Kitchen Cabinets in Panama
sduford on Jul 30 2007 at 10:05 am | Filed under: Building in Panama, Panama
We have already received a quote for our kitchen cabinets. We decided to go for custom-made cabinets from a German expatriate who has setup shop in the town of Sora near our development of Altos del Maria.
Wolfgang Brunner is a furniture maker who found himself caught-up in the booming residential development of Panama and is now spending all of his efforts trying to keep up with the demand for kitchen cabinets. He already has a waiting list that is over a year long, so we had to quickly reserve our spot in the line. Wolfgang is very expensive by Panama standards, but costs about the same as we would pay here in Canada for pre-fab kitchen cabinets.
There basically three options for cabinets in Panama. The first, and most popular option, is to let the builders make the cabinet frames out of concrete, and then cobble some doors and frames out of local wood. This makes for very sturdy and very affordable cabinets. However, we don’t really like the look; we think it fits well in a more rustic or traditional house style, but it won’t fit well with our more contemporary home. Also, one of the biggest challenges with cabinets in Panama is controlling the humidity and insects. Many types of insects thrive on dark and humid areas, so much so that it forces people to adopt all kinds of tricks to keep the cabinets well ventilated, like using curtains instead of doors, or having louvers in the doors. Well, we all know that concrete naturally stays humid all the time and makes your cupboards smell like a basement.
The second option is to buy pre-fab cabinets in town, and the prices vary (along with quality) from about twice to three times the price of the first option. However, these cabinets are often made of MDF or melamine and do not fare so well with the high humidity environment over time.
The third option, and the one we’ve chosen, is to go with Wolfgang’s custom built cabinets. He uses a modern wood by-product material from Germany that uses a natural additive to achieve protection against water and insects. This material is then covered with veneer and doors are made of solid wood. We visited Wolfgang’s impeccably maintained wood shop and witnessed the high quality of his handiwork. This option is about three times the price of the first one, but still cheaper than what we would pay in Canada and we feel it will provide us with not only the best look, but also the best protection against insects and humidity.
Contact me directly if you want to get in touch with Wolfgang.
