One of the first decisions in designing a new kitchen is the shape the cabinets and appliances will make after they are all installed. Sometimes this choice is limited by room size, location of doors, windows and adjacent rooms in the house. Whether cabinets are put in an existing home or a new home often makes a difference. In an existing home, you may well have to work with existing plumbing, door locations and windows. Of course these can all be changed, but often it is quite expensive. With new construction the desired cabinet layout can be designed, then window and door locations put in after. Plumbing and electrical is then designed for the specific layout. When examples and situations are talked about in this chapter, it will be on replacing cabinets in an existing home. If you’re designing a kitchen for a new home the same principles will apply in most cases, only it will be easier. COMMON KITCHEN SHAPES There are 4 common basic kitchen shapes with many variations (see the “Common Kitchen Layouts” figure on the facing page). These are: 1. One wall 2. Corridor or Galley 3. “L” 4. “U” These layouts can be complimented by a peninsula and/or an island. In some cases you have no choice about the kitchen shape. If you do though, you’ll want to work with your customer to pick the shape that best suits their situation. The “Common Kitchen Layouts” figure shows the work triangle. This is often used to show the efficiency of a layout. The “U” shaped layout shows recommended minimum and maximum distances between the major kitchen work centres and minimum and maximum recommended totals. You should check your design against the standards shown. These are reasonable and have evolved from actual practice and research. If your design falls outside the limits take a good look at it. Many times your customers bring in a design that they want. While it may not workable, offer suggestions in a helpful way, but don’t downgrade their design. Many kitchens fall outside these guidelines and people seem to adjust just fine. KITCHEN CENTRES There are three major kitchen centres: the food storage centre, the food preparation centre and the clean up centre. The major centres revolve around a major appliance or the sink and the cabinets on one or both sides. Minimum and suggested countertop spaces to the sides of the appliances are shown in the figure below. If you go below these minimums you will probably have a poorly designed kitchen. Having more than the recommended distances is fine, as long as the work triangle doesn’t get too large. Good judgement would indicate that a smaller home and/or a smaller family would usually have a design closer to the minimum sizes. A larger home and/or family will need to be nearer the maximium suggested sizes or over. All kitchens should have a “minor” centre called the mixing centre. This is nothing more than 36" to 42", or more, of uninterrupted counter space. Some kitchens also contain these “minor” centres (and some have even more): a planning centre, a laundry centre, or an eating centre. All the centres can have “remote” locations as well. For example, the food storage centre revolves around the refrigerator and includes cabinets near the refrigerator used to store food. But a pantry cabinet is also part of this centre yet may be located some distance away. A freezer is part of this centre, if the family has one, but can be located a good distance away from the refrigerator, or it may be a part of the refrigerator. It can also be located in the basement, garage, or other locations. The counter space within the various centres often overlap. The same 24" next to the refrigerator, which is used to set groceries down on, may be part of the minimum 36" of uninterrupted counter space needed for the mix centre. The point is this: this kitchen information by Paul Cabinet Sourcing covers common situations, but there are a lot of different situations that occur. So use your imagination and good judgement as you review the illustrations and examples. Cabinets can be a very interesting part of your work in a Home Improvement store. A successful sale and installation is a major event in your customer’s life. It’s a change they probably have been dreaming about for years and one they will enjoy for many more years. It’s also a large sale for you and your store and one with good profit potential. If you do a good job with cabinets there will be winners all around including you, your store and your customer! Doing a good job with cabinets means extended knowledge in a number of areas: kitchen layout and design, cabinet manufacture, quality choices, measuring, countertops, installation and more. Many times a chapter of instruction is written to take you from the small points and build to the overall picture. This chapter will be the opposite. We first want you to see kitchen design and layout principles, then take a look at the sizes and styles manufactured