no, those are not the cheapest out there, some kitchen boutiques offer the very cheap chinese cabinets, but every area is different and you are still going to have to go shopping to figure out what your area offers, sorry

custom cabinet shops are also very different, some are very high end while some are less expensive than the box stores

the best thing for you to do is to have a plan and then take it around to different shops for quotes or if you have a contractor, carpenter or kitchen designer you like, they might have their own special brand that they prefer

I did not price an exact plan with the big box stores because the ballpark estimate they gave me (for Thomasville with a glaze) was comparable to prices of better quality cabinets I had priced at smaller shops / dealers.

For me, I want a low sheen wood finish that the big box stores are not currently offering.

I think its really something you have to shop around for. Prices are going to depend on specials that are running at a specific time, dealer's markup, etc. I will say that the prices I have received for the same layout have been surprising and some lesser quality cabinets (kemper standard line, medallion silverline) have priced higher than better quality cabinets (plain & fancy and jim bishop) after all the trim, exact specifications, and delivery charges were considered.

Ultimately, it looks like I will be going with a custom cabinet maker because they offer inset cabinets at a price comparable to the frameless, overlay cabinets mentioned above.

Our contractor priced out four cabinet lines for us....Merillat classic was the cheapest because they are basically a stock cabinet, even though you can upgrade to all plywood. Merillat essentials are what a lot of builders use and is their basic line, followed by classic, then masterpiece. You can get essentials and classic in ten days....great if you want an inexpensive cabinet for resale, but just didn't see them as a quality product for the long haul. Ive lived with builder grade for 27 years, so I'm willing to spend a bit more for better quality. Medallion silver line was next, then dynasty, then Jim bishop. We decided on dynasty. They are on sale until sept 25 and came in just $50 more than medallion and the cabinet guy said they are better than medallion. Difference between Merillat classic and Jim bishop was abou $2,000 I think.. If you are really looking for the most economical you can buy mills pride and similar off the shelf at home depot or lowes. You can also try ikea or the Internet...cabinets to go, cabinet closeout, etc...good luck

You will need to put the time in to shop your cabinet/kitchen layout around. Never assume big box stores are the cheapest. In fact, the same brand/factory cabs at a big box store (like Diamond in my case) were cheaper at an independent showroom in town.

First, determine what kind of cab you want--plywood, mdf, melamine, framed, frameless, inset, etc. That'll make it easier to weed out some brands and cut down your shopping time.

I'm curious as to why a custom cab maker won't work for you. Do you assume they are out of your price range? I made that assumption also until reading so many threads about custom being equal to or less than factory made. I found a great local maker through a referral here, and his price was within $100 of my cheapest Diamond quote. And that included his install, whereas with the Diamond cabs I would have had to find an installer and pay for that separately. Don't forget to factor install charges in when you compare prices.

There was a recent thread about custom being cheaper than factory. I'll see if I can find it.

Here's the link to that thread I mentioned.

Here is a link that might be useful: Custom cabs really cheaper?

My kitchen has "Kitchen Craft" cabinets. I love them. I have had them for 13 and a half years and never had a minute's trouble with them. They are very well made and look great. I got them from Diversified Cabinet Distributors (DCD) in Norcross, GA but I feel certain that they would be available anywhere. I am linking to photos of my cabinets but there are also some bathroom pix in there too, sorry! The exact name of the cabinets are: "Kitchen Craft" there are many similar names out there. They are reasonably priced.

Here is a link that might be useful: Kitchen Cabinets by Kitchen Craft

Thanks all for the responses.... I guess I should do myself a favor and shop around. I should clarify that I am not looking for the cheapest cabinets around. Style, finish and construction are very important to me, but I don't have an unlimited or grand budget either.

According to our guy at HD, they don't work on commission vs. Lowe's which does. If the person pricing out your options is just putting in his 8 hours without the burning need to actually sell you something more expensive to improve his take for the day, I think you get a more neutral result. What I'm getting at is that if you go in and take up all his/her time going through the process for several different lines, it's no skin off the sales person's nose. They aren't missing out on income by helping you instead of those other people who are going to spend more (or any) money than you. Of course they'd like to sell you something, but they aren't going home hungry if you don't sign a contract. It's not an issue if you go home and think about it and then come back - 5 times! It makes the process a little more relaxed. The trick here, of course, is finding someone at HD who knows his or her stuff (vs. the person hired last week who knows zip about nought).

Having gone through that, it's possible to go visit other options knowing a whole lot more than you did when you started. You'll have already given thought to face frame vs frameless, what you want to do in corners, what will need finished ends, if you're likely to have oddball size cabinets (we have one that's 14"), if you want a 2, 3, or 4 drawer stack, that sort of thing. You'll also get a feel for what's an upgrade in particular lines and what that does to the bottom line.

Having said all that, I need to say that we went with InnerMost cabs from HD. It was really what we were looking for and was extremely flexible on things like 14" cabinets. They're currently in boxes in the garage. The electrician is here now doing the lighting, so we can finish the walls, so we can install the cabs, so we're ready for the granite guys on Thursday. !!

You don't have to spend a king's ransom for custom cabs. Many here, like me, found them to be the cost cost or cheaper. I hate to sound like a broken record, but please consider the option.

If you are near an Amish community, check with them also as many make cabinets. Many people here have gotten very high-quality cabs at much lower prices than they could find anywhere else. I wish I had Amish in my area!

Angie, keep beating your drum. I didn't see the Scherr thing in all the months of planning (or maybe I wasn't paying attention), so I didn't investigate until recently. See? You didn't beat your drum often enough! I am thinking about going that way for some built-ins for our bedroom.

And for those of you who live near the Amish, I'm jealous. I don't think they come do their thing in CA.

Custom was not cheaper in my case, about $10,000 more.....for natural maple with slab doors....

Thanks, suzannes. I actually found Scherr's separately from GW, just from googling, I think. I was initially a bit scared about seriously considering them because I didn't see many GW references to them. I figured if they were any good, GW would have them covered! But, as time went on, I started seeing more and more here, and the sample cabinet and doors I ordered were great.

@Suzannesl I'm curious how your InnerMost quote compared to other things you looked at. I just got a quote from them today and it was about $7K more than the same kitchen with Tedd Wood Luxury Line (so similar frameless construction). That didn't include increasing the IM to 33" like I am on the Luxury Line...We figured that would be another $150 per upper.

Do you live near an Ikea? They are about as low budget as you can get. Not low quality. They consistently rank pretty high in quality. They will be about half the price of most other budget brands. They have their limitations, but you get a lot for your money.

American Woodmark/Shenendoah are also a fairly well constructed budget cabinet line available at both HD and Lowes. If they are out of your budget, then you really should re-examine your budget. A guideline is around 5-10% of your home's value should be budgeted for cabinets.

We haven't reached the install phase yet, but are so far pleased with Precision Cabinets in Brentwood in CA. Worth a visit if they are in driving distance. You can see the factory and talk to them in person. They use CalDoors for the doors. They don't offer frameless, but do offer 'mini-frame' instead, where the face frame is just about the size of the wall width.

Much more reasonable in price than any of the commission-based lines and completely custom sizing.

Very knowledgeable and came to our house 3 times so far (and they haven't started building the cabs yet). Pointed out issues early -- told we needed to make a certain wall an inch longer and why, explained why certain cabinets were deeper than others (for fine details, like having the countertop next to an oven cab die into it instead of stick out), were particular about visual issues (e.g. in our freezer-pantry run they added the same spacing needed on the face frame to do the integrated panel door on one end to the cupboards on the other so it would look balanced), made adjustments 1/8 of an inch adjustments to a lazy susan corner cab to truly center the window after I failed to have the window installed to allow any wiggle room, work with our contractor to design special chaseways to anchor iron steel supports under counter to cabinets and cabinets to floor joists, measured our spice jars so they can build a special recessed wall cabinet to hold them, have experience installing panelled doors on integrated appliances and can do it on a