Your Kitchen Cabinets

New custom cabinets can change the look of your kitchen. This could mean adding new cabinets to your walls or even to your kitchen island. Or, it could mean simply sprucing up existing cabinets with new kitchen cabinet doors, fresh paint or under-cabinet lighting. You might even consider pull-out cabinets to add storage without taking up extra space on the walls.

Cabinets can be your biggest expense, accounting for up to 40% of your kitchen renovation budget (the next two costly contributors are appliances and countertops). Yet, the cost is justifiable. Cabinets set the stage for your kitchen remodel and cabinet quality and construction not only dictates price, but longevity and enjoyment.

Still, it's daunting picking new cabinets. At one point in time, it was easy to tell the well-made from the cheap by examining how the cabinet drawers were constructed. A dovetail joint, where a portion of one side of the drawer is carved out and the other side is carved to fit the space exactly, used to be the distinguishing mark of high-end cabinetry, but not any more. These days mass-produced cabinetry can also use dovetail joints and some of these factory-produced options use shoddy construction