so the kitchens can be laid out, sold and ordered by you, to fit into the floor plan layouts wanted by your customers. SELLING KITCHENS This chapter will be quite technical with information on sizes, construction, etc., but right up front, we want to remind you that when selling “cabinets” only 10% or so of the information you give the customer should be technical. And you don’t want to spend any more time than that selling “cabinets”. Ninety percent of your time should be spent selling benefits. Benefits such as convenience, beauty, pride, value and more. Whatever the customer really wants from his or her purchase. One of Paul Cabinet Sourcing's commitment is to help you increase the benefits you can sell to your customers. Not too many people just want to buy cabinets. They may want to make their kitchens (and whole house) look good for an upcoming graduation, or anniversary, or some other occasion, but they don’t want to buy cabinets (after all they cost money). The only way to achieve the fresh new look they want, however, is to replace those old unappealing cabinets now in their kitchens. So even if they don’t want to buy cabinets, in order to achieve the goal they want, that’s just exactly what they’ll have to do. PRODUCT KNOWLEDGE In order to give you a good foundation with which to sell benefits, we’ll spend a lot of time on product knowledge. This will help you tailor your cabinets to the customer’s needs and desires. You’ll have to pick the 2 or 3 bits of product knowledge the customer is interested in, from the 200 or more you have available in your mind. Only display as much product knowledge as is appropriate for the specific customer. The objective during the sale is to help the customer buy, not to “show-off” your product knowledge. Cabinets can be used in all rooms of a house and often are. Kitchens are the most common, followed by bathrooms. But cabinets are also common for storage in dining rooms, dens, family rooms, home offices, laundry rooms, etc. This chapter is mostly about kitchen cabinets and kitchen design, since these are the most complicated cases you will probably have. But remember to direct your cabinet selling efforts to all parts of the house when appropriate. To be continued. Next episode is "kitchen layout and design" It's often a hard task to select a reliable Chinese cabinet factory among hundreds of them in China, to someone new to Chinese cabinet factory, or sometimes even to a veteran. We hope this article can bring you some inspiration on Chinese cabinet factory selection. 1, Price. Be cautious when a Chinese cabinet factory quote a far lower price than others. This maybe a signal that indicate this cabinet factory is thirsty for orders. Well, who don't? There's difference. A good cabinet factory may already have steady customer and repeat orders and may show certain caution when getting new inquiry and quote a price conformed to "market level". A thirsty factory could be a new one - means they lack of experience; or could be a factory who can't maintain their customer - that reveal they have their problems. Quality, management or other problem. You get what you pay, old saying always telling the truth. If you are looking for price only, that would be a different matter. In Paul Cabinet Sourcing, our principle is to gain "Best Value" for customers, i.e.: reasonable price plus reliable quality. 2, Cabinet factory organization. Pay attention to the organization when you visit a cabinet factory in China. A good factory is always well organized. Tidy and clean production environment, well arranged material and semi-finished cabinetry products, professional-looking workers often reveal a good cabinet factory. When you see ragged packing boxes lie on ground unordered with footprint on them, then you can skip this factory. 3, Cabinet factory's Promise is not always reliable. When a Chinese cabinet manufacturer sounds like very confident on their quality or capacity, Stay calm. " no problem" often proved to be the biggest problem. An experienced kitchen cabinet producer deal with your specification and requirements very carefully and will check every details with you, and won't promise anything too easily. A bad cabinetry factory may skip some necessary steps and finally produce a big trouble for you. There will be many other factors involved before you make final decision. Generally stay calm, realize your target and work out your standard will be helpful. Yes, it's a difficult job to select good kitchen cabinet factory, so many factor involved and should be considered. Moreover, things keep developing and changing. "Seeing is believing", pay a visiting to the Chinese kitchen cabinet factory is a good idea. You can see their operation personally. But it's insufficient. Welcome to contact Paul Cabinet Sourcing to discuss any of your idea about selecting a good cabinet factory. Seeing is believing. Old saying is still holds. So