Closet Organizers-Cabinet Colors
What color should the new closet cabinets be? Organizers generally have limited color selections unless you’re willing to pay some good money to have everything custom fabricated to suit your personal preferences. If this is you, then the sky is the limit. Now the challenge may be in finding a manufacture who can handle your requests.
Although it’s not uncommon practice to have a particular closet system shipped from another part of the country to your area, it could get expensive. Any time you’re dealing with an out of state transaction, the possibilities of problems arising gets increased tremendously.
Limited Melamine Color Choices
Most systems are fabricated using a substance known as melamine. The choices of colors will vary from one manufacture to another because various cabinetry supply companies have their own brand of melamine that they use. Generally, there are several solids and wood grain patterns to choose from. There are doors available to match the Melamine boards. Both are purchased from mass manufacturing companies; the manufacturing costs of using these pre-fab materials are a lot less than having a custom unit manufactured.
- Tip: If one closet organizer company does not have a color close to what you are looking for, don’t settle for just anything. There are other companies that manufacture closet systems using a different brand of material that your choice color may be available in. Shop around and know what all of your options are.
What is Melamine?
This is a particle board core board that has a very thin coating of hard shell plastic on both sides of the material. The product is available in various thicknesses with the common ones being ½”-3/4” and 5/8” thicknesses. The plastic shell’s durability can be compared to that of Formica.
Why do Closet Organizer Companies Use Melamine?
The main reason that this is the material of choice, by not just closet manufactures but many kitchen cabinetry manufactures, is the cost of the material can be two thirds less than other material selections.
Custom Closet Organizer Colors
The sky is the limit when designing a special order closet organizer. Just about any custom color of plastic laminate or Formica can be matched to a paint or stain. If you decide to not use the flat mica style doors, you can have doors custom made to match.
Real wood veneer can be stained to any color and matched with raised panel doors. If there is a solid color that you cannot find in a plastic laminate, you can have your system fabricated using birch ply-wood, combined with either real wood doors or even Thermofoil cabinet doors. Then have the doors and cabinet parts painted either by your closet supplier or the painter who may be painting everything in your home.
How much more does it cost to have a closet system made using custom colors?
Basically the upgrade is going to cost significantly more than choosing the in-stock colored Melamine selections that the company offers. When manufacturing a custom closet organizer, every sheet of wood either has to be laminated with Formica, stained and clear coated or painted. As you can tell this will add a tremendous amount to the labor involved in manufacturing the cabinetry in comparison to the providers being able to use materials that already have color on them.
There is something special about having closet organizers tailored to your personal tastes. You may be able to do this using the stock colors or patterns or it may be necessary to order your closet system in a custom finish. Whichever suits your needs, there are endless cabinet selections to choose from for your organizer.
I think that the true beauty of Melamine, particle board, is it’s cost and supply. It is much easier to get hold of large sheets of Melamine that it would be of a particular wood. It’s also a lot easier to pre-order particular door designs, colours and so on.
Although I would add that it’s almost sad that there are so many simple DIY completed package cabinets, closets and so on that finding a home these days with genuine hand crafted finishes is becoming increasingly difficult.