Inexpensive Kitchen Cabinets
I was researching some kitchen cabinet options and figured that I would give a company that sells on Ebay a try. If you are doing a kitchen remodel or renovation yourself, the cabinetry will be one of your most expensive purchases. If you go into your Home Depot or Lowe’s, you could spend thousands on a 10′ x 10′ kitchen.
If you are looking to save some money, you might be tempted by the stock cabinets that they have. The stock products can end up looking good, but you will not have very many options in terms of finishes.
If you are considering a ‘knock-down’ cabinet (otherwise known as something you have to assemble), you should look beyond your local home center. Since these items are knock down, they can be easily shipped. Easy to ship means that there is probably someone selling online at a steep discount to what you would expect to pay.
Most knock down cabinetry is made of ‘furniture grade’ particle board. Calling it furniture grade is kind of humorous. That might just be another way to say “It will fall abart with excessive use”. Knock down cabinetry is also referred to as ‘ready to assemble’ or RTA. The assembly was much easier than anticipated. Easier than putting together your typical piece of furniture.
When buying a cabinet that you will be assembling, be sure that the cabinet box is made of plywood. You don’t want something that will fall apart.
Another thing that you will find with some of the RTA cabinets is that they do not have face frames. The cabinet doors cover the entire carcass of the cabinet box. This is often referred to as ‘full reveal’. Full reveal cabinets look great, but if thy are only this way because there is no face frame, you lose stability with your cabinet. The face frame really adds a lot of stiffness to the box. Since the face frame is usually made of solid wood, you will have a nice frame for your cabinet door to hang from and for the cabinets to be joined to each other.
The Ebay seller that I used is kitchenyourway. They are based out of Texas and are importing their cabinets from China. I was very happy with the colors that they offered (only a couple but nice). The quality of the construction was nice. The assembly was simple. The one negative that I would have to mention is the quality of the finish. There are some imperfections that I wouldn’t put up with if these were at a higher price point.
The cabinets that I priced out were $1472.90. That included the price to ship our kitchen cabinets to NY. Since this retailer is based in Texas, there was no sales tax charged at the time of the purchase. To purchase a similar set of cabinets from a home center, the price would have been in excess of $2,200 (not counting the 8.25% NY sales tax). I feel that the quality is much greater in that it looks like a custom cabinet and is solid maple construction with a plywood carcass. The company generally ships within a few days.
It might be worth exploring this option if you are renovating a kitchen. Many of the companies in this business will sell you a low priced ’sample’ cabinet to let you see the goods. The price for a 9″ base cabinet was around $50-$70 (including shipping) for the sample from the companies that I looked at.
Hope this helps. If you are in the Lancaster, NY area feel free to contact me if you want to take look at the cabinets in person. They are going into a renovation that will probably become a rental unit.
Bottom line is that there are many options when you get to the lower end of products with the local cabinet retailers or home centers. Do some searching. You should search on your favorite search engine for “rta kitchen cabinets”. Or, do the same search at Ebay. I think you will be pleased with the options available.
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December 21st, 2005 13:27
Just wanted to provide a follow up to this post. After placing an order with this company. The shipment was packed and scheduled to arrive within 6 days! Now that is quick.
November 3rd, 2006 18:27
[…] As someone who has purchased ready to assemble cabinets (RTA) online, I was pleased to find a local company offering a nice product. Many people in Buffalo and Erie County are familiar with Grossman’s Bargain Outlets. They offer closeouts, factory surplus and other discount home merchandise. A friend mentioned that they offer RTA cabinets. I don’t think that they offered much beyond a very inexpensive grade oak cabinet in the past. Now they offer Oak, Maple, and Melamine (white). The quality is as you would find from a lot of the RTA cabinet suppliers online, however, having a local store where you can pick your cabinets up the day that you need them is worth the slightly higher price. See my earlier post about RTA kitchen cabinets. […]
February 21st, 2007 15:59
I received an inquiry today and wanted to share my response.
Hi,
I came across your site while searching for “inexpensive kitchen cabinets” on the web & wanted to drop you a line about your review for an eBay company, KitchenYourWay….. are you very serious about your satisfaction with this company? I notice your review was written in 2005 — are you still satisfied with the quality of the cabinets?
No one can believe me when I say that I found nice, solid wood cabinets for this low price & wonder what is the catch? Plus, it is difficult to convince yourself to make this large a purchase over the internet without touching and seeing a live product. I live in Maryland.
Any thoughts you can give would be appreciated.
Thanks!
February 21st, 2007 16:09
I am serious about my satisfaction with the company. I used the cabinets in a house that I renovated and sold so I can’t attest to how they are holding up. However, I am a woodworker and know that the material is what matters when it comes to durability. You can read my original post to learn more about the construction. They are good quality cabinets for the price. I like the fact that there is a bit more detail than you find with stock cabinets from Home Depot of Lowe’s. Keep in mind that I purchased the maple cabinets and can’t speak to the oak.
I helped someone outfit their garage with the white cabinets from this company about 4 months ago. The quality was very good. The white cabinets were full reveal (no face frame) but were constructed of 3/4″ plywood rather than the 1/2″ ply for the carcasses of the wood cabinets. They were very sturdy and a little surprising in terms of quality.
Two negative notes:
1) The white cabinets did not have any instructions included. If you have assembled RTA cabinetry before this isn’t a big deal, but if you haven’t you might have a little trouble at first.
2) The side panel with the maple cabinets was virtually worthless. It is nothing more than 1/2″ piece of plywood with edge banding. There really needs to be some more structural support than that. I ended up adding a piece of 1×2 and stained it to match.
Hope this helps. If you are unsure, I would encourage you to purchase a single cabinet first. That is what I did. It was worth spending a little money for peace of mind. If I hated the quality, I had planned on using it in my workshop.
February 26th, 2007 14:08
[…] is a follow up to an earlier post regarding Ready to Assemble kitchen cabinets […]
March 2nd, 2007 09:33
Bathroom Home Improvement…
What we are talking about here is one of the best online resources around, as far as home improvement goes….
November 10th, 2007 16:03
There are a lot of reliable sellers on E-Bay that are selling RTA Cabinets, but if you really want to get the best deal you have to find someone that is importing their cabinets directly. There are companies out there like Sunco, that are direct importers, but they will only deal with distributors. For all the other rental property owners out there like myself, anytime you can save a couple of bucks, you definitely jump at the chance…. I had a great experience with this company out of Philadelphia area that you may want to check out. RTA Cabinet Store. They only 5-6 styles of kitchen cabinets along with a full line of bathroom vanities, but they were significantly cheaper than anything else I found out there because they import them directly. I live in Virginia and they had my order out the door in 4 days (that seems pretty good to me)