one of the major steps in decision process is come China to see kitchen cabinet factories in person. Someone may doubt we will show them factories. We totally understand their concern, as we know that many agent or companies keep their factories as a "secrete". We don't. To be totally transparent has been one principle of Paul Cabinet Sourcing. We win business by virtue of our service, not secrete. First step is to apply for VISA. Apply for Tourist Visa instead of Business Visa may save you a lot of trouble and things will become much easier for you. A Tourist Visa works well too. And we will help to provide all necessary information to you for Visa application. Second step is to make a plan, which should include: Time you're going to spend in China, Book flight in advance so as to save cost, Prepare questions for the factory people you must ask, Think over your standard of factory selection - We will provide advice but it's up to you make final decision for this part. Third step is to be carried out by us. We will work up a visiting itinerary according to your schedule and your cabinet requirements. Usually we can visit three or four cabinet factories when you have one week or so. These factories are not very close to each other, sometimes we will take bullet train to travel between factories. To book bullet train tickets for you, we will need a copy of your passport before your arrival. And we can help you reserve hotel rooms, and contact factories to arrange the visiting in advance. Forth step: Your flight landing in China now! We will be Qingdao air port to receive you and take you to hotel. Then we begin our factories visiting. Fifth step: Factory tour. We will go to factory with you. During factory tour, factory people will show you their facility, workshop, how a kitchen cabinet is produced, and maybe some kitchen cabinet samples. And you may ask any question, or discuss your concerns during factory visiting. Sixth step is ending of factory visiting and we see you off at air port. We help you make decision based on our understanding of each factory's advantage and disadvantage. Charge: Our factories visiting service is free of charge. You'll only need to cover our travel expense. Feel free to contact Paul Cabinet Sourcing for advice or help. In a market of highly competitive, it is crucial to every cabinet company that make your cabinet line unique. Distinguish what you sell from others. Selling cabinets that every others are selling don't make money. And more Chinese cabinet manufacturers support OEM, which means you can come up with your design and specs and get it realized by the Chinese cabinet factory. But how to create your cabinet line that reflect your unique features? That require a rethink on every part of the kitchen cabinet. 1 Face frame : This part is commonly standard : 3/4" thick and 1 1/2" wide, kiln-dried hardwood assembled under pressure with glue and dowel. So you only need to decide whether it will be face framed or frameless on this part. 2 Cabinet door: This is the most import part you need to consider. Cabinet door joint type: Cabinet door style : Shaker door, raised panel, or flat panel Cabinet door panel : Solid wood or veneered Cabinet door overlay : Full overlay or standard overlay 3 Drawer : Is drawer front Slab or five-piece structure? Is the drawer box solid wood or plywood? Dovetailed construction? 4 End panel : Most regular is 1/2" plywood cabinet box on a face framed cabinet. You can choose to use 5/8" plywood too. For a frameless cabinet you can choose to use either 5/8" or better 3/4" plywood. 5 Drawer glides : You have various options for your drawer glides: Full extension under mount drawer glide Side mount epoxy drawer glide Full extension side mount ball bearing drawer glide 6 Cabinet box assembly way : Use a KD fitting or not? Cam-lock or metal-clip? Metal clip & Cam-lock: The common merit of the two jointer is either of them provide a easy way to assemble the RTA cabinets fast with mere simple tools, so both suit for DIY customers and professional customers. A drawback of metal clip is it may make your cabinet line seems cheap sometimes, so someone see this kind of low end and prefer cam-lock. Cam-lock may seems nicer, yet its own drawback is the assembly of this construction is a little more complex than metal clip, as metal clip only need a screwdriver and cam-lock need to be install into slot of panels with a hammer, then use screwdriver to fasten. Paul Cabinet Sourcing's suggest is metal clip as it is a stronger accessory. Dado & Glue without KD fitting : There are groove on all panels, people would glue, and staple to assemble. Its merit is it looks much better as there is no any redundancy inside box, give people a clean and tidy look like the custom built one. Yet it need professional tools & material like staple gun and assemble glue. So it won't suit for DIY customers.
