Who’s Watching the Cabinet Allowance?

How one builder stopped finding out about cabinet overages after the homeowner had already fallen in love with the kitchen.

The problem: a good allowance, then the showroom

A realistic cabinet allowance helps you win the bid. Set it too high and your price looks heavy. Set it too low and the homeowner gets hit with upgrades later.

But even a good allowance leaves one question: who makes sure the selections stay inside it?

One builder we work with used to send homeowners to a lumberyard design center. The designers did their job. They showed styles, finishes and upgrades. But the selections often came back over budget, and by then the homeowner had already pictured that kitchen.

That left the builder with an uncomfortable conversation. The homeowner could pay for the upgrades, cut back the cabinets, or find savings somewhere else in the build. Whichever way it went, the builder was the one managing the fallout.

What changed: the budget comes first

Now the builder sends us his plans and his cabinet budget before the homeowner ever visits our showroom.

We design to that number from the start. The homeowner still makes the selections, but they make them inside the project’s limits instead of finding out about the limits afterward.

The allowance stays between us and the builder. We don’t share it with the homeowner unless the builder tells us to.

The real-world test: a pantry

On a recent project, we worked with the homeowner on the kitchen and the rest of the house, and the design came in about $2,000 under the builder’s cabinet budget.

Then the homeowner came back with a new idea: a walk-in pantry with full cabinetry.

We didn’t start drawing it right away. First we talked about what it would do to the budget.

This builder had already told us he was comfortable with us quoting overages directly, and we build his markup into any number we give. So we told the homeowner the pantry would mean a change order from the builder of roughly $4,000 to $6,000, and asked whether they wanted to move forward on that basis.

That conversation happened before any design time was spent and before the homeowner committed to anything.

The builder kept control of his pricing and his change order. The homeowner made an informed decision. Nobody got surprised.

How we handle overages on every job

1. You set the budget. You send plans and a cabinet number before the homeowner visits.
2. We design to it. Selections are guided by your budget from the first meeting.
3. We flag requests early. If a request will push past the allowance, we raise it before we design it.
4. You decide what the homeowner hears. With your OK, we give a change-order range that includes your markup. Without it, we send them back to you.
5. You issue the change order. Pricing and approval stay with you.

The takeaway

Cabinet allowances don’t manage themselves. You shouldn’t find out the cabinets are over budget after the homeowner has already fallen for the selections

When your cabinet partner knows the budget, guides selections to it, and raises changes before they become problems, the showroom becomes part of your building process instead of another source of surprise costs.

That’s what Managed Cabinet Solutions means at Thirty Three Cabinetry.

You build the house. We’ll manage the cabinets.