Home furnishings and cabinets.....

WARRIORWELDING

WARRIORWELDING

Owner opperator Of WarriorWelding LLC.
Joined
Jan 6, 2008
Location
Chillin, Hwy 64 Mocksville NC
Home furnishings like bed room suite, cabinets for kitchen and bath and the like seem to fall into two extreme categories. Bespoke custom or dang near card board and staples with some pressed sawdust for good measure.

A recent trip to big box home supply has me absolutely disappointed. I wasn't looking for heirloom quality but jeeze-o-pete what I brought home is garbage.

I joked in my head about building a custom unit for this already odd space but talked myself out of it for the time and material cost.

What are folks doing these days? I can't see average home buyer/builder ever being satisfied with the current offerings at these stores. I can't imagine any of this stuff not falling apart in a few short years. Blows my mind at how horrible this mid level product is constructed.

Has the middle ground disappeared?
 
I bought my kitchen cabinets online. I had quotes from several different places locally. I can't remember exactly, but think i saved about 40% doing it myself.

They are actually put together with cam locks, but are 5/8 plywood box with poplar faces. Idk if i would use the same company again, but would order online again.
 
We just got a new frame and box spring. Total junk particle board. Had to reinforce the whole thing with 2x4s and add some supports in the middle...
 
To be fair I'm not a "builder" or experienced in building a home from start to finish. I've not set foot in a real cabinet retailer or shop.
My assumptions may be misconceived. But I darn well know big box is garbage now..... everything I looked at was similar in construction.

So is average now a dedicated store or builder? Has that always been the case since I'm fairly green to the industry?
 
WARRIORWELDING said:
To be fair I'm not a "builder" or experienced in building a home from start to finish. I've not set foot in a real cabinet retailer or shop.
My assumptions may be misconceived. But I darn well know big box is garbage now..... everything I looked at was similar in construction.

So is average now a dedicated store or builder? Has that always been the case since I'm fairly green to the industry?
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Get out of the box store.... or at least what is sitting on the shelf thats the cheapest stuff out there. I priced my kitchen out at lowes and then went to the local builders supply and it was more expensive i think about 10% more but all plywood boxes soft close hinges.

Most cabinet companies don't do custom anymore. Most carry 5-6 different brands and all have a couple levels of cabinets.

If you want a shaker front in white or gray there are companies that will flat ship plywood box cabinets that you put together.

There are alot of options out there. Lowes and home depot are not ones to consider
 
Dad did cabinets at the Az house and ordered them in. The cabinet boxes came flat and he assembled them on site. He was very impressed for both quality and price and he is a stingy perfectionist asshole after building custom homes for 40+ yrs. lol. I’ll get the name of the company and pass it along. Their website and tech team will walk you through building out your desired space like virtual blue printing.
 
WARRIORWELDING said:
Has the middle ground disappeared?
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Yes.

Unfortunately the norm now that most people just accept to be what furniture is... is just shit that may or may not survive a move. Options are limited bc nobody hand--makes furniture or cabinets unless you pay big $$. Keep in mind what hourly labor costs are to pay a craftsman.
 
I know a guy around mocksville that will design custom cabinets for your layout, sends design to a shop in either Alabama or Thailand and has them made and flat packed then shipped here. Either he puts them together or you do depending on your useless to broke ratio. Then you or someone you know installs them. Anyway, much much nicer than Lowe's stocked cabinets (that I use in everything).
 
skyhighZJ said:
Dad did cabinets at the Az house and ordered them in. The cabinet boxes came flat and he assembled them on site. He was very impressed for both quality and price and he is a stingy perfectionist asshole after building custom homes for 40+ yrs. lol. I’ll get the name of the company and pass it along. Their website and tech team will walk you through building out your desired space like virtual blue printing.
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This right here is the way to go.


Did this on our kitchen reno in CLT upon referral from a GC (link above) and really can't say much more about the value! They're not going to be the bespoke stuff you're going to pay an arm and dick for but all plywood boxes, soft close everything (doors / drawers), finger jointed drawer boxes, etc.. The best part of the experience was actually their customer service. You can take measurements of the space you're working with and not only do you get a rep that will design the layout for you (if needed) but they remembered me surprisingly well when I called back because the pantry sent out was the wrong width (sent me a whole new one at no charge and I put the wrong sized one in my garage for storage) and for random questions I had along the way.
 
My wife wants all new kitchen and bathroom cabinets and I'm trying to persuade her to just get new doors installed or repainted or something for this very reason. They are custom cabinets from like 2005, so not super impressive, but way nicer than what I am willing to pay for all new "custom" ones.

As for furniture we just pay up the ass for "Amish" custom built stuff from a small place around the area. Yea it's expensive but at least it won't fall apart in a year.
 
just for someone that might want to know cost for a 1200 sf. 2.5 bath town house with a nice kitchen with island and pantry all cabinets in the house was around 18,000. the same unit was sold and turned custom the owners spend 64,000. personally i dont think it made the house look nicer... and the cabinets are still the same boxes and hinges.
 
