Solid Wood Cabinets Vs. The Cabinets On The Market Today

By Author: Jason Delmar
Total Articles: 335
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Walk into any building supply store and you are bound to find fantastic kitchen displays. These bright modern looking kitchens are filled with creative ideas, tiled backsplashes, and exotic countertops; however in reality a display kitchen like these show kitchens will cost tens of thousands of dollars. Unfortunately most homeowner's don't have the equity or capital to spend that much on a kitchen, especially in this economy. So what can you do to make this dream kitchen become a reality?

There are several types of kitchen cabinets ranging from solid wood fronts to particle board cabinets and a variety of hybrids in between. There is almost no solid wood or all wood cabinets out there. The idea of a solid wood faced cabinet and solid wood sided cabinet is a great idea but not practical in monetary terms. This type of solid wood cabinet can be bought but it is very cost prohibitive. A quick cost comparison is that an all wood cabinet costs in the range of 5 times as much as a typical cabinet. So what is the typical cabinet and which ones are good for the average consumer?

The first type of cabinet and the ...
... best type to buy is the RTA style cabinet. RTA or ready to assemble cabinets are not a brand name but instead an industry term for un-assembled cabinets. These sturdy, good looking cabinets are the most popular style in kitchen remodeling because of their fantastic price and high quality. The trick is to weed through the hundreds of kitchen cabinet stores and find the best ones. The top kitchen cabinet stores will have the best websites, the lowest prices and most important the best RTA cabinet retailers will not sell particle board cabinets. This leads to the comparison: RTA solid wood and paneled sided cabinets verse RTA kitchen cabinets that have some wood facing and particle board sides.

Particle board cabinets are the absolute worst idea for a kitchen or any other area (of the house) that is going to have water. Particle board is fine for living room shelves or a closet in the bedroom, but it is insane to think that particle board will work in a kitchen area. The concept of particle board is that it is an absorbent material and it will take in water and eventually breakdown. Thus the particle board cabinets that you purchase today will fall apart in about two to three years with any kind of sparse water contact. It is unfortunate that stores sell this type of cabinet but your best bet is to buy kitchen cabinets that have solid wood faces and paneled wood sides. This type of cabinet (with paneled wood) has been proven to stand up to all sorts of water and other heavy use.

In conclusion, solid wood faced kitchen cabinets with paneled wood sides are the best bet for any kitchen project. As long as you shop around (check out RTA kitchen cabinet sites online) you will find good prices that are actually less expensive than buying particle board cabinets. If you stay with this advice and shop smart, you will get great cabinets that can be installed into the dream kitchen you always wanted - at a fraction of the price.
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