You must be really close to me! We're about 40 miles north of Terre Haute and about 3 hours from Ikea as well. Bummer :/

I did make the trip to Ikea to look at cabinets for the pantry after reading some really great reviews here. I think when all is said and done that we will definitely go with them just to save some money and have them done quickly. The prices were very affordable, although I wasn't in love with any of the door styles. Because it's just a pantry, I'll go the cheap route and maybe have dh make the doors or order custom later. Price wise, they beat every quote I've received by a significant amount.

Dh happened to know a local retired cabinet maker who was willing to do our kitchen since we had the lumber already and it was a small job. I highly suggest looking at custom cabinetmakers before you make any final decisions. Some are going to be extremely high, others who don't even advertise their services and survive on word of mouth are often far more affordable than semi-custom. I didn't find Menards or Home Depot to be a great deal when we had some quotes done. Upgrades killed us there. Town and Country in Crawfordsville (I'm still assuming you are pretty close to me) deals with an Amish cabinetmaker who was very affordable, and the cabinets in the display seemed very well made. There were quite a few door styles with the display, but I didn't get into specifics, and didn't ask a ton of questions. I believe he's either semi-custom or custom.

look into Amish cabinetmakers in your area.

Graber cabinets up in Grabill are known to be good - and good prices. It's somewhere off of ST RD 427 and north of Dupont Rd - going on my memory from over 30 yrs ago...

Before you drive 3 hours to Ikea, you should be warned that the Ikea white cabinets look better in pictures than up close. To me, the melamine on their white cabinets came off as too plasticy when you see them in person.

But, if you go the Ikea route, you might also want to consider their butcherblock countertops too.

Consider ikea for laminate counters. Their countertops choices are much nicer than the in stock choices available at Loews and Home Depot by me.

I completely disagree about IKEA white cabs--at least Adel, which are their version of shaker. I think they are beautiful. We are installing them in our new house and they look great! I think the finish is rich, smooth, creamy. IKEA cabs get great reviews and the price can't be beat! Especially right now with the sale going on...

FWIW, I'm 4 hours from IKEA and am so glad I made the drive!

Have you thought about buying used cabinets? You could keep watching on Craigs list in Indianapolis for used/new cabinets. We bought the whole kitchen that was just like new this way, it included the granite counter tops. It was a kitchen that someone put in a spec house when the people bought the house they wanted different cabinets, so they sold them.Also there are sites that sell used Green Demolitions is one of them, but along way from you.
I needed an island to go with the cabinets. So we priced HomeDepot, Lowes, Ikea and a local cabinet maker. Maybe Lowes was having a special but they were the cheapest. If you do get Ikea and don't like the doors you can order doors for Ikea cabinets from semi hand made cabinets. They have the shaker style but you paint them yourself. I would look into the Amish cabinetmakers cabinets in your area or look for a used kitchen.

Thank you all!

MrsMortar- Yes we are just East of TH about 30 minutes near Hwy40.

Buildinva - Do you know how often Ikea has this sale?

There are lots of Amish just North of us. I will have to check around about that. I will also check Ikea's countertop choices. I do think their butcherblock is pretty but I was planning to stay away from it only because I have had the laminate "butcherblock" look in a few homes now and I am sick of it. LOL I'm sure the real thing would look much better but I'm sure you know what I mean. ;-)

>Their countertops choices are much nicer than the in stock choices available at Loews and Home Depot by me.

More stylish, definitely. However, be aware that the laminate layer on ikea countertops is micro thin. I'd go another route for laminate unless these are just temporary countertops. I'd buy ikea cabinets in a heartbeat, do plan to use them, but not their laminate.

If you don't like any ikea door styles, then scherrs, barkers, advantage, cabinetnow, maplecraft USA, semi-handmade and others can do custom doors for ikea boxes.

Ikea does make white wood cabinets (doors and drawer fronts, anyway). We just got some for a rental. For the base cabinets we went with the birch-colored boxes and solid wood white doors and drawer fronts.

That being said, you're going to get much better quality at your local Amish cabinetmaker--better than anything at Home Depot, much less Ikea--and at a price midway between Ikea and Home Depot.

Thanks. Okay, definitely checking into local amish.

IMHO there's no comparison between HD and ikea for cabinets. HD and Lowes RTA are the worst junk out there. What they're selling right now clips together so that the whole box is held by two one-inch long plastic tabs on each side.

Oh really? I looked at them years ago but haven't recently. Obviously I need to look again! Glad I asked here.

Yes, now the big box stores do sell pre-constructed boxes, too. I'm not sure about how those grab-and-goes are put together right now. If you like the styles they have and would consider using one, I'd maybe buy one and reverse engineer it to see how it's built.

EDIT I should mention, however, that your options with those are very limited as far as sizes, etc. For example, the only drawer base is either a 15 or 18 inch (can't remember), and since they're overlay style, the drawers are very, very small in comparison to how the door makes them look.

This post was edited by writersblock on Fri, Jul 5, 13 at 12:58