My requirements are that: 1. PEOPLE HAVE INTEGRITY, ARE TRUTHFUL, AND USE QUALITY MATERIALS 2. PRICE & PRICING FORMULA IS FAIR FOR ALL CUSTOMERS: pricing cabinets should be fair and not be reduced to a subjective formula, i.e., "10% the value of your home" or such nonsense. This is criminal in my book. It's not "what the market can bear" pricing that is fair. I TRULY BELIEVE THAT IS CABINET MAKERS PRICED CABINETS MORE FAIRLY THAN THEY DO NOW SO THAT THE AVERAGE HOME OWNER COULD "DO THE MATH" AND KNOW WHAT "X" CABINET WOULD COST TO BUY OR HAVE INSTALLED, THEN MORE KITCHENS WOULD BE REDONE. There would be so much business that you could not keep up. But no, NOT ONE CUSTOM CABINET/ OR SMALLER SHOP I WENT TO PRICED FAIRLY. ALL PRICING WAS SUBJECTIVE AND CONVOLUTED. THEY WERE SIZING UP MY BANK ACCOUNT BASED ON HOW LARGE OF A HOME I HAVE. 3. TALENT & PRIDE = QUALITY PRODUCT 4. SERVICE In a nutshell, I, too, went with the guy that had been in business for a long time and had a HUGE portfolio. He was not organized with that portfolio and I even offered to organize his thousands of photos and put them online! THIS is how impressed I was about his work. Furthermore, my bro is a builder and cousin is a builder here in Jax and used this guy's shop before. MY SISTER's kitchen was done by this guy two years earlier. I was very confident with his talent. I'll bet I went to his shop over half a dozen times just to see his work because they made FURNITURE, these HUGE phenomenal stained glass windows for a church in D.C., pulpits, GORGEOUS entertainment systems, etc. This guy's bread and butter works were affordable, custom cabinets with beautiful paint techniques. His work was like buying Tommy Bahamas cabinets by Lexington for half price. THAT being said, when I hired him, I had my ducks in a row and contract very detailed. I'm not a kid, nor am inexperienced in business. I KNOW WHAT I'M DOING. MY KITCHEN WAS DESIGNED AND NOT COMPLICATED. My problems stemmed because he just flat out lost his talent; over 80% of his workers had QUIT and he did not tell me. He later told me he had spent my $10K he had for work so far and he was left to do my kitchen himself. And it was a crap shoot! He didn't do ONE, SINGLE CABINET CORRECTLY. NOT ONE. AND HE LIED CONSTANTLY. He mis-measured, no appliances fit, installed shoddy and unleveled, mis-ordered the door profile, and made me madder than I have EVER been in my 49 years of living. I HAVE NEVER, EVER DEALT WITH SUCH A NICE, BELIEVABLE LIAR. I trusted him and he $crewed us. We have had to have 30+ doors reordered because of all of the mis-measurements, etc. I am almost three years into this fiasco and got motivated to get back to it. I went to install two drawer fronts last month and they were 1" too short. I'm going to have to reorder two drawers more. It's like a case of never-ending-BS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The end of this story is CabFiascoGuy changed his inc.'s name before our court case came up. He sued, we countered, I won but got nothing because of how crappy our laws are. The State of Florida allowed a thief to steal $10,000 of our money. We've put over $38,000 into them trying to FIX them. I just wish I had gutted everything and started over. It would have been CHEAPER. But no, I thought we could work this out and I had our granite installed so I'm now stuck for many years. I have a horrible ordeal detailed here on garden web. What a can of worms you opened this morning. I think Ill work on these cabinets today. IÂd like to be done before I hit the three year anniversary of when they were installed. I need to re-order two drawer fronts tomorrowÂ.

Isn't that funny--I've recently struck up a *great* relationship with my local BM store, and I've become a true Aura believer (see the thread about Aura paint--anyone else disappointed?). I *love* that it is self-priming so that I don't have to do everything twice at least, if not three times (trigger thumb, incipient arthritis), and they custom-mixed a color for me with no complaint whatsoever. Not *all* BM dealers have been like this, but these guys have earned my patronage by their great advice and respect rather than contempt (which I have gotten when I've asked to custom-mix colors at other places). I also love the Waterborne Satin Impervo for trim, although I love the Aura exterior semi-gloss as well, which doesn't seem to be getting such positive reviews. Some professional on the paint board has said that Aura is tougher than the Satin Impervo on cabinetry, fwiw. Aura at a contractor price also ends up less expensive than other paints plus primers. We're using matte for the first time, and DH loves it already--I'm pretty close to loving it--it definitely visually smoothes out the silly west-coast "textured" walls rather than calling attention to the bumps. The Aura Matte is scrubbable as well, supposedly. The one thing about the colors in Aura is that the particular waterborne colorants will always grey out any given color; I had opportunity to compare a regular Regal sample of a color with the same color mixed in Aura, and you could definitely see the difference. So be aware of that and prepared, if you are going to have other colors mixed in it.

OMG I love those Medallion kitchen cabinet doors! I've gone so far as to replicate them. I LOVE LOVE LOve their lines! I've had a pic of them forever, and have not given up on the idea of buying the doors for other cabinetry. My replicas are pretty darned good, though. LOVE them. I also live and breathe for inset cabinetry. It makes me go, "ahhhhooooooohhhhhhaaaaaaaa..." I disagree with FriedaJane that there is "a lot of lost space" with inset cabinetry. This has been beaten to death, but once the inset cabinets are put together, they're brought out to match the 12.75" "standard" cabinets, which makes the inside space the same. I'm here to tell you. Plus, if you were to order them, you can order them as deep as you'd like. (Brian @ The Cabinet Joint.com does it for me, yet the ones I've picked up at the H4H were the same depth!) A couple of commercial (Norcroft) base cabs I bought before I knew any better have really stupid upper drawers: 3" tall. Just look at that and get what you want. I've never heard that independent carpenters can't make frameless. It's so much easier than inset, because there's so much less precision. I'm one, who has no set, follow-the-lines design style. I think you can achieve a combination of the items you enjoy, and it'll look collected, vs. purchased. I feel sorry for people who buy the showroom and talk about their "eye." I must admit, that table is over the top fancy and oh, so fun. Right now I'm negotiating a butt-ugly armoire on CL. It's so ridiculously contrived it makes me laugh every time I look at it. Someone has painted it, so it's fancy-ness is somehow under control, but again, so over the top. If I get it, I'll make it work and love it. I really look forward to seeing what you bring together!

Any local custom shop producing cabinetry the equal to a national custom brand will be priced above that national custom brand. If they are not, then they aren’t giving you something that the national brand is giving you. You have to figure out what you are not getting. And what you’re willing to not get. A slapped on housepaint finish in your house rather than a conversion varnish in a clean booth? Pre cat or post cat if catalyzed? Ask about their finishing processes. Ask for a sample, and perform your own KCMA texts on it that the factory cabinets will pass. A limitation on door profiles or materials because they don’t actually make anything in house and just assemble parts and pieces ordered from others? Ask about doing a reverse raised panel in sapele or lyptus or a veneered slab rift sawn oak. Ask for examples of past one off projects. A 13 lead lead time because they do all the work themselves vs an 6 week lead time for a production cabinet? No one does everything well. If he’s a great woodworker, his finishing skills are likely to be adequate at best. And vice versa. If he hires in his own help, does he still perform the quality control on every cabinet before it leaves his place? A tail light warranty vs a lifetime warranty? How long has he been around? How many new pieces of machinery do you see in his shop that he is paying for? A new truck? Has that expenditure just put him into losing more money than he makes because he isn’t a good business man, even if he is a good cabinet maker? If his prices are too low for what he is doing, that is generally the case. Most small cabinet makers go under in less than 2 years time. Those that make it either adopt production techniques, or raise their prices enough to be able to take their time and craft a job. There are other things, but that’s the easy questions, even if some of it is educated inference rather than outright questions.