Let’s face it, adding any cabinetry can be really expensive let alone custom cabinetry. Whether they are for your kitchen, pantry, home bar, office or family room built-ins, the cost can add up!
We have found that when it comes to designing and building cabinets in your home, there are certain affordable things you can do to make your cabinetry look custom and high-end, without breaking the bank.
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Tip 1 - Use varying heights and depths for a custom cabinetry look
When it comes to your upper cabinetry, and sometimes even your base cabinets, it is important to use cabinet boxes that are different heights and/or depths. This creates a space that is visually interesting to look at and you can use symmetry to visually balance the space and in the end will look more like well thought out, custom cabinetry.
This variation can be done intentionally to highlight certain areas or to just break up a long wall of cabinets. In our pantry, we wanted to highlight one side of the cabinets and chose to have them come out further and also increase the height.
For lower cabinetry, we love using different depths around the stove or sink to draw more attention to those areas and make them more interesting!
Tip 2 - Use footers or baseboards for a custom cabinetry look
When it comes to making your cabinets look more like custom cabinetry, in our opinion, that also means making them look more like furniture. Enter footers and baseboards.
Cabinet footers are a great option to break up a long span of lower cabinets. They work well around sink areas, break up a cabinet box, or as a transition between drawers and doors.
When using baseboards, it is important to only use them in low traffic areas. And by low traffic, we mean areas that will not be used to prepare food or to stand at for long periods of time – you will need a toe kick in high-traffic or high-use areas so you are not constantly hitting your toes against the baseboard and scuffing up the paint. We used baseboards in low traffic areas of our dry bar, our walk-in pantry and our home office built-ins.
Tip 3 - Use a variety of hardware styles
Whether you choose nickel, brass, black or any other hardware finish, you can make your kitchen or any cabinets look more like custom cabinetry if you mix your hardware styles.
Use a blend of knobs, latches and pulls on doors and drawers. We love using knobs or latches on doors and pulls on drawers. That being said, we have also seen a lot of knobs used on drawers and love that look as well. The key to this though is to make sure all the hardware is in the same finish.
In both our pantry and our dry bar, we chose to do knobs on the cabinet doors, cup pulls on all the drawers and regular pulls on the appliances. In our home office, we chose to do latches on the cabinet doors and pulls with backplates on our drawers.
PRO TIP
We have found it easiest to use the same brand of hardware when mixing styles so that the color and finish are as close as possible!
About The Authors
John and Megan are the founders of Arched Manor, which is a passion-project turned business featuring home design, renovations, DIY tutorials, décor, e-Design, and 3-D rendering services. This married couple lives in Leesburg, Virginia, and is currently renovating The Arched Manor, a brick colonial house built in 2000.
