The Advantages of Having a Detailed Plan
Kitchens will be remodeled in the U.S.A. during 2009. Many of those jobs will be the replacement of 5 to 10 year old cabinets that have simply worn out.
Website Summary
This Website contains a vast amount of detail on overall project design and construction standards as well as manufacturer’s data that will assist you in selecting styles, grades, materials, and finishes of the new cabinets and countertops in your home.
If you decide to go it alone or use someone else to assist you in your design – these pages will prove invaluable in helping you avoid costly mistakes in your design and cabinet contract (see Quality Clues). Note also that there is a complete Glossary (in the site links on the left) if the detail gets overwhelming.
Comprehensive Detail For Any Cabinet Project
You would do well to visit each major area of the website to familiarize yourself with the scope of your undertaking.
Even working with a designer or design team you have a lot to do to get your project started. You have a lot more to do to bring your project to its desired conclusion.
You want to get the most from your project dollars. A little effort (research) on your part and a readily available excellent design capability will help you achieve that.
The Advantages of Having a Detailed Plan
in hand prior to sitting down with a home improvement center “cabinet counselor”, cabinet supplier, cabinet manufacturer or cabinetmaker:
They know that you have received professional help and that they are not dealing with a turnip fresh off of the truck.
They appreciate that you have studied the options have most of the variables boiled down to a few options.
They know that you have considered most of the cost options and price accelerators are and what your budget will permit.
They know you have a plan to execute or modify – and that their uncertainties are minimized.
To insure the timely and thoroughly satisfying outcome of your project is selecting the appliances and plumbing fixtures you want to install. Then give us your ideas (videos, photos, clippings, drawings, etc). Let us design your project with the correct proportions and dimensions (appliances included) and give you a realistic rendering of what you expect the completed project to look like before you look for a cabinet suppler.
You will only install or renovate one or, at the most, two kitchens in your lifetime. In order to do those jobs correctly and avoid costly mistakes you can either learn what we know or hire us (or someone like us) to guide you through the process.
Cabinets are boxes that you hang on the wall or sit on the floor. Some of these boxes have drawers, some have shelves and some have doors – but when all is said and done - in the end they are still just boxes.
In many cases some of these boxes have become very fine furniture and in still other cases their quality is near art in the craftsmanship they represent.
More often than not it is not a matter of getting the cabinetmaker of your choice – it is a matter of getting any cabinetmaker to even look at your project.
Cabinetmakers are by their nature and craft are honest people practicing a craft they truly love. Cabinetmakers are very good at building and installing cabinets. In the crafts – Cabinetmakers are near the top of the craftsman trades.
Cabinetmakers don’t select appliances, plumbing fixtures, kitchen accessories, light fixtures, wall treatments, floor coverings or cabinet finishes and hardware.
Cabinetmakers by their nature are cranky and difficult to get ideas across to. The rule is “the better the cabinetmaker – the more cantankerous he is”.
Cabinetmakers generally not good at designing projects even around cabinets they are comfortable building.
Cabinetmakers are not always good at conveying their capabilities to a client just as a client is not always good at conveying their ideas (what they want their finished project to look like) to the cabinetmaker. More frequently than not, the best communications are limited to magazine cutouts converted to rough pencil sketches.
Dealing with goofy, flakey, indecisive, vacillating, waffling HOMEMAKERs ain’t part of the Cabinetmaker’s chosen art.
In PROGRESS DESIGN CHANGES (engineering changes) drive cabinetmakers nuts and really delay the completion of your project. Once you order the first change the cabinetmaker will often move on to other projects and wait to see how many other changes you have before he redesigns everything to fit around your whimsical change. Changes in a cabinet size or location often have a domino effect on the rest of the design - Make sure your design is complete prior to handing it to the cabinet provider and then stick to that plan.
Why Hire A Cabinet Layout Professional - Design Layout Professional? To us it just sounds better than
Designer!
We work for you - We do not represent any home improvement center, cabinet supplier, cabinet manufacturer, cabinetmaker or contractor. What you are looking for is proportion and the most efficiency of the money you are going to invest – including reasonableness and sourcing of hardware and accessories.
Kitchen designs are not free. Even if they are bundled into cabinet construction cost – you are still going to pay for your design. If the individual doing the design is reluctant or getting the job only because they are willing to put up with your shit – you are in trouble from the get go.
You are going to pay the design fee – whether it is to the Cabinetmaker, CabNeL or someone like CabNeL a complete professional design is key prior to initiating the actual cabinet acquisition.
Having the appliances, fixtures etc dimensioned into the thorough design and producing a prospective 3D rendering allows you to not only see the design before a price is requested it gives you and the cabinetmaker a budgeted, affordable, achievable goal to work toward. It will also help avoid the in-progress-layout-changes.
CabNeL will assist in designing your project and help you select the right product and the right craftsmen.
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