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After seeing the cabinets I thought I want I'm disappointed.

14 years ago

I just don't know what to say. I've had my heart set on quartersawn oak and had priced out Schuler cabinets from Lowes though I would have likely gone with Medallion through a local kitchen shop that my GC recommended. We are going to have to have several pieces made custom which I assume would be closer to the Medallion product line.

Well yesterday I went into a Lowes I had never been in and low and behold they had a quartersawn oak cabinet made up on display. At first glance it was pretty. The grain was nice. The color was right. But when I touched it, it just didn't feel right. It felt plasticy. I don't know maybe there was too much gloss on it or something. It just didn't have the old wood patina'd feel to it that I so want. I want to rub my hands across the wood and feel wood, not varnish.

What should I do? Compromise? What other lines should I consider? I told my husband that maybe we should find someone local to just build what we want. We went full custom/local cabinet maker last time and had problems, so we were trying to avoid that this time. We really wanted to just build our new kitchen with mostly stock pieces and sizes so that they can easily be replaced down the road if necessary. (The customizing we will be doing this round will be simple...things like adding pocket doors to a standard cabinet, so really no big deal.) Suggestions?

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Comments (5)

morton5
14 years ago
I love Danielle00's kitchen; she has quartersawn oak, frameless cabinets from Crown Point. Here's a link-- hope the pictures show up; I'm having trouble seeing them but it may be my computer.

There are more photos of the quartersawn oak on Crown Point's web site.

Hopefully Danielle will chime in about how the finish feels.

Here is a link that might be useful: Danielle's kitchen
kompy
14 years ago
I carry KM and Medallion...Medallion's finish is better and has less shine. Why not consider Medallion? Have you seen a display of that?
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svwillow1
14 years ago
There is little, if any, difference between Medallion and Schuler other than the names of the cabinet styles and finishes. Both cabinets are manufactured in the same facility, and both lines are often delivered on the same truck. There are extensive options for customizing regardless of which you purchase. When we did our kitchen, we used both Medallion's and Schuler's spec sheets. We found nothing in the Medallion line that we couldn't get from Lowes in the Schuler line. At the time, Lowes gave us a much better price than either of the two local Medallion dealers.

As far as the finish, Medallion/Schuler has one of the best for cabinets in their price range. I'm not sure what you mean by "patina" and the "feel" of wood, but perhaps you might look at some species other than oak, and some other finishes.
creek_side
14 years ago
Those may have been KraftMaid mission style cabinets. We were in Lowes a couple of days ago and saw an apparently new display of gorgeous mission style cabinets labeled KraftMaid. Upon closer examination, they weren't so gorgeous, but appeared cheap and unappealing.

We thought we had a real find. It turned out not to be so.
bmorepanic
14 years ago
I think I know what you mean.

There are good and bad things about the types of finishes used on cabinets now - one of the bad being the plastic feel of the finish itself. The good is that the conversion varnishes are much stronger and easier to clean.

It does feel a lot different from a french polish type of finish and it looks different too. I don't know about Medallion, but some makers let you order the cabinets unfinished and you could apply a tung oil finish or waterlox - both are easy to do. Neither is as strong as conversion products, but they'll have the feel you want and can be easily renewed if damaged.

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