Good day, mates.

All right, today, we’re going to be talking about cabinetry, laying out kitchens, common mistakes, things to look out for.

So obviously, kitchen, one of the maybe perhaps the core element of a house where we spend the majority of our time in the home.

It needs to be functional, but it also needs to be fashionable.

So getting all those things to tie together is really important.

And obviously, the design process is imperative to do that.

One of the most important things that is also imperative is understanding how much cabinets cost.

They’re the majority, probably the most expensive thing that you’ll spend in a remodel or a new build.

And budget matters.

We had a client recently who has good money and says, I don’t have a budget.

And so the designers and them went to town and designed one of the most unbelievable cabinet packages we’ve ever seen.

They had inset boxes.

They had really beautiful custom doors and just an amazing package.

And then we let them know what the price was.

And they panicked.

And they freaked out.

And they shut up.

Yeah, it was like almost 300 grand, right?

Or 250.

It was crazy.

It was a lot of money, yeah.

Yeah, I think a lot of people will say it was right after COVID or during COVID that we had this huge spike in lumber prices.

And now those prices have come down.

And a lot of people would think, oh, cabinets should be cheaper because it’s wood, right?

And that’s not necessarily the case because it’s a heavily processed wood product.

And so it’s not just the core element that’s going into it.

It’s the paneling product.

It’s the finishing.

It’s the laminating.

It’s all of that processed stuff that goes into it that makes it expensive because it’s gone through a lot more factories to get it right.

Right.

And when we were less informed on cabinetry, to me, it’s like, well, this is a box.

It’s literally a wooden box.

Why would I spend so much money on a wooden box?

And still to this day, I’m like, why are they so expensive?

And that’s one of the reasons why we brought cabinetry in-house was because they were so expensive that we were able to cut out the middleman and get the price lower.

But they’re still expensive.

And so it’s really important to understand your budget not because it’s the game of, hey, I need your budget so I can rip you off.

It’s, no, I need your budget so I know which cabinet line to go with, which kind of finishes to go with.

Because that way, we can empower you with what you can afford and what you’ll like, rather than giving you this amazing cabinet package.

Then you have to redesign the whole thing and everything blows up in your face and you’re super disappointed.

So it’s very important to have a budget in mind and have an idea of where you want to go.

So when it comes to laying out the kitchen, obviously, we look at things to consider.

We call it the work triangle.

So you got the stove, the sink, and I can’t remember that third part of the, what is it, the trash?

I think it’s the dishwasher.

Dishwasher?

Or maybe it’s the…

What’s the third part of the triangle?

Okay, so when you’re laying out a kitchen, we pay a lot of attention to what’s called the work triangle, okay?

Sink.

Garbage disposal.

When you’re laying out a kitchen, we pay a lot of attention to what’s called the work triangle, okay?

Your refrigerator, your sink, and your stove.

And you just want to make sure, in particular, that you’re not creating pinch points, number one, and that you’re making it so that it’s functional, okay?

Because what is a beautiful kitchen if it’s really hard to work it with?

Okay, so other things to look out for is, you know, in times past, when we’ve had particularly small kitchens, sometimes we’re trying to fit too much in that square or box.

And, you know, you open the dishwasher and it almost hits the refrigerator.

So stuff like that, you got to look out for, that you don’t create those functional errors that make your kitchen hard to work in.

Yeah, and then same with when you open up your cabinets.

We’ve noticed that sometimes, if they’re a bad design, they’ll open up in the things, or they don’t open up all the way, or they’ll hit the side of a cabinet.

And those are the little details that matter so much.

And the reason why cabinets are so challenging is because they’re so custom.

That’s one of the greatest parts about Kingdom & Co. is we have our own in-house carpentries.

So we have our carpenters who do this day in and day out that are understanding precision and understand the importance of quality.

Because, again, if you hire a cabinet company that doesn’t have the best carpenters, the quality is very noticeable.

Okay, so, and then once you just get that right layout, then you want to tie it all together and make it beautiful.

So one of the key elements to that, what’s becoming more and more popular, is panel-ready appliances.

And rather than seeing a kitchen with these beautiful surfaces, and then you’ve got these obvious appliances, they don’t blend in with the kitchen.

And so by having a panel-ready product, that’s where you’re gonna have that cabinet surface on top of your refrigerator, on top of your dishwasher, and it’s gonna blend in and make it more discreet.

Yeah, and more luxury.

Yeah, absolutely.

And same with, like, one of the things I really try to push our designers on is making sure they do counter-depth refrigerators.

A lot of people don’t know what that means.

Where, because lots of times you’ll have this beautiful cabinet package with these custom cabinets and everything looks beautiful.

