their existing cabinets, but adding a peninsula. They started with the dimensions that they were trying to fill, searched and finally found cabinets the could be modified to fit and then then fitted them. Then they modified them and surfaced and painted all the same to hide the differences. It's a hard process, but saves a lot of money when you can make it work. Read the blog and then you'll get an idea if you want to put that much sweat into it or just fork over the extra money to have things custom designed.

Another option that saves some money, but not as much as used is to have custom cabinets that are not surfaced make. You can get them wholesale and then handle the surface treatments yourself. That will save money over ordering custom finished cabinets.

[Anonymous]

YoungHouseLove is awesome. Definitely check them out, as the pp mentioned.

If you are able to consider lesser priced new cabinets, check out Ikea or the lower ends from Lowes of Home Depot. We remodeled our small condo galley kitchen a few years ago with Shenandoah cabinets from Lowes. Thought we wanted to do Ikea, but the quality and price is pretty similar, but you don't have to put them together like Ikea and there were more cabinet and size options. Much more limited with Ikea. I would however, consider doing an Ikea kitchen in my new house, or getting lower end cabinets. They were just fine and we never had any issues with them for the 4 years we lived with our new kitchen.