Barker Cabinets, Part 1

When we began our renovation, I tried to track down a cabinet maker in Tucson.  In Texas, I had an awesome cabinet builder who did great work and was inexpensive.  He built them off of my plans.  He would come do site measurements, build the cabinets, and then install them.  (If anyone in the Wichita Falls area wants his name and number, just send me a message.)

 

I didn’t find a cabinet builder who was nearly as cost effective.  So, I began another search.  I thought about Ikea, but I didn’t want particle board, considering the price range of the house.  When we went to sell, I figured if potential buyers found out it was an Ikea kitchen, it would be a huge mark against us.  During my search, I found a company called Barker Cabinets, out of Portland, Oregon.

 

What initially drew me to them is the fact that they use solid wood construction…no particle board!   Not to mention the were the most cost effective for what they were offering.  Solid wood construction, Blum soft close drawer glides (love those!) and Blum soft close door hinges.  I forgot to mention, all of it is made in the USA.

 

After a quick price check to find out how it compared to cabinetry available locally, I determined we would go with Barker Cabinets.

 

Barker Cabinets has a free 30 day software trial for Cabinet Vision.  Chad Barker, the owner of the company, has done a good job with the tutorials.  Unfortunately, with my AutoCAD experience, I found them to be counterintuitive.  I seen other people’s drawings and they did not appear to have the issues I had.  I assumed that after you made a plan in the Cabinet Vision program, it would give you an order list.  After a conversation with Chad, that does not appear to be true.  (By the way, Barker Cabinets are very quick to respond to questions/emails.)

 

 

This is where things start to get painful, and you have to remind yourself how much money you are saving.  Their ordering process is very time consuming.  You have to be detail oriented with it, or you will miss something or order the wrong size or forget something.  What I found to be helpful was to have my elevation in front of me, so I could highlight each thing after I ordered it.  If Chad is reading, I would totally pay $150-200 for an ordering service.  Someone I could just email my plan and elevation to and they would place the order for me.  I think it would help save some mistakes that are bound to happen.

 

After you have your pretty drawing, you then have to go piece by piece to order each cabinet.  One each piece you select the cabinet width, height, and depth.  You then need to choose a hinge side, door/drawer front style, type of wood, along with a few other things.  This process is not hard, as it has pull down tabs for each selection needed.

 

 

One of the good things about the ordering process, is that it forces you to really think about how you will use your kitchen/bath/laundry room.  (Of where you are putting cabinets.)  You need to think through what you are storing in your cabinets and how you might stand in front of them and use them…things like that help you determine hinge side, etc..

 

You also need to spend some time watching some of the videos that Barker Cabinet has.  It really is necessary for someone who has never dealt with cabinetry and all of the components.  They show you how you need a filler strip if you have cabinets running into a wall and how you need to order end panels for ends of cabinets that will be visible.  Overall, I think they address everything.  You just need to know that there will be a time investment here.

 

I wanted to show you a screen shot of the order page.  This is where I went through to verify that everything was correct.  You can see how much information is here.  The one thing I wish they had included was an area to denote room name and/or cabinet number.  This would help greatly in the unpacking process, as my cabinet number on my plan were different than theirs.  They have a spot on their packing list for this, but I never did see a way to make a note during the ordering process.

 

 

As I placed my order, I would see notes on the order page of how I reached free shipping, and certain percentages off one I hit a specified dollar amount.  So, if you plan on ordering for multiple rooms, it pays to order all at once.

 

Tomorrow I will talk about receiving our order and my opinion on the construction and assembly process of Barker Cabinets.

 

Have you ever ordered Ready to Assemble Cabinets (RTA)?  What was your opinion?  Who did you use for your cabinets?