The Cost of Cabinets

There are two ways to price kitchen cabinetry. The first approach is to embrace a kitchen cabinet salesperson by trusting everything that person guides you to do — design, product choice, price. The second method would be to do price comparisons on the kitchen cabinetry you wish to purchase.

I am a big believer in the “embrace approach” when you feel the salesperson has your best interest at heart. This is especially true for tradespeople like builders, contractors, architects and others in the business. I find myself giving more effort and even stronger pricing to the companies that trust me to be their kitchen cabinet guy. There’s a sense of responsibility on my part because these trade accounts trust me to take care of their kitchen cabinet needs. The same takes place with my homeowner direct sales when the client has put their faith in me. I embrace the challenge of satisfying the client’s cabinet wish list while maintaining their budget. If you find a salesperson that embraces your vision then you are light years ahead in the process.

There are many good salespeople in the cabinet industry. However, they all don’t employ the approach described above. Thus the second approach to pricing can be one where you do price comparison shopping. I think this is also a sound approach to getting a favorable price. This avenue will take some work on your part.

You must first establish the plan that will be used for all to price. The plan cannot be. just a general vision. The plan must be exact or very close to a finished set of drawings in order to do a true apples-to-apples comparison. The drawings should reflect all of your wishes for the kitchen. They must include molding details, accessories, embellishments, and anything else that may impact the price.

There are a number of ways to establish a finished plan based on your vision. You can hire a kitchen designer to produce drawings. This can get pricey and may not make sense unless you see your cabinet purchase being in the tens of thousands of dollars. Another approach would be to have a kitchen dealer develop drawings for you for a retainer fee. That fee is typically applied to your purchase. If you don’t buy the cabinets then the kitchen dealer keeps the fee in exchange for the drawings. The last way is to engage in discussions with. kitchen dealers about your kitchen design. Some may work up drawings for free.

You must then select a brand of cabinet, a specific door style, color, and the cabinet construction type. The way you decide these is to visit showrooms to uncover what you like and what you don’t like. Once you find a brand you like then within that brand list all the specifics of the door style selected.

We now have our plan in place and we have the cabinet specifics outlined. There’s only thing left to do and that’s to go price shopping.

Step 1

Visit the cabinet brand website. Find all the dealers in your area that sell the product. Visit their websites to get a feel of the small business selling the product. Is the website current or is it something from 1999? Does the website prominently display the brand of cabinets your looking to purchase? Is the website speaking to you at a level of comfort so you can transact thousands of dollars with the owner of this business?

Step 2

Do NOT do what many do today. They email their drawings to every dealer listed on the manufacturer’s website. When I receive such emails I reply by telling the consumer that my pricing is strong but that I require them to visit my showroom. I preach to them that the purchase of kitchen cabinetry is a very personal buy. This level of spending requires the buyer and the seller to engage in a manner much more personal than an email exchange. With that in mind and with your drawings in hand you should visit each showroom you had selected in Step 1. When visiting the showrooms you should look to express your serious interest in making the cabinet purchase and that you have a finished plan you are providing to a small handful of dealers. Ask them to provide you a price based on your finalized plan so you can make a decision on where to buy the cabinets.

Step 3

While visiting the showrooms to submit your drawings you should also take the opportunity to evaluate the salesperson, the showroom condition, the rest of the staff at the showrooms, and anything else that can give you insight on where to purchase the cabinetry. Price plays a heavy role in your decision but other factors should as well. Please keep in mind that maybe a sloppy showroom is an indication of a sloppy way of doing business. Can you trust the owner of a sloppy showroom to properly produce your cabinet order?

The cabinet purchase experience is a tough one. It’s a transaction based on a vision for your home and not just the buying of a product. Time and effort is required to do it right. It is unlike most purchases you have ever made before. Price plays a big role in your decision making process so make sure to employ everything at your disposal to get yourself the best price possible.

Good luck with your project.