Cabinet Company | Iowa City | Cedar Rapids | Davenport | North Liberty

When looking to choose a cabinet company, you should first pick a style that you like. After all, this is your kitchen and your design. Once a style is selected, there are a few things to look for when checking the quality of a "good" cabinet. Typically, there are two varieties of cabinets available. There are cabinets that are framed and cabinets that are frame-less. Framed cabinets feature a box and a face frame. The drawers and cabinet doors directly attach to the frame. Frame-less cabinets are typically more modern and have a European look to them. In this design, the cabinet skips the face frame and the drawer and cabinet door attaches directly to the box. This can potentially compromise the structural integrity of the cabinet, so you should look for thicker wood on the box portion of the cabinet. A good manufacturer will use at least 3/4-inch plywood, while an average cabinet company might use 1/2-inch particleboard in their design.

When trying to determine if the cabinet company you have in mind uses high quality products or not, you should examine the drawers. Higher quality cabinets will have dovetail joints while average cabinet drawers might have a stapled particle board drawer. Also, look to check that the drawers are full extension instead of just having an integrated rail for the drawer built in. Another key place to look for quality is in the cabinet doors. On the doors you should check that there is a solid frame that has a solid wood or plywood panel inserted. Some lower quality cabinet companies will often simply use a veneered piece of particleboard or MDF for the front panel.

With all of this discussion regarding finding a good, quality cabinet company, ultimately, your budget will help dictate much of the decision. Cabinets are available in three options. There are stock cabinets, semi-custom cabinets, and custom cabinets. Stock cabinets will be the cheapest but also are the most limited. These are available at any home improvement center, come in limited colors and sizes, and often come pre-assembled. Semi-custom cabinets have a wider variety of sizes and colors and are slightly more expensive. Lastly, custom cabinets are exactly that. These are made specifically for your kitchen ensuring that you can get the perfect color, fit and style. While these will offer the best quality, they are also going to be the most expensive cabinet option.

For the best way to choose a good cabinet company, you should go out and actually see and use the kitchen cabinets in person. You will get a feel for how the cabinet is constructed, how the drawers and doors work, and how the material feels. We invite you to visit one of our convenient KBD showrooms in person. We have stock, semi-custom, and custom cabinets available, and our experts can help point you in the direction that fits best with your lifestyle and budget.