They have this really bulky stainless steel thing popping out four, five, six inches, and it just looks a little goofy.

And so if they can have that counter-depth fridge where it basically is flush with the cabinets, it looks like it’s just one continuous run, it looks really beautiful.

Yeah, absolutely.

Those details matter.

Yeah.

So, and be prepared for when you do a panel-ready product, it is more expensive, and it’s also more labor, because you’ve got to tie it into the cabinetry.

So that’s something to look out for.

But it does look a lot better.

What about, like, pull-outs and things like that?

Those are real popular.

We see them a lot in either Pinterest or in Instagram.

What are some of those popular pull-outs that people like?

Yeah, the most popular ones that we see is, like, a charging station.

So you open up a drawer, and inside is plugs, and it’s a place to charge your iPads or your phones or whatever.

So that charging station’s a really big one.

Another big one is the KitchenAid appliance where you can pull up, it’s a really heavy appliance.

Oh, for the mixers.

For the mixers?

Yeah, they’re super heavy springs that lift that up.

And that’s a really popular one.

Other popular ones are the spice racks where you can organize your spices.

I don’t know what it is, but every time I see a spice rack open up and it’s all organized, it’s very satisfying.

It’s like, that looks great.

And then there’s also other pull-outs, like Corner, you know, where the corner cabinetry.

Yeah, the blind corner cabin quarters.

There’s some really cool pull-outs where you can maximize space and functionality there.

Another common one is the utensil pull-out.

So oftentimes, we frame our stove area with the utensils on the right and the spices on the left.

And so that workstation is really efficient.

The bathrooms, so in the primary bathrooms, you open these things up and they have a place for your curling iron, a spot for your blow dryer, and they have like, it’s very organized and those are really popular as well.

And then we do a lot of trash pull-outs too.

We don’t do much trash compactors.

I haven’t seen a lot of those.

No, hardly ever.

Yeah, but a nice roll-out trash bin is where you’ve got the regular trash and then the recycle, that’s really popular as well.

And those are awesome.

One of the things I regret doing in my own home is I didn’t do hardly any pull-outs and it’s like, it’s totally worth the extra money because it just keeps things more organized and it’s very functional.

Okay, so what we notice a lot of times is somebody will show us a Pinterest picture.

Yes.

And you’re like, wow, that looks really pretty.

What do you like about that?

And they’re like, I don’t know.

And then we’ll ask the simple questions.

Usually it’s just the color or the grain or the wood.

Typically it’s the tones, right?

But some people who understand cabinetry understand the difference between an inset cabinet, a Euro cabinet, and a full overlay cabinet.

There’s three different box styles and people are like, well, what are you talking about?

And it’s just the way that there’s seams on the cabinetry and the way that the doors fit on top of the frames.

And most people don’t understand it, but once you see it, you cannot not see it.

That’s what happened to me.

It’s true.

Yeah, once you see it, you cannot not see it.

So traditionally, your overlay product with a face-framed box is generally your more entry-level product.

Okay.

It still looks good.

It’s gonna give you the biggest gaps, okay?

From there, I would say the next tier is a Euro product.

Euro product, you get small gap.

I think Euro is probably the most common type of box we do.

So it doesn’t have a face frame on it and it’s the most versatile.

You can do almost anything with it.

That looks really good.

Yeah.

Top tier is an inset product, right?

So you’re integrating the door within that face frame.

It’s the most labor intensive.

It’s the least forgiving as far as this type of box styles.

So there’s a lot of ways to get it wrong.

But it’s gorgeous.

It looks like, to me- It’s done right, it’s really well.

It looks like furniture.

Yes, it is.

It looks absolutely beautiful and so, yeah.

So one of our most common things that we do is we do a Euro box, but we apply a panel at the end to make the door look inset.

And that’s a cost-effective way that we feel is the most bang for buck.

And most people don’t do that.

Yeah.

Most people that are doing a Euro box, it looks kind of like office cabinetry that you would see maybe in a dental office or anywhere.

But yeah, when you apply that end panel and you get very little seams, you get very tight seams, and it looks really good.

Yeah.

And it’s a cost-effective way of making it look luxurious and elegant without spending that money on that inset product.

Absolutely.

What’s the most important thing to watch out for when it comes to cabinetry?

Looking at your design photos and just totally blowing your budget.

That’s probably the most common friction point for a lot of people.

They’ll see something, they love it, and they go through a lot of the process of designing it and it takes a lot of time and effort.

And then just to find out that you can’t afford it.

So how do we avoid that?

So you afford that by just being realistic about your budget and then sticking within those tiers that are gonna give you the highest likelihood of making it accomplishable.

Is that a word?

Is it able to accomplish?

Yeah.

Okay, so I’m a client and I’m worried.

I’m like, I don’t wanna get ripped off.

Yeah.

So I go to you and I’m like, okay, I have a budget, but I’m scared to tell you my budget because I’m scared you’re gonna screw me over.

So I’m gonna say my budget is, for a pretty decent sized kitchen, my budget is $35,000, right?

Yeah, so immediately I know you’re gonna be at an entry-level product with a face-framed box overlay, and we’re gonna have limited options with colors, but we can still make that beautiful.

We can still make that really pretty.

And there’s ways of making it elegant.

And, but yeah, I know with that budget, I know what tier we’re gonna be in.

Yeah, and that’s why it’s so powerful, right?

Like, and so if I came to you and said, hey, I have a budget between 35 to 55, just depending on what I can get, you can guide them.

Yeah, so your horizon’s gonna broaden.

You know, you can do more pull-outs, do more things that are gonna give you that custom feel.

And then, but yeah, if you’re gonna be doing that top shelf product, something you might see that gets a lot of attention on social media, then yeah, you gotta, it’s gonna be a lot of money.

Yeah, makes sense.

Yeah, so some of the trends that we have seen throughout the years, and the trends that are going on now, is people like the beautiful wood tones, the natural woods, like the white oak.

They love the walnut.

Yeah, the white oak or the walnut.

Those are very popular right now.

And then they also like painted cabinets.

So they like to see like a nice blue cabinet, or a nice green cabinet, or whatever it may be.

So explain to us, how does that work?

Like how, within my budget, and how I’m trying to accomplish my goal, because a lot of these people see these things on Pinterest, and they see them on Instagram.

They want this product.

How do you guide them through that process?

So again, going back to that budget discussion, that’s always gonna be the initial thing that guides us into the right tier of product that we’re gonna do.

And especially when you get into the wood tones, you’re gonna either be in a natural wood product, which is gonna be more expensive, versus a TFL product.

Thermally Fused Laminate, TFL.

And so that’s gonna, the TFLs of the past were really hard to work with.

Looked fake.

You know, they looked cheap.

And, but the stuff that’s coming out now is super realistic looking.

There’s a pattern put into them that mimics real wood.

It’s very hard to tell that they’re not real wood.

And they hold up over time.

Like if you get a natural wood product, we all, I think, you know, at our age, we all grew up with that red oak wood cabinet, and over, you know, it’s that orangey.

My parents all have it.

Yeah.

And it was really, really common in late 80s and 90s, right?

And so that often happens to natural wood products is over time they tend to honey.

It’s the resins in the wood and how they take the stain, they yellow over time.

Gotcha.

And so with a TFL product, you’re gonna have continuity in that color, in that tone throughout the life of the product.

Whereas you get a natural products, you’re gonna have an evolution of that color tone.

Okay, that makes sense.

But it’s hard to beat the energy and feel of a beautiful natural product.

For sure.

But you have two options.

That’s what I love.

Yeah.

And then what about colors?

So I wanna light green cabinetry in my laundry room, let’s say.

Yeah.

How are you gonna, how do you guys do it?

Yeah, so there’s a few ways to do that.

We can just start off with a custom color.

Okay, that’s generally gonna cost more.

Another way to do it is to start with an entry level product and then resurface it, have it painted.

And generally, we like, obviously, the factory finish.

It’s more reliable, more durable.

But sometimes we can hit a better price point by just painting something that’s new, but it gets just refinished once it gets on site.

Yeah, it just scratches a little bit easier.

It does scratch a little bit easier, yeah.

I did that at my house, because I did it like seven years ago, and it doesn’t bother me.

Yeah.

But some people it bothers, so.

Yeah.

So, in that initial tier of the entry level product, the more affordable stuff, you have a smaller palette to choose from.

You got about four colors to choose from.

Yeah, okay.

And then, as you go up, you increasingly get a broader palette that you can choose from when it comes to.

So, if it’s a custom color, it’s more expensive, but there are standard colors, like the whites, the blacks, the blues.

The grays, yeah.

The grays, yeah.

Something like that.

Okay, that makes sense.

Yeah.

And again, as time goes on, the whites and grays are fading out, and it’s getting more into the wood tones, and more of those bold colors.

Black is really in right now.

Really in.

And what’s interesting is, changing topics a little bit, I noticed that one thing that our clients do that I really like, is if they don’t have a huge budget for cabinetry, they will do more of the entry level stuff.

Yeah.

But, they spend extra money on their hardware, and it looks really good.

So, you’re like, you can get away with it.

If your hardware looks really good, and your cabinetry just looks like standard cabinetry, you don’t notice that.

And so, it’s a really creative way to make your cabinets look really good, by just spending more money on their hardware.

Yeah, exactly.