A Complete Guide of Different Kitchen Cabinet Brands

Replacing your kitchen cabinets can account for nearly half of the total cost of your kitchen remodel, but they’re a feature that will affect the look and functionality of your cooking space for years to come. Your cabinets should be durable and attractive enough to be worth the investment of time and money.

Fortunately, Stonecreek Cabinetry offers a variety of models to serve a broad range of needs. With a little effort, you can find high-quality, semi-custom cabinets that will provide the options and personality you want at a reasonable price.

Stonecreek Cabinetry

Stonecreek Cabinetry offers standard construction cabinets that are bulk-made with high-quality materials and ready for customization. These cost-effective, high-value cabinets make it possible for you to create a unique kitchen space without making unnecessary modifications to your design.

Although many popular cabinet brands can be custom made to order, keeping costs down often involves sacrificing quality in order to install basic cabinetry that uses lower-quality particle board boxes, standard drawer guides, and stock closing door hinges. By comparison, Stonecreek Cabinetry provides higher-quality all-plywood boxes with upmarket features at a lower cost.

The company can adjust the depth of your cabinets, prepare your doors for glass inserts, and provide the paint finish of your choice. Their on-site wood shop also fabricates matching appliance panels and hoods so that you can get a cohesive, luxury look for less. Best of all, it’s possible to fully install these cabinets in your kitchen in as little as three weeks, versus six to eight weeks or longer with other brands.

Kitchen Cabinet Categories and Characteristics

When it comes to kitchen cabinets, there are three categories of products to choose from: stock and ready-to-assemble (RTA) cabinets, semi-custom cabinets, and custom cabinets. Below, we discuss some of the most commonly available cabinet offerings on the market. This will let you get a feel for how Stonecreek Cabinetry hits the sweet spot when it comes to quality, customization and value.

Made to Order vs. Manufactured in Bulk

Stock, RTA and semi-custom cabinets tend to be partially or fully manufactured in bulk to save costs, while made-to-order cabinets tend to be expensive and time- and labor-intensive products. Some available options include:

Fully Assembled, Curated Cabinets

Some companies offer fully assembled, curated styles aimed at DIY enthusiasts on a budget. Customers must install these cabinets themselves or hire an installer to put them in place. While these cabinets are less expensive than made-to-measure options, they rarely provide a perfect fit.

Premade Cabinet Frames With Custom Drawers and Doors

Another bulk cabinet option combines customized doors and drawers from one manufacturer with premade, mass-produced cabinet boxes from another. Customers can purchase stock cabinet boxes directly, and then add drawers, doors, hardware and trim to achieve their desired look.

These options allow customers to affordably design their kitchens to suit their personal tastes. Adding facades typically adds a few thousand dollars to the overall cost of a kitchen cabinet overhaul, and the cabinets can take quite a bit of time to design, configure, manufacture and install.

Direct-to-Consumer Cabinets

As technology evolves, a few cabinet companies are ditching the showroom and adopting a direct-to-consumer approach by selling their products online or through an app. This allows customers to purchase high-quality kitchen cabinets at a lower price point than custom units, but there are a few tradeoffs.

Although customers can visualize how their new cabinets will look by viewing a 3D rendering of their kitchen, they aren’t able to gauge the look, feel and functionality of the cabinets in person. They also have to purchase their countertops and hardware separately, hire a contractor to install the cabinets or take on the installation themselves. Generally, it takes several weeks for these cabinets to be delivered even if they are made from bulk materials.

Made-to-Order Custom Cabinets

Custom cabinets that are made-to-order to fit the exact dimensions of the client’s kitchen tend to be expensive. The price of new cabinets is typically proportional to the quality of labor, materials, features and level of customization required to achieve a desired outcome. These cabinets can take months to design and install, and the construction methods, accessories, and warranties that are associated with the cabinets can influence their value in the long term.

Full-Featured, Assembled Cabinets

Cabinets that are made in bulk can offer several advantages over made-to-order cabinets if they are crafted from high-quality materials. Cabinets by Stonecreek Cabinetry cost much less than many made-to-order cabinets from well-known brands while offering many similar and desirable features and details. With accessible high-grade materials and features, customers who can use standard cabinet sizes and styles in their kitchens have no need to spend more than necessary on made-to-order cabinetry.

