by Silvana Gargione | Construction
Throughout 20+ years of experience with kitchen remodeling and cabinet installation we’ve certainly seen it all, so we love passing our wisdom and warnings onto homeowners so they can avoid costly mistakes.
While there are always possibilities for minor hiccups when working with a home renovator, one major installation mistake stands out from the crowd:
Leveling!
It seems like a no-brainer, but a level foundation is the make-or-break first step to a successful cabinet installation and long-term enjoyment of your remodeled space. An incorrect level for your cabinet installation can result in a slanted countertop, uneven cooking surfaces and countertop appliance storage space, and major roadblocks with flooring and finishing.
Here’s what you need to know and how you need to solve it.
- Accurate first measurements go a very long way. Let’s say you are standing in your kitchen and facing your wall. Because homes shift over time, no floor, wall or ceiling is perfectly straight even when they appear even at first glance. With this said, the far left and the far right of your walls might be over an inch in difference – no big deal for everyday use, but a huge deal during installation.
- Ask your contractor where your top leveling point is. To account for the shift mentioned above, an experienced installer will begin installation at the highest point to allow for the cabinets to fit in either direction. When installing a standard 34 ½ inch cabinet height, your contractor must allow for that measurement all the way across – leaving a small margin of space at the highest point and ending up flush at the lowest point.
- Factor in flooring. A level top surface is extremely important, but the space left below your cabinets can make or break your final kitchen design. If installing your cabinets prior to your flooring (this decision should be make prior to installation and be based on your choice of flooring materials), an experienced contractor should shim your cabinets during installation so there is enough room at the bottom to complete your flooring process. Without this step, your flooring options will be limited to what is already there and/or fixed only after backtracking your installation process in a very costly way.
Getting started with quality cabinets and the right knowledge are the first steps to a successful kitchen cabinet installation. Connect with an iCabinets design expert now to begin your remodeling process on the right foot!
by Silvana Gargione | Construction
Q: What’s the best way to remodel your kitchen and replace your cabinets?
A: Do it right the first time.
As a smart shopper, you want to make an informed decision about your new kitchen cabinets, but often cabinet shopping can involve new terminology and a wide range of options. When considering RTA, or Ready-to-Assemble cabinets, iCabinets is here to help sort through the common misconceptions and bring you the truth about RTA.
- RTA Cabinets are low quality. FALSE
Unlike some of the products sold as RTA by our big-box competitors, our cabinets all have ½ inch plywood boxes – we’ll never carry particle board or cheap materials, ever. In addition to a high-quality box, each style of cabinet door we offer is either solid birch or a 5-piece HDF design. Want to see for yourself? We’ll send you door samples for free.
- RTA Cabinets are difficult and slow to assemble. FALSE
When working with an experienced contractor or installer, an average 10×10 kitchen should be fully assembled within a day or two. If installing your kitchen yourself, our resource page will walk you through your cabinet assembly – or if missing from your order, we’re always available to troubleshoot.
- RTA Cabinets look cheap. FALSE
Our design experts have applied years of experience in design and cabinet sales to include only the best selling, highest-quality options in our cabinet collection – and our collection is built to last. Whether a modern minimalist or a cozy country motif, iCabinets has a beautiful option for every home.
- RTA Cabinets from iCabinets will save you $1000s on your kitchen remodel. TRUE
We’ve reinvented the traditional kitchen cabinet shopping experience to minimize overhead and ship cabinets directly to your home. This major shift allows us to pass savings onto our customers, and can be up to 80% off when compared to big box retailers or custom cabinetry.
RTA Cabinets from iCabinets are an excellent and money-saving choice for your cabinet remodel – reach out to our design experts today to receive free designs and begin your remodeling process today!
by iCabients532 | Construction
At iCabinets, we’ve applied our years of industry expertise to present our customers the very best of today’s market by offering only the most popular kitchen cabinet designs and colors. We’ve sorted through the good, the bad, and the ugly to bring our customers quality cabinetry with tried-and-true durability and craftsmanship. To that end, let’s take a closer look at our best-selling and most versatile cabinet style: White Shaker.
Historically speaking, the “Shaker” design is characterized by a 5-piece door that features a recessed panel in the center. This design is present in both the cabinets doors and drawers, creating a modern aesthetic with a simple but interesting design detail that is threaded throughout a kitchen.
When the shaker design is paired with a bright white color – as in the White Shaker option – the visual result is a clean look that will make any space appear more spacious and airy. If considering a home’s resale value, a white kitchen is a timeless choice that dates back through the early 20th century. The White Shaker cabinet design never fails to create a fresh, crisp, and clean feeling to any home kitchen.