Like you I was sooo disappointed with furniture. The wife and I wanted a lamp table for the front door with shoe storage in the bottom. Everything I found was either cheap cardboard crap or $1000. I said screw it, I'll build one. I probably have around 8 hours and $100 in it. I'm not a carpenter or woodworker but I wasn't looking for fancy, just function. Its been about a year and we're still happy with it. I'll build all my own furniture for now on. It may not be fancy but I can guarantee it'll hold up for a while.
 
Loganwayne said:
just for someone that might want to know cost for a 1200 sf. 2.5 bath town house with a nice kitchen with island and pantry all cabinets in the house was around 18,000. the same unit was sold and turned custom the owners spend 64,000. personally i dont think it made the house look nicer... and the cabinets are still the same boxes and hinges.
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For reference, in 2019, we paid $7350 for all of our kitchen cabinets, and 4x8 island, and 3 bathroom vanities. All custom, painted to the wife's preferred Benjamin Moore colors, and installed. And the house still went over budget! :laughing:
 
Well...I'll say this...I'm getting an education here lately, and the middle ground still exists, sorta...but the market dictates what's stocked. As I'm building and expanding my current business, I've thrown a ton of money at market research...price is king. The overwhelming majority of purchases fall in two categories, cheap builder grade or cheap turd polishing DIY'ers. I'm buying containers of LVP, vinyl glue down, cabinets, counters, vanities, black onyx shingles, 20yr 29ga metal, etc. Anecdotally, across Va, NC, SC, Ga...whether GC's or DIY'ers, 80% are asking for the cheap stuff...I get 15% asking for 'high quality' and 5% fall in that middle ground. Best I can tell is, people prefer cheap, because they're either broke or will be changing things eventually again anyway...and the assumption is new is new, what's the ROI on spending a little more over the cheap stuff. I think, in general, the 'middle ground' is dead or dying in most industries.
 
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Boxes and hinges in cabinets don't matter much. The important things are how the drawers are constructed and how the shelves and box bottoms are finished. You can get a nice "custom" set of cabinets with foil-faced shelves and box bottoms, and the first time you set a glass straight out of the dishwasher in the cabinet, it'll take the foil right off.

Most furniture is shit unless you want to spend some money.
 
gslander said:
My wife wants all new kitchen and bathroom cabinets and I'm trying to persuade her to just get new doors installed or repainted or something for this very reason. They are custom cabinets from like 2005, so not super impressive, but way nicer than what I am willing to pay for all new "custom" ones.

As for furniture we just pay up the ass for "Amish" custom built stuff from a small place around the area. Yea it's expensive but at least it won't fall apart in a year.
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Yea, but them Amish make good stuff. That place is a couple miles from me. Stop by the creamery next time you're here.
 
braxton357 said:
Anyway, much much nicer than Lowe's stocked cabinets (that I use in everything).
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Clear this up for me.....as in anything you rent?
 
jeepinmatt said:
For reference, in 2019, we paid $7350 for all of our kitchen cabinets, and 4x8 island, and 3 bathroom vanities. All custom, painted to the wife's preferred Benjamin Moore colors, and installed. And the house still went over budget! :laughing:
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Sounds like you got a smoking deal! Ask your guy if he can build me some built in bookshelves beside my fireplace for cheap :D

I think my RTA cabinets were right around $11,000 in 2022 dollars not including the cost of glass for some of the doors. 12x15 L shape with 8x4ish island. I am happy with the fit and finish of them. All plywood/solid wood construction except for maybe the center panels in some of the cabinets, dovetailed drawers, soft close hinges and slides. I would say they are a pretty good middle ground between off the shelf particleboard Lowes stuff and full blown custom cabinets.

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jcramsey said:
Sounds like you got a smoking deal! Ask your guy if he can build me some built in bookshelves beside my fireplace for cheap :D

I think my RTA cabinets were right around $11,000 in 2022 dollars not including the cost of glass for some of the doors. 12x15 L shape with 8x4ish island. I am happy with the fit and finish of them. All plywood/solid wood construction except for maybe the center panels in some of the cabinets, dovetailed drawers, soft close hinges and slides. I would say they are a pretty good middle ground between off the shelf particleboard Lowes stuff and full blown custom cabinets.

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Our was a little smaller and a little less fancy (look at you Mr. lights in the cabinets...), but pretty dang similar.
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Dang, I'm glad I got my stuff done in 19. I just went back and looked up my cabinet invoice and my kitchen was all custom, built 5 miles away , and cost $17,000. My built in around the TV was just under $5000.
 
awheelterd said:
Dang, I'm glad I got my stuff done in 19. I just went back and looked up my cabinet invoice and my kitchen was all custom, built 5 miles away , and cost $17,000. My built in around the TV was just under $5000.
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I think our original cabinet budget was like $20k, and our contractor said he had a guy that was quick but expensive, and a guy who was slow, but cheap and pretty dang good. We had PLENTY of time :rolleyes: so we went with the slow guy. Communication was poor, price was great, and they were barely done in time on our 19 month build :laughing:
 
I remember delivering to a Cabinet shop somewhere around Locust area, but that's been 30 years ago. No idea what the name was or address. I don't think it was open to the Public. Probably built for commercial buyers. May be someone on here that knows who that is /was.
 
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