In my search, I evaluated Scherrs and Ikea. Scherrs at the time I looked at them were 100% more than Ikea. Since then, Ikea prices have gone up. You may not know this but I am including a link to the Scherrs price list that you can download from their website. You can get a ball park estimate for your kitchen by using this guide.

Good luck!

We did Kraftmaid DIY and absolutely loved them. We had a nice experience. If you live near Ohio and are flexable, they have an outlet.

I've read lots on Ikea and Kraftmaid. Consumer Reports gave Ikea good ratings but if I recall right, Kraftmaid did ok, too. Ikea's cabs are made by BRUN and have the best guarantee that I've seen. You probably can't go too wrong with any of these 3 so maybe pick what's easiest and what you like best.

Homepro01, did you end up going with either Ikea or Sherrs?

I would be happy to use Ikea and it would make life easier but my husband is really hesitant not to have plywood boxes. We are installing some Ikea cabinets in the eating area right now and he wants to live with them a while before making up his mind on their quality but, Im afraid he means 10 years and I cant wait that long for a new kitchen. LOL

We put in Kraftmaid at the last house but I was not crazy about the style we ended up with and there are no new choices so, Id be paying twice as much for something Im no happier with.

I used Ikea for my kitchen and I am very pleased. I wanted functional and value with some bells (soft close). I forced myself to stay within a very tight budget because I had just completed my exterior (pavers all around and pool remodel). I think Ikea is a good choice if you can work with the size constraints and the limited door selection. I also did most of my kitchen (floors, paint and built the cabintes)myself, so that saved quite a bit.

I have been intrigued by Ikea cabinets due to reports that they are well made, with very good hardware, at a decent price. However, I LOVE my current cabinets with the wooden Super Susan in the corner and the tall pantry with pull out wooden drawers. I don't care for the corner units that come with Ikea cabinets, nor do I like the pullout pantry set-up in which the entire door pulls out all the storage space attached to the door. I know some love their pantries, but I much prefer my current pantry, where you open the door and then pull out each pull out drawer individually. So I think those differences might be a deal breaker for me.

I have Ikea cabinets and I think they're a good value. They operate very nicely and look great. I do think that the shelves should be lined b/c the melamine isn't as thick or durable as other cabinets I've seen, but I think most people prefer to line anyway so this isn't unreasonable. The drawer melamine is thicker than the cabinet box and shelf melamine.

We have an Ikea pantry with a normal door that opens to the right; the pull-out shelves inside are not attached to the door. The pantry also has two drawers on the bottom. You can configure the pantry several ways. I have both types of base corner units from Ikea--I prefer the lazy susan unit to the blind corner base.

Our old cabinets were particle board boxes that did not have any melamine or anything on them, just painted dark brown (so they had a particle board texture). The old cabinet doors were the same thing but the outside (the part you could see) had faux wood paper stuck onto them. Cheap, icky 1978 cheap. Ikea has been a huge improvement. We also looked at Kraftmaid but those were a budget buster, about three times the cost of Ikea and did not include full extension or soft close drawers.

I'm so glad you asked this. I am just now trying to finalize a kitchen design so I can do the same thing: create a budget for IKEA, IKEA with Scherr's doors, and Thomasville or similar quality cabinets. I want to see how the costs and bells and whisles differ for each and then decide. I'm really leaning towards IKEA with Scherr's, but the work involved in making sure all the parts and pieces are ordered and arrive, and assembling them, is a bit daunting. Anyway, I'll be really interested to hear everyone else's responses as well.

I have Scherr's cabinets and believe they were worth every penny. To get all of the pullouts, soft closes, other conveniences, crown moldings, arch trims, and big bifold pantry doors, Scherr's RTA's ran a few dollars less than the Kraft-Maid quote without any of those things. Plus I was able to get custom sizes and unusual designs that I needed to make it all work, while a number of those were simply unavailable with KM. Finally, the customer service from Scherr's is excellent.

The only downsides to Scherr's are that you have to wait and the best bargain is if you assemble the cabinets yourself. But then you'll have to wait, too, for KM or other special-order cabinets, and I don't think that they can give you a solid quote unless they also have your specifics. Another point: if something is wrong I don't think you'll find faster or better response than Scherr's.

Ikea seems to be a great alternative so long as you don't need anything custom-sized or want a feature that they don't have. If you can achieve your objective with what Ikea offers, it's probably your best deal.

I was against IKEA from the start of my kitchen, even though people suggested it. I was set to order Brookhaven frameless, although I had to taylor it down to afford them..no island, no pull-out pantries...The day before I was to order the cabs. and pay for them, I was in IKEA for some reason that I cant remember. I saw the ABSTRAKT cabs. and I liked them more than the Brookehaven, which cost 4-5 times as much WITHOUT the island and pantry. I am so glad I made the switch! I now have a large island and pull-out pantries. I am really happy with the cabinets, although I havent used them much yet. To be honest, we have found them very easy to get to fit. The handyman taylors the cabs. by cutting them down. I know that it may void the warranty, but at the price I paid, I'll replace that piece myself should I need to. The soft-close works marvelously. I thought I would dislike the plastic interior in the Abstrakt drawers, but I love it, because I can clean them so easily. I'm really happy with these cabs and I have no regrets.

Ive heard nothing but good things about Sherrs and that is one option my husband and I agree on. But, they arent taking orders for less than 10 cabinets now and our plan is to do half the kitchen first and wait a while on the other half. With Ikea and KM, we can do it in pieces without having to store cabinets for the bigger portion, for who knows how long.

The waiting for Sherrs and KM is a big factor too. We have 3 young children who LOVE going to Ikea so it would be ideal for me to take them to pick up parts while my husband gets some uninterrupted time to work on the kitchen.

Thanks for the picture livinwell. You did a great job. :D I know that everyone Ive seen whos gone with Ikea is pleased with their decision but the only thing holding us back is that we have yet to run across someone whos had them for 10+ years.

I too, wasnt thrilled with the Ikea draws in the beginning but now they are my preference, especially since the dividers are so cheap.

I have some Scherrs cabinets and like them very much. It's hard to compare prices with IKEA because their door prices vary a lot. But, I'd say my unfinished Scherrs were just over twice the price of IKEA. I will be buying some IKEA cabinets for other parts of my house.

The plywood vs. furniture board has been discussed a lot here. There's really no reason to get plywood boxes unless you have money to burn.

The reason I got Scherrs was because I needed custom sizes. But I did not get the plywood boxes.

backinthesaddle - go to the ikeafans website and post your question. you will find a lot of people who have had the cabinets for a number of years.

www.ikeafans.com

What is the lead time right now for Scherr's? Does anyone know?

Also, has anyone put together a hutch-like arrangement using Scherr's? Just curious.

Just to stick to the OT, I think, based on this forum, I am using IKEA cabs in my mudroom. We are only adding a few cabs to the existing kitchen and I am trying to decide between my GC's cab guy and Scherr's.

For the OP--it seems like many here have found custom to be the best quality and, surprisingly, the most economical--I remember reading that it could run less than basic Kraftmaid.

As far as plywood boxes, it seems that the only place it might really matter is around water (because MDF expands as it gets wet).

HTH

I am a member at Ikea fans but Im afraid to ask the quality question there because Im sure they are biased. There is nothing wrong with that but I thought Id pose the question somewhere that I might get some negative feedback too. :D

I have read the particle board/plywood cabinet box debates before and Im at the least not concerned, if not convinced but my husband needs more and my searches arent turning up anything to sway him.

It looks like I answered my own question above with the ease of us getting the cabinets in pieces through Ikea, compared to the other options for the few around our sink. So, I guess Ill just tell him thats that for now and well deal with Sherrs and new doors for the Ikea cabinets when he finds the time to tackle the rest of the kitchen. LOL

Holly, I used Scherr's for some bookcases, which is probably similar to a hutch. They can do anything you can think of.

I'm as snobbish about wood and construction techniques and materials in furniture as anybody. But I am perfectly happy with MDF cabinets. With cabinet boxes there's just no compelling reason to use plywood.

Just to throw another issue in the mix. IKEA cabinets are made to European indoor air quality standards and therefore have no added urea-formaldehyde. If you're concerned about off-gassing, they're better than plywood or other composite wood cabinets made here or in China.

I recommend going to this site if you're interested in Ikea cabinets

I had Ikea particlewood boxes for FIFTEEN YEARS (is that long enough for your husband?).

The boxes were really tough. Still sturdy and strong.

I only took them out for 2 reasons:
-we wanted to fit the dishwasher into the cabinet run on one wall, so all the dimensions had to change
-we'd had a castrophic leak from the old roll-away dishwasher--and the water damage to the cabinets would have been just as severe if we'd had plywood.

Some of the melamine edges were chipping, but part of that was 15 years, and the other part is that DH and I are extra-hard on stuff compared w/ other people.

I would never, never, never pay extra $ just to get plywood boxes for stationery cabinets that will brace one another up.

I *would* pay to get really good melamine coating on WHATEVER substrate the cabinets were, even if they were plywood.

(the melamine I have now is kinda wimpy; Ikea's melamine is really strong and thick)

Thank you talley sue! I think 15 years might convince him.

Hes now saying its not particle board itself, but that hes concerned about frameless cabinets made from it, and the wear and tear the hinges might do in time.

Oh, let me tell you this:

Those hinges were IN THERE!!

They were very solid, both in how they attached to the doors, and in how they attached to the cabinets. They were SO strongly seated on the MDF/particlewood of the cabinet box that the possibility of simply attaching new doors to the existing hinges & boxes was a very serious one.

And believe you me, we swung those doors around, leaned on them when we bent over to get stuff off the bottom shelf, etc. We are NOT gentle.

I even hung stuff on the inside of one cabinet door, which made it a teensy bit heavier, and I didn't have any worries about the hinge loosening from the cabinet box. None.

That's the least of your worries. (your only worry, in fact, is the small selection of sizes)

I have plywood cabinets in the living room w/ pretty quality hinges that have had some loosening of the screws.

The thing is, they use the right fasteners w/ that material. Both at the corners, and for the hinges.

Holly--I have ordered a hutch type set up from Scherr's for my mudroom. It consists of (from left to right) a broom cupboard which is 14 inches deep, then a lower cabinet of four drawers and a cupboard which will sit directly on top of it separated by a small piece of granite ledge--this part is 18 inches deep and then a lower cabinet with a trash bin pull out for a shredder with a message center sitting on top of that--this is also 14 inches deep. I ordered in November and they delivered at the end of January. Scherr's was really accommodating as in December, I discovered I could have nine foot ceilings in the mudroom so I wanted to add one-foot high, glass front cupboards on top of the originally planned ones. They added this on to my order. Unfortunately, I have no photos yet, as I am waiting for it to warm up so I can assemble them in my garage. The pieces though, look really nice and the instructions are really thorough.

How about this?

I had a fool of a contractor make me a concrete counter for my ikea cabs. He was licensed with no complaints. The island he made? THREE INCHES THICK of PURE concrete on those cabinets with the tiny legs. They held it up beautifully. The contrete was so heavy that it cracked in multiple places under it's own weight. The cabs. also held up to the concrete being pryed off not very gently by that same ctr. when I insisted he take them out and refund my $$$ (he did). I had a new concrete counter put on by a ctr. who knows her stuff (thin in the middle with a 2.5" overhang) and you would never know the abuse those cabs. have been through.

We love our Scherrs cabinets. They are the first group in the photo gallery on Scherr's site. Here's a picture:

{{gwi:1752341}}

They were worth every penny, IMHO. Scherr's did some really complex stuff for us and it all came together well. They made clipped, fluted corners and 5/4 drawer fronts I wanted that they had never tried before. They made integrated raised end panels which was a first for them as well. As for service, I had a problem with a long drawer front that warped (it was solid wood) and they sent out a replacement very quickly (at no cost of course).