To people who are new to import business, importing kitchen cabinets may seems complicated. But actually it is pretty simple process, especially when Paul Cabinet Sourcing are here to help. You place an order to our kitchen cabinet factory, and the cabinet factory ship the container to you. What after that? Generally, following things will happen after the container leave China: a - After vessel depart China, the carrier release Bill of Lading to the shipper - cabinet factory. b - Cabinet factory will provide a copy of B/L to you, Your company pay balance of this shipment to factory and They release the original B/L to you. Be sure to pay balance to factory before the container arrive your port, so as to avoid any delay on custom clearance or additional cost generated. You don't have to handle B/L yourself, but ask appointed agent or forwarder to do it. And usually we don't have to mail the paper work B/L to you, but through Email to complete the process of release which we call it "telex-release". c - Voyage From China to US takes 15~30 days. d - When the container is arriving, your agent will notify you and ask necessary shipping documents from you for customer clearance. Normally most important is B/L, invoice, and packing list. The invoice and packing list will be provided by factory, and Paul Cabinet Sourcing can help coordinating this. e - When custom clearance finished, your agent can arrange truck to pick up your container from port and send to assigned address. f - Checking your received cabinets. Any defects or missed items determined, our cabinet factory will provide free replacement or credit in next shipment. g - Paul Cabinet Sourcing is here to assure you a problem- free and seamless kitchen cabinet purchasing experience. Paul Cabinet Sourcing can help finding a good Chinese forwarder to ship your containers as well as your custom clearance and all other jobs. You can also choose to find a forwarder yourself. You can use same company do custom clearance and inland transportation, or use different company to do these things for you. When exploring possible supplying sources in China, a new (even seasoned) kitchen cabinet importer is often puzzled with seemingly discrepant prices from different Chinese cabinet factory. So it's crucial to know every factor that may influence your cabinet price and therefore make sensible decision. Herein, Paul Cabinet Sourcing will help our viewer reveal factors that decide the actual price of your cabinet line. Factor#1 - Cabinet Door 1.1 Door stile and rail : From 2"~3", a wider door stile and rail cost more. Because as it become wider, it's harder to get qualified raw wood material. That's why cabinet factory will always need to know your door stile and rail width when you inquire with them. Also, for a builder grade or elementary grade line, the door stile and rail are often thin one, 2" or 2 1/4". 1.2 Door center panel : MDF or plywood door panel cost less than solid wood door panel; flat panel cost less than raised panel; raised solid wood panel with glaze line will cost further more. 1.3 Door style : Miter door usually cost more than cope & stick door. More complicated door style means more cost. For example, a miter door style with raised panel and glaze and decorative molding on it definitely cost more than a simple shaker door. Factor#2 - Cabinet carcass panel Particle board panel is the most cost efficient option. While plywood panel is the most popular material in North America market. You can build your cabinet with 1/2", 5/8" or 3/4" plywood. 1/2" is the most usual choice. For a frameless cabinet, the side panel need to be at least 5/8" thickness. Wood veneer on plywood panel is commonly either poplar or birch veneer. Birch veneer plywood cost more than poplar veneer one. Factor#3 - Drawer box material and construction of your cabinet While 5/8" Solid wood dovetail drawer box seems most cabinet distributor and importer are appealing, you can choose to use a plywood drawer box if you're planning a less expensive line, and you can choose to build the drawer box with simple screw joint without a dovetail feature. Some one looking for a plywood dovetail drawer box, but it's a difficult problem to some cabinet factories, as it require better plywood as well as higher processing technic. So it's not always easy to find a factory to make dovetail on plywood. Factor#4 - Kitchen cabinet hardware : Drawer glides and hinges Price of Full extension Soft close under mount drawer glides is $4.5 / pair higher than full extension side mount ball bearing drawer glide, and $6 / pair higher than simple epoxy glides. Price of soft close hinge is $0.7 / PC higher than common six way adjustable conceal hinge. Factor#5 - Finish of kitchen cabinet Some cabinet factory may tell you cabinet of white paint cost more than a cabinet of stain color. That's untrue. They are either not good at white paint finish, or trying to overprice their product. It is true, though