The kitchen, of course, is the most used room in the home, even more than the bathroom. Besides being the food preparation area the space is also the crossroads between the diferent areas of the house allowing the family occupants go through the area on their way to the living room or bedroom. It's no wonder, then, that the kitchen cabinets get dinged and the surfaces worn.

At first, rather than a wholesale remodel, homeowners will change out appliances and redo the vinyl flooring to bring the kitchen back to life. Some homeowners even paint the kitchen cabinets and this will look good for a while. But, after a while, more than the looks of the cabinets it's their use begins to come into question. Everything from the depth to the storage quality begins to become suspect when new kitchen ware does not fit properly and you have to store your food processor in the garage. As well, everyone reaches and age where he or she does ot want to get down on hands and knees to find something way in the back of a cupboard.

Depending on the type of cabinets that you have in the kitchen there are a few ways you can go to have the look and feel of a new kitchen. Some of these hints can save money in the long and short run.

Most cabinets installed are on of three types:

Custom Cabinets: With a custom cabinet the designer works with the you to get the right layout and then the whole kitchen is built to your specifications.

Semi-Custom Cabinets: These cabinets are factory-made in ready-to-assemble cabinet boxes for both cabinet builders and do-it-yourselfers.They are available in customized sizes and hardware as well as other options.

Stock Cabinets: These come already pre-measured in standard dimensions and are the cheapest choice. Home supply stores have these in flat boxes so you just choose the cabinets from a stock catalogue and then assemble them once you get home.

1) Custom-Made Cabinets

In days gone by all cabinets were built into the kitchen. The carpenter went in and ordered the wood and pieced everything together. Even in the simplest kitchens the woodworkers brought in jogs for dovetailing drawer joints and routing out the door designs.The buyers of expensive kitchens brought in cabinetmakers to build with exotic woods and fashion china cabinets and buffet units.

To have custom-made cabinets today is a more automated process. The cabinet maker uses a computer to calculate the space and then generate your desires into a 3D image on the screen. From a large stock of cabinet shapes the space can be expertly filled with the type of cabinets that will prove to be both useful and a beautiful statement for your home. They can even be built around static objects or in just about any style you want from the staid, European urban-look to the loose patterns of rural Tuscany. The time for delivery can be quite long (up to 20 weeks) because in most cases it's only one carpenter working on the project. In addition, the choice of cabinet material - wood-filled, plywood or solid - is also a determining factor in the pricing.

2) Semi-Custom Cabinets

With semi-custom cabinets you have to first work out exactly what you want, usually with the help of a designer. Then you order them and, most of the time, they are either assembled at a factory or come in a box for the carpenter to put together. Besides being much cheaper than custom-made cabinets this type still offers the flexibility in sizes, storage consideration and door finishes than off-the-shelf cabinets. (And they can have as many as 130 door and drawer styles.)

Because they are made exactly for your kitchen there is a time delay that could. Most semi-custom cabinets are wood-filled melamine or plywood and can take 5 to 6 weeks to arrive and then there is a cost for installation.

3) Stock Cabinets

Stock cabinets can be bought at most home supply centers and are usally a wood-filled melamine product. Being a one-size-fits-all design these cabinets come in static widths, between 9 and 48 inches, with a scale-up of 3". So the homeowner figures out the space that he or she has available and then orders the cabinets that will fit. Usually, the door styles are limited but the price is quite less. Some stores charge between $150 and $185 a linear foot: upper and lower cabinets + a laminate countertop.

Styles for Today

Although many people still want the "power block" of uniformly-styles cabinets the trend is for two and even three different styles in the kitchen. Taking a page from the design book of rural Mediterranean kitchens the cabinets are ornate and richly colored. Some cabinets look like they were made in a furniture shop and some may well have their origins there.

Whatever look the home wants to convey the main idea to consider is that the cabinets have to serve a function. They have to function well with the appliances and the kitchen utensils have to be easily accessible.

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