Furniture Components From Standard to Customized

What type of remodeling jobs have you been working on lately? You may be interested to know that a National Association of Home Builders survey showed that 35% of recent remodeling jobs were for entire home renovations. The most requested jobs, however, were for bathrooms followed by kitchens. The former represented 78% of the requested remodels, and the latter 69%.

Chances are that you’re often asked to create furniture components along with shelving and cabinets. In addition to furniture components, It’s likely that you have also constructed a fair amount of windows, doors, and architectural wall panels. Whether you handle all the measuring, cutting, and finishing touches yourself or have a crew on-hand to take care of this, you may be interested in some typical measurements for cabinets and shelving.

Tall and Upper-Kitchen Cabinets

Whether these have shelving to use for pantries or have a limited amount of shelves in order to store brooms and other cleaning supplies, tall cabinets are usually 83.5 inches tall. While the standard measurement for upper-kitchen cabinets is usually 30 inches, you can find stock or semi-customized upper cabinets that are available in 36 and 42 inches. Cabinets for above the refrigerator tend to be a standard 12 inches.

While it used to be common for wall cabinets to have a depth of 12 inches, 14 to 16 inches is more common now. If a client wants something deeper, such as 17 inches, these can either be semi-custom or custom-made.

When you’re looking for standard base cabinets, these are 24 inches deep and 36 inches tall. If you need additional depth, such as 27 inches, it’s also possible to have these semi-custom or custom made. In order to have easy access to these base cabinets, they rest on top of a four-inch recessed riser. This is referred to as a “toe kick.”

Shelf Thicknesses

Since you don’t want the shelving within cabinets to sag, it’s a good idea to have thicker shelves. This is particularly the case with long shelves in wide cabinets. Otherwise, shelves usually range between one-half inch to three-fourths of an inch thick. When shelves need to be thicker, then that may also need to be a custom job.

Providing Extra Structural Support

In order to have additional support, cabinets that are more than 36 inches wide may have a center stile or center mullion. This vertical rail is placed in the center of a cabinet face frame.

Preparing for Your Next Remodeling Job

When you’re a busy contractor, chances are that you have several jobs lined up. If you have a client that’s planning even a minor kitchen remodel, you may want to let them know that this can bring them an average return on their investment of 82.7%. Even if they’re not planning to sell their home, they will probably appreciate knowing this.

The same holds true for bathroom remodels, particularly master bathrooms. It’s interesting to note that a recent Houzz survey found that 60% of their respondents were planning to remodel this room in their home. Adding on a second bathroom may also be a good idea if your clients are planning to sell or have a growing family.

When you’re looking for furniture components for these and other types of remodeling jobs, it’s good to know that you can purchase stock sizes as well as semi-custom and customized materials. This can make the jobs that much easier so you can focus on the finishing touches.