White paint itself cost more than a stain color as a paint color require one or two more times of finishing work, but will save on wood material, since factory can use lower grade wood for white paint cabinet than stain color one. Cost of PU finish and AC finish are almost same, or PU finish a little more. The interior carcass natural color cost less than a matching color, since cabinet factory need not to mix the color to match. There are many other factors that will influence your cabinet price : cabinet construction, wood species, your quality standard ... So a price is always a result of combined action of various factors. Be sure to inspect every aspect that may play a part, then you will be able to get a better idea on your price strategy during cabinet purchasing. Feel free to contact Paul Cabinet Sourcing if you have any question about the price you received from a Chinese cabinet manufacturer. Base Cabinet
Usually found under the countertops and sits on the floor Bead Board Wood paneling that contains parallel grooves (typically vertical) to give the cabinet added style and texture. Beaded Door Beaded styling on the cabinet door. Typically is found in the recessed panel of the door. Carcass Another word for the box of the cabinet Concealed Hinge A hinge that is attached to the inside of the cabinet door so that it is out of site Custom Cabinetry This offers the most options for style and design. With custom cabinets you'll multiple choices for wood type, shape, size, glaze, finish, hardware, frame style and more. This is the most expensive option when it comes to cabinetry. Dado A groove cut into a piece of wood that allows another piece to slide into it for a tighter fit Dove Tail A highly effective way to join two pieces of wood at a right angle without requiring screws. The male end of the board has multiple pins cut into it while the female board has a series of tails. The two are then joined together in an interlocking fashion. Drawer Face The front panel of the drawer box where the handle is attached Engineered Wood Not natural wood. This is wood that is enhanced for better structural purposes. It is also environmentally friendly since oftentimes it is created from the leftovers from other types of wood. Examples of engineered wood include particle board, fiberboard (MDF). Exposed Hinge A hinge that is showing on the outer edge when the cabinet door is closed Face Frame This is the outer frame that is attached to the front side of the top, bottom and side of the cabinet box. This improves the overall stability of the box. Finish The final layer applied to the surface to lock in color and provide protection. The protection helps sustain the cabinet's overall beauty and protects from sun damage and other normal wear Flake Bard Another way to say particle board because of the flakey nature of the wood in particle board Flat Panel Consists of a door or drawer where the center portion of the panel is indented or recessed. The recessed look can have multiple styles and shapes Framed Cabinets One of the two standard cabinet design styles. This style incorporates a frame around the front side of the cabinet box. This is the most common design and is also the most sturdy. Frameless Cabinets Also referred to as European style cabinets. With Frameless cabinets, there are no obstructions on the front side of the cabinet box allowing for greater room for storage. These usually require full overlay cabinet doors so as to cover the edges of the cabinet box. Full Inset Doors and drawers that are designed to fit within the inside edge lines of the faced frame opening. The outer edges of the doors and drawers will be flush with the face frame edges. Full Overlay This is a door type that covers the majority of the front of the cabinet box. Most common in frameless cabinets. Furniture Board Another way to say particle board Glaze Used to coat the cabinets to provide another level of unique style. Glazes come in a variety of colors and finish types used to change the overall appearance of the wood material. Glazes are designed to enhance the wood's natural properties. MDF (Medium Density Fiberboard) This is an acronym for Medium Density Fiberboard which is a manufactured wood product created from tiny wood particles and a bonding agent such as glue or resin. Since it is made with tiny wood particles, it is easier to shape as opposed to particle board which is made of larger wood particles. MDF commonly serves as the core material of the cabinet and is covered with laminate, thermofoil or melamine. Melamine A popular plastic material that is easily cleaned and is used to cover the door and drawer surfaces. It is adhered to the core of the cabinet which typically consists of particle board, or MDF. Mullion Doors Cabinet doors with a glass panel in the center panel of the door. The glass comes in a wide array of styles and colors to make the cabinet more unique... Overlay