When deciding to purchase cabinets, there is a decision to make: do I want easy or do I want difficult? That’ll be explained in a moment. While there is a big variety of cabinets in all shapes, sizes, and colors available for purchase, there is some basic understanding about cabinets that people need to keep in mind. That is the general classification that these cabinets fit in. In other words, are they RTA, Stock Cabinets, Semi-Custom, or Completely Custom. Knowing this information and knowing what you want will make purchasing cabinets a little easier and help determine how much you can afford to spend on them.

RTA: Ready-to-Assemble cabinets are the cheapest cabinet available to people and are usually the pick for those that move around a lot or are not good at assembling things. Ready-to-assemble cabinets come with the hardware already attached to the wood and all you need to do is pick where they are going to go and assemble it accordingly. Screw the cabinets up to the wall, attach the doors and then voila, the cabinets are done. The downside to ready-to-assemble cabinets is that there is a limit to the colors, sizes, and styles available for purchase.

Stock: Like ready-to-assemble cabinets, these are incredibly inexpensive because they are mass-produced and therefore, the company can afford to offer them to you cheaper. However, the downside to stock cabinets is that they are poorer quality which is the downside to the mass-production that comes with these cabinets. Furthermore, you get what you pay for. If you want variety or different colors, you’ll have to do it yourself because the factory churns them out as fast as possible. If cost is the most important aspect of the cabinets, get the stock cabinets. If you can afford to spend more money, try the semi-custom or completely custom route.

Semi-Custom: These are cabinets that the company doesn’t start to build until after the order has come in. Because they are constructed after the order, you can include measurements and specifications so that the company can build them based off of that. The style of the cabinets stays relatively the same, but if you need 80 inch wide cabinets rather than 78 inch wide cabinets, because you are ordering custom cabinets, you can get some more decision making. These are more money than stock cabinets, but the quality is greater and the outcome is greater.

Custom: This is any cabinet maker’s dream because here, the carpenter can really be creative. Here, you can pick the exact style that you want, the colors that you want, the finish you want, and the wood that you want to use. The carpenter will then be able to go about creating the cabinets exactly the way you want them. Because you are going entirely custom here and since these are typically hand-made, they will take much longer than any of the above types of cabinets. See how soon the carpenter can get them done and then wait.

Custom cabinets are obviously the most ideal because they are the nicest; however, the downfall to them is that they are incredibly expensive. On the flip side, RTA and Stock cabinets are very cheap, but the quality of them is poor and therefore, they can break much easier. Furthermore, if you were to put a lot of weight in them, there’s a good chance that they might break which is definitely not something you want when purchasing cabinets. So, see what your budget is and determine your needs then go and decide what type of cabinets to get. Custom is the best, RTA is the cheapest.