It’s no surprise that White Shaker is our best selling kitchen cabinet – the clean lines and room-brightening effects make it an extremely versatile choice for a kitchen cabinet remodel. Whether you are a homeowner looking to maximize ROI, or a professional contractor who is flipping many homes, White Shaker is easy way to open up smaller kitchens, modernize a traditional aesthetic, and give a contemporary feeling to an otherwise older home that is ready to be put on the market.
At iCabinets, we’re so confident in our cabinet quality that we’ll happily send two free cabinet door samples right to your home. Once we have a few photos of your space, our designers will create a free color rendering of your existing kitchen featuring your new cabinet choice – all in an effort to help you visualize your new kitchen and feel confident in your cabinet remodeling choices. To get started, reach out and connect to our expert designers today!
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by Silvana Gargione | Construction
By Silvana Gargione
DIY projects – love um or leave um? Depending on who’s piloting the remodeling ship, kitchen cabinet projects have the potential to turn into a huge money saver or a huge money pit. Whether you are a DIY civilian or a DIY captain (or fall somewhere in the uncertain waters) iCabinet can serve as a guiding light while you sail the seas of kitchen remodeling. The prospect of cutting out the middle man and taking matters into your own hands is exciting, but proceed with caution: there are a few key steps to ensure your DIY kitchen cabinet overhaul is a success.
- Plan, re-plan, and then plan it all again. Time is money, and considering all possibilities before you start can be the simplest way to ensure that you get back in your finished kitchen before next Thanksgiving. Can you keep the original floorplan? Does that wall really need to be removed? Should your cabinets open from the left or center? At iCabinet, we bring 10 years of expertise to the table (pun intended!) to ensure that you are confident in your design before you start spending any money. With free consultations, 3D designs specific to your space, and guidance on working with a contractor, iCabinet has your back during the entire planning process.
- Consider quality. There are few things more disappointing than finding a product falls short of its marketed promise. Often at a big box store, consumers are stuck choosing from limited inventory – usually also at the cost of low quality, minimal information, and high markups. At iCabinet, consumers have access to factory-direct pricing on only the highest quality products. If you’re looking for particle board cabinets, look elsewhere! Because we provide the transparent guidance you need to make great choices, you can be certain that your remodel will last for many family dinners to come.
- Communicate With Your Contractor. For a first-time kitchen remodeler, this aspect can be one of the most daunting. Whether you are working with a new contractor or Uncle Fred is teaching you the self-install ropes, knowing the right questions is key to getting the job done on time and on budget. Luckily, iCabinet provides excellent guidance – based on 10 years of industry experience as a retailer – with a series of free PDFs on what to say and when to say it. With this expert intel in your back pocket, it is much easier to trust the partnership necessary to get the job done right.
Whether your cabinet remodel is a long-overdue improvement to your current home or a final upgrade for maximizing the value of your upcoming sale, the desired results are the same – finding great savings with a smooth DIY process using high-quality products. With iCabient, you can get there.
by iCabients532 | Construction
For a homeowner preparing for their kitchen cabinet remodel, it can sometimes feel like installation day will simply never arrive. Once your delivery from iCabinets has arrived to your front curb, fight against your desire to hurry things along and instead do these three things to ensure a successful and smooth installation day:
- Check your Checklist: With every iCabinets delivery, you receive a detailed order inventory that reflects what each flat box should contain. Carefully go down your inventory list and be sure that each box of your cabinet delivery has arrived in full. This small but important step allows iCabinets the opportunity to correct anything damaged or lost in the delivery process in a timely manner.
- Measure Twice, Install Once: Once your cabinet delivery is confirmed in full, use your kitchen rendering as a guide to remeasure your kitchen walls. Moving left to right across each wall, compare the length of the actual wall to the rendering and confirm that they line up perfectly. This is the time to be confident that the rendering matches your actual space, as iCabinets will happily accommodate returns and exchanges prior to opening any boxes.
- Rearrange, Reroute, Remove: Demolition is a tempting first step, but it should only begin once the cabinet order has been placed and you know exactly what your future kitchen will look like. Are you rearranging or rerouting appliances? Are you removing walls or re-doing your floors? Have you allowed time to paint between demolition and installation? Take the time to find answers to these questions so your kitchen is ready for an easy installation beautiful new cabinets.
When you work with iCabinets to remodel your kitchen cabinets, you are receiving a custom kitchen layout and space-specific advice from an experienced designer – all with the convenience of quick shipping times, free delivery costs, and detailed renderings for installation day. Reach out to one of our design experts now to get started.