A term to describe the amount of face frame covered by the front of a drawer or door Partial Overlay Doors and drawers cover only a portion of the overall frame. Good option to highlight the outer frame of the cabinet box since it will be visible when the doors and drawers are fully closed. Particle Board A manufactured wood product composed of small pieces of wood bonded together with glue or resin. This is the least costly solution for the core of a cabinet and is of the lowest quality when compared to plywood or MDF. Rail Horizontal pieces of the face frame Recessed Door The central panel of a cabinet door that is indented or recessed to offer a unique style and design Reveal This is the exposed portion of overlay on the front cabinet frame when the door or drawer is closed. Semi-Custom Cabinets Semi-custom cabinets are one step below custom cabinets when it comes to price and the number of options available. They are factory made versus being made by a specific woodworker. Given advances in cabinet manufacturing technology, many still offer a wide variety of options when it comes to selecting your cabinet style, size, shape, etc. Soffit This is the area between the top of the cabinets and the ceiling. It usually protrudes out over the cabinets. Many people like to convert it into a shelf above the cabinets for added storage. Solid Wood Solid wood is different from particle board or MDF in that it is made up of multiple solid wood boards that are glued or bonded together. They are must more structurally sound and typically more expensive... Species of Wood This refers to the many types of wood options you have. Species are differentiated by wood grain, density, color and more... Stile Vertical pieces of the face frame Stock Cabinets Stock cabinets are the most affordable type of cabinets. They are usually found in places like Home Depot and Lowe's and are pre-made so you won't have as many choices in terms of size, design etc. Stock cabinets are usually made of wood veneer or a laminate material that is adhered to MDF or particle board. Substrate Refers to the material that laminate, thermofoil or melamine is applied to. It is usually made of particle board, plywood or MDF. Thermofoil This is another cabinet material made from heat fusing thin layers of PVC to a substrate. Thermofoil is easy to clean, durable and smoother than paint... Toe Kick This is defined as the lower most piece of the base cabinet that is sunk in enough to allow someone's feet to go under if they were standing in front of the cabinet. Veneer Veneer consists of strips of wood that are adhered to a substrate such as particle board or MDF. The benefit of using wood veneer is that you are able to choose from the highest quality cuts of wood since you are not relying on its ability to provide support for the overall cabinet. Instead, it is just the outer layer used to add style and beauty to the cabinet... V-Groove A type of vertical design in many cabinet doors. It is typically beaded or grooved and popular in bathroom medicine cabinets. Vinyl Laminate This material is used on the interior of many cabinets and is designed to be easy to clean and durable. Since it is a thin material it is easily applied to to various cabinet components and surfaces. Wall Cabinets Simply put, these are cabinets that are mounted to the wall. Wood Grain The pattern made in the wood that is influenced by the species of tree and its age It's never easy job to find a reliable cabinet manufacturer among hundreds of them in China. We've get to have certain standards. One is the selected manufacturer should have rich experience in American style cabinet production. Experience is always a valuable fortune for anyone that help avoiding the same mistake. Two is that this manufacturer must be a well organized one. This point become even more important than experience, under some circumstance. The Third, I find it's often important to observe/examine the character of its owner, or say its business culture. There's a story: Once I took one customer to a factory. Good facility, management looks good at least seemingly, capacity is big. Then we sit down with the owner. My customer grabbed a sample door from a corner accidentally. She pointed at the glaze line on it and said, "see, this line is not straight, we don't expect it in future". The owner seems indifferent and said " Oh it happens, so what the fuss". So that's it. This manufacturer just don't care much about the products they built. Moreover, one of our task is to get good price but we never should compromise on quality issue. One good way is to use a Paul Cabinet Sourcing cabinet manufacturer. All of the cabinet factory Paul Cabinet Sourcing worked with are carefully evaluated, and selected. These cabinet factory can provide reasonable price, as well as consistent quality kitchen cabinet and bathroom cabinet. |
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