The cabinets fit together tightly and are very sturdy. You need a good set of bar clamps to properly put them together. The raised panel door fronts are very solidly made and don't rattle at all because they use rubber spaceballs to hold the panels tightly in place.

Leon and his brother are very quality conscious and really want to please the customer, in my experience. They started out as custom cabinetmakers. Like many small shops, they built the cases and bought the doors from large national companies like Conestoga. The reason they got into the door business in the first place was because they couldn't find good enough quality doors from the national companies for the custom cabinets they were building for customers. They then became a major source for high quality doors for other custom cabinetmakers and finally branched out into manufacturing the cases again. Kinda full circle.

I asked Leon about plywood sides and he told me that it wasn't worth the extra money, even though he stood to benefit if we opted for it. The melamine boxes have been very durable. The melamine sink cabinet didn't suffer any damage whatsoever even though I had water under there for weeks from couple of slow leaks from a faulty filter that would have damaged your typical wood cabinet. I ran a bead of silicone caulk around the corners of the base to seal it when I assembled it and as a result the cabinet looks brand new despite the floods. Their cabinets are of better quality than almost anything I have seen elsewhere.

I also have some IKEA cabinets in other rooms of our house. We installed IKEA at my son's house since it is his starter home and the IKEAs were the cheapest plus they fit the space well. I like IKEA and their quality is very good, but not as good as Scherr's. The box on the Scherr's cabinet is more sturdy and fits together more tightly. IKEA also has a limited number of styles and doesn't have all the sizes some cabinet companies have. For instance, I needed 36" tall cabinets and they didn't have them. I also needed other widths they didn't carry. With Scherr's I saved a few thousand bucks over the up-scale semi-custom I was considering at first. And of the 22 cabinets in our kitchen, only 6 are stock sizes. Everything was made to exactly fit and waste not a square inch. However, if you can limit yourself the the IKEA sizes, they are a wonderful cabinet also and I have no complaints with mine. Matching Scherr's doors to their boxes might be a good way to save some money and still get the look you want. Plus you could have Scherr's make any special cabinets you need.

"You need a good set of bar clamps to properly put them together. "

I didn't need any bar clamps to assemble my Scherrs cabinets. They came with all the necessary fasteners and went together fast and easy. After learning from the first cabinet, the rest took about 15 minutes each and are the sturdiest things I've ever seen.

I didn't need clamps for assembling the Scherrs cabinets, but since I upgraded to the solid hardwood, dovetailed drawer boxes, I did need bar clamps for gluing up the drawer boxes.

I also loved how accomodating Scherrs is. Between the initial order and the cabinets going to fabrication, I must have tweaked a dozen sizes or configuration details, including replacing a run of three 15" upper cabinets, (two of which were to have doors, and the third of which was to be an open wine rack), with a single large 44" wide custom cabinet with 2 15" doors and an 14" wide open wine area in the middle, when I discovered that 45" wouldn't fit.

With any other company I'd have to have dropped one of them to 12" or more likely eliminated the wine rack altogether.

To revive this topic

Ive since changed the layout and priced the Kraftmaid frameless cabinets, with a door style that was acceptable but didnt grab me. To save money on accessories, I upgraded the drawers to the same metal ones that come standard at Ikea, for an additional 10-15%. I figured we could add the soft close ourselves, use Ikea dividers and not pay a premium for those options from Kraftmaid. Other than some molding and one or two cabinets that were in different increments than Ikea offers, it was truly an apple/apple comparison.

The quote was triple what can be done through Ikea for the same thing. My husband is now convinced, especially since we got rid of the corner and all our counters are straight runs. He feels comfortable investing in stone now with the worst case scenario of replacing the cabinets in 10 years.

We may still do Sherrs doors and drawer fronts because there isnt an Ikea style that grabs me either but I think I can find one to live with for that kind of savings.