Construction

Semi-custom cabinets generally offer the best balance of material quality, style and versatility for the price. They are more configurable and usually fit your kitchen better than stock cabinets. The cabinet boxes are built using frameless or framed construction. There are usually a wide variety of cabinet facade options available for both types of cabinet boxes.

Framed Cabinets

Framed cabinets are American-style cabinets that include a solid-wood face frame around the drawers and door. They are sturdy, traditional and relatively easy to install and adjust. They are made in more size options, but they often need to be veneered or skinned and are less spacious than their frameless counterparts.

Frameless Cabinets

Frameless cabinets are a European-style choice with a minimalist, contemporary look. Also known as full-access cabinets, they have a roomier drawer box capacity and no center stile. The cabinet sides are factory-finished, and the size and modification options tend to be limited. Semi-custom cabinet boxes are often pre-assembled upon delivery. Better-quality cabinets are usually made from plywood, while lower-quality boxes may be made from particleboard.

Materials and Features

Some of the best kitchen cabinet boxes feature all-plywood construction. Both traditional and modern-style box options can include features like full-extension, soft-closing dovetail drawers and soft-closing doors.

Stonecreek Cabinetry offers high-quality all-plywood boxes, solid wood face frames and soft-close doors and drawers on all their standard construction cabinets. Similarly priced made-to-order cabinets from other companies may use lower-quality materials like particle board that can only be upgraded for an additional charge. Their basic box construction and standard closing door hinges and drawer glides are less ergonomic and desirable than Stonecreek's full-extension, soft-close drawer glides and soft-closing hinges. Because the cabinets are made in bulk, customers get great value for a reasonable price.

Customization

Most semi-custom cabinets come in a range of materials, finishes and sizes. You can choose add-ons like trims and moldings and accessories like matching appliance covers to create a cohesive, personalized look that suits the character of your home.

Special Hardwoods and Finishes

Some manufacturers offer different door styles in a variety of real hardwoods, like hickory, maple, oak, and cherry, as well as medium-density fiberboard (MDF) and laminate options. They may provide a choice of cabinet finishes, from wood stains to colorful, long-lasting specialty paints and glazes that you can coordinate with your brick, hardwood, laminate or SPC click flooring. Customers can customize the size and fit of their cabinets and add inserts and accessories for a budget-friendly, luxury look.

Modifications and Accessories

It’s usually possible to add features and accessories to semi-custom cabinets for a reasonable amount of money. For added convenience, many customers add storage accessories like swing-out organizers, pull-out racks and lazy Susans. Built-in lighting that automatically turns on when a drawer or door is opened and under-cabinet lighting for countertops are other popular options. People even enjoy upgrading their cabinet hardware to include soft-close stops and full-extension drawer guides. It’s common to coordinate the decorative hardware on cabinetry with kitchen faucets and fixtures to achieve a consistent finish.

Although some large national brands provide hundreds or even thousands of customizations, a majority of kitchens need only a handful of the options on offer. Stonecreek Cabinetry offers the most useful customizations like depth modifications, cut-out doors and custom paint finishes for a modest additional charge so that customers can have a truly unique kitchen without going over budget.

Lead Time

Generally, the more custom your cabinetry, the longer it will take to design, manufacture and install. Lead time can vary greatly from manufacturer to manufacturer, and it can be affected by the availability of materials in the supply chain. Today, the lead time on semi-custom cabinets can range from three weeks to 22 weeks or longer. The average time it takes to get new cabinets installed is about four to 10 weeks.

Stonecreek Cabinetry always has cabinets in stock, so customers can install a fully assembled kitchen in as little as three weeks, for a much shorter wait time than made-to-order brands.

Semi-Custom Cabinets Offer the Best Value for Your Budget

When it’s time to replace your kitchen cabinets, semi-custom models from Stonecreek Cabinetry offer a wonderful balance of style and quality. With high-quality materials and a great range of design options, our wholesale cabinetry can serve you well for years to come.