Kitchen cabinet redesign - where to look?

[KrisM]

We want to redo our cabinets, but only the insides and maybe the doors. The basic construction is in good shape and they are well made. I'd leave the uppers as they are. I'd like to reconfigure the lowers though. They all have pull-out shelves that are inefficently designed with a lot of lost space around them. I'd like to maybe take out the vertical partition in the double cabinet too. I'd like to add a trash pull out and a tray pull out.

We're also going to get a new pantry with pull out shelves. We may take down a wall so that we can put a free standing pantry in place and have doors that match our cabinet doors on it.

Anyhow, do you know of a person who does this type of stuff? I want recommendations and ideas and then the work done, most likely. Or we can do it ourselves. Or a website that can help me plan?

You know those closet websites that ask how many clothes, how many shoes, etc you have and then they tell you what you can buy to organize your closet? I want that for kitchens - I want someone to tell me what I need to make the best use of my space.

[brittone2]

I have no idea how much info they have on those issues, but check ikeafans, and maybe gardenweb's kitchen forum. I haven't been on ikeafans in ages but there are some people on there who are really great at configuring different setups. Maybe there will be some tips?

[WatchingThemGrow]

We want to redo our cabinets, but only the insides and maybe the doors. The basic construction is in good shape and they are well made. I'd leave the uppers as they are. I'd like to reconfigure the lowers though. They all have pull-out shelves that are inefficently designed with a lot of lost space around them. I'd like to maybe take out the vertical partition in the double cabinet too. I'd like to add a trash pull out and a tray pull out.

We're also going to get a new pantry with pull out shelves. We may take down a wall so that we can put a free standing pantry in place and have doors that match our cabinet doors on it.

Anyhow, do you know of a person who does this type of stuff? I want recommendations and ideas and then the work done, most likely. Or we can do it ourselves. Or a website that can help me plan?

You know those closet websites that ask how many clothes, how many shoes, etc you have and then they tell you what you can buy to organize your closet? I want that for kitchens - I want someone to tell me what I need to make the best use of my space.

I missed this earlier, but I'd like to thank the spammer who resurrected it. My guess is that the labor to "reinvent" your old cabinet frames in a custom way will be more $$ than what it would be if you were to purchase new cabinets completely.

Three times I've purchased cabinets now, and I *love* the roll out drawers where the face of the cabinet rolls out with the drawer. Well 1/3 of it does. They make life just so nice. The come in different sizes, so if you measure your kitchen and lay out the measurements on the IKEA kitchen planner (website) or one at Home Depot or Lowe's(instore), you can click/drag new boxes into the space easily. The software is awesome.

Having just moved into a new apt 2 days ago, I'm cringing b/c the cabinets have the "box" frame with the vertical divider thing. So much access is lost with these cabinets, and there are no pan drawers. aaargh! As far as sales, if you spend a certain amount, IKEA knocks 20% off the bill. I purchased a whole kitchen plus a laundry room pantry set for very little. Of course, it went back when the house deal went bad, but still...loved the design.

[KrisM]

I missed this earlier, but I'd like to thank the spammer who resurrected it. My guess is that the labor to "reinvent" your old cabinet frames in a custom way will be more $$ than what it would be if you were to purchase new cabinets completely.

Three times I've purchased cabinets now, and I *love* the roll out drawers where the face of the cabinet rolls out with the drawer. Well 1/3 of it does. They make life just so nice. The come in different sizes, so if you measure your kitchen and lay out the measurements on the IKEA kitchen planner (website) or one at Home Depot or Lowe's(instore), you can click/drag new boxes into the space easily. The software is awesome.

Having just moved into a new apt 2 days ago, I'm cringing b/c the cabinets have the "box" frame with the vertical divider thing. So much access is lost with these cabinets, and there are no pan drawers. aaargh! As far as sales, if you spend a certain amount, IKEA knocks 20% off the bill. I purchased a whole kitchen plus a laundry room pantry set for very little. Of course, it went back when the house deal went bad, but still...loved the design.

I ended up finding a place that's about an hour from here that does replacement doors, etc. After a couple emails, they gave me a rough quote so I could figure out if it's worth our time to get together for more details. To replace 21 doors and 8 drawer with a simple design, including hardware and installation was $3100. They can also change doors into drawers for $185. I'd do that in a few locations. Once schools going, I'll have them come out and we can talk more details, but I think it'll be cheaper than all new.

Last winter I had one quote for Merillat's mid range, which are not as nice as what I have. It was $5700 and didn't include a penninsula, so fewer cabinets. And we installed ourselves, so that was cabinet only. He told me about $7500 to replace our exact design with the penninsula plus more for installation, but I don't remember that amount.

So, I don't know what we'll do. I have a year to figure it out :).

As far as I can tell, Ikea doesn't have corner sink cabinets. That is what we have and the kitchen is so small there isn't a better place to put it.