I absolutely second the idea of carefully assessing the cabinetmaker's reputation, the length of time they've been in business, etc. Custom cabinets give you a lot of flexibility, but if the cabinetmaker is a small company, you're risking a lot of money - what happens if something goes wrong? Above all, be absolutely sure you withhold the final payment until everything is completely done. I made the mistake of paying before my project was complete, and I regret it dearly. I'd also advise you to determine who will be installing the cabinets. Will it be the cabinetmaker himself? If not, insist on someone with ample experience. You can have the the most perfect cabinets in the world, but if the installation is botched (as in my case), it really won't matter now nice they are.

i had medallion silverline cabinets installed in April which are the same as the schuler at lowes. with the discounts, lowes was only a tiny bit higher than a local kd. i would say the price with the discount should be about what you will pay. schuler comes with soft close standard. same construction as medallion from a kd. i will say that i was OCD on the cabinet decision and did find that Schulers soft close hardware is better than the silverline, more equivilent to the gold line in medallion. btw if you want to trim costs, check out other door styles. some of the lowes doors are in the silverline, some of them will be the gold line and some are platinum. huge variance from door to door. ie my lancaster door's replica in the gold line was (potter hill) $1500 more and my kd said the construction was exactly the same. my 2 cents is if you like the cabinet, have a local kd quote you the door style in medallion. i was very Leary of working with lowes vs a kd and we did have some finish flaws that my kd took care of for me. the kd at lowes is a crapshoot, could be awful, could be great. if you go into medallion.com, you can figure out what your door is called. they are exact copies with different names. ie my silverline is lancaster but at lowes it was summer hill or something This post was edited by ardcp on Sun, Nov 2, 14 at 16:16

pull-out breadboards? treatment of any display space such as wine rack, bookshelves, decorative panels? treatment of plain panel sections on cabinet ends?--I wish I'd had it in writing that our guy would use good-looking grain, not too busy. I won't even share a photo of a place where it looks like he thought a nasty grain board would be on inside, not outside of the end panel, sigh. handling of grain in symmetrical sections? I know that cabinet guys can't always match up the oak well, but in big expanses of oak, there can be obnoxious wild grain that needs to be used as a positive feature, not a negative eyesore. Can your guys match-up as best they can for slab or center "Shaker" panels from same general grain kind of board--look at these large drawers, where one set has good match and one has less good. (At least there isn't a real stinker piece here.) (Note: My dad was an old-school carpenter and he would have insisted that cabinet guys treat grain as a feature in symmetrical cab faces.) maximum use of space vs. sizes of cabs? We have a few places where we could have gained functionality if measurements were different. Be sure that you keep track of the sizes and expectations as the evolution of plans takes place. I think that I can explain why the inconsistencies crept in, but I'm not the only one who should have caught the error that cost me dearly in one instance. I think it was the result of a measuring error that was caught and compensated for but only in one instead of in two places where it mattered; a different error was in consequence of a misguided effort to add symmetricality. Both were total surprises to me at time when we couldn't go backward to fix the errors and now I'm married to the errors, stuck with 3 banks of lower cabs that cannot accept a pull-out unit of a sufficient size. Ah, me.

RJ, when you price out a job at no cost does your process involve: 1) producing shop drawings along with the price 2) producing full kitchen layouts if kitchen is part of the scope 3) communicating and reviewing detailed bids of 15-20 subs and vendors for both compliance of the project, completion of the bid and lead times needed 3) meeting with the client several times for 2-4 hours each, proving cost saving solutions, resolving plan conflicts and pricing out various scopes in different options (brick, stucco, siding, etc.)? and many other steps along with those? I know, as a millworker, you have to put time and focus on your bids, I just doubt that your process is as complex and comprehensive. If it is not as complex and involving, I may be wrong, but I would guess that during some of the projects that you completed, you have had to ask for additional compensation or there was a misunderstanding on the plans or via client communication due to ambiguities not discussed during pre-project. When I provide a bid price, with the exception of the client taking longer than 60 days to decide to move forward (due to potential significant material price increases, but rarely) I stick to that price no matter what. Pre-contonstruction and pre-planning, as you know, are more crucial at times than the execution. I just don't give those services away. I do appreciate this discussion, as it has helped me in renaming my process as a simple bid to a bid consultation. In my experience, there is a huge difference and most builders do not provide the level of service that I do, per contract! bry, I am sorry if I was ofensive to you, I was merely sensitve at being called unethical. I am 100x more transparent than congress and this president will ever be and I agree with you about our current governmental system (both Republican and Democrat). I do not see myself in the same boat. When my clients agree to move to the next step, they have generally thought things out and have already regonized my value to the project. They are not making decisions in a vacuum, not with the amount of research most of them do, so when they do decide that paying for my service is worth it, they normally do it with open eyes and full intent. I really hope this dialogue has been helpful to folks out there. As I mentioned earlier, there are many ways to agree to a relationship between builder and client, the market ultimately decides what is right in this case. I have had many people reject my process only to come back to me and ask me to move forward with it, because other builders don't want to (more like cannot afford to) put in the time and focus on the bid. In fact I have produced bids for folks in other parts of the country, who know I will not build for them due to proximity, since they understood that after the process, they can take my product, use it in their contract, and receive true apples to apples bids from other builders. So for some it works and for others it doesn't I am glad we all have options.