Experience with custom cabinetry?

[imojoebunny]

I think so, it's not out of the range for sure. I pay a carpenter $30.00 an hour to do projects like that. It is always less expensive than getting quotes from others. He bills me straight up for materials. If your in a higher cost of living area, or she/he is a more in demand carpenter (some think they are gilded), you will pay more. You will also save money, if your willing to use off the shelf trim, verses custom routing, but that may not work depending on the job.

I have one house that was built in 1905, and is in a historic neighborhood. We have found some modern standard trim that we can add width to with MDF, and have it look pretty darn close to the old stuff. This doesn't work if you have wood grain trim, which will add a lot to both the cost of materials and labor. You mentioned painting, so I think that is not the case.

[imojoebunny]

Sept 30, 2014 12:08:17 GMT -5 @juno said:

We're getting almost exactly that built in right now. Ours is about 8' tall x 18" deep x 5' wide with HVAC underneath. Ours is in clear (I think VG) fir, so you can probably get away with cheaper materials for paint grade. Unfinished (we're doing the staining/finishing) and not including hardware, he's charging $5K. We're having inset doors/drawers and butt hinges though, so that ups the price. VHCOL.

Drawers add significantly to the cost.  Making drawers is labor intensive compared to shelved and cabinets.  

[UnderProtest]

Do you have to use a cabinet maker for this? We had a general construction guy that did that (and stuff like tray ceilings) who was less expensive.

[cjeanette]

When we priced out having our built-ins done it was little things like glass doors that flew the estimate over the edge. I think if you are keeping it simple it is possible.

We ended up going DIY as I like detail and H doesn't like to spend money

[h]

We just had a custom desk with cabinets over it built in. The desk is ~12 feet long with two knee holes and 11 drawers (our carpenter charged like $100 each for drawers, so that added to the cost). There are five cabinets above it. We paid the cabinet maker $5300, but he also had to build the wall that the desk rests against (it was an open railing before) and panel it on the other side to match the existing library paneling. We paid ~$1200 separately for a granite countertop, plus a few hundred to have it all stained to match existing woodwork.

Here's a pic before the drawers were in and the doors were on:

[lindyanne]

I got a quote to have one done. 96'' high. There's a 47' cabinet on each side and a 44'' or so one in the middle. The side cabinets were three drawers at the bottom and three or four shelves at the top. The middle was just the drawers at the bottom and then a shelf on top of them as that would be open to go around the TV. Painted. $3200. Similar COL.

[dr.girlfriend]

IIRC I paid about $1500 to have the cabinetmaker change out the trim and doors on my already-built-in bookshelves, and then build the entertainment center and bridge across the top. If you're going to paint it yourself, avoid the inset doors. He made the doors inset perfectly even though he knew I was going to paint, and now with my lousy paint job they get stuck all the time.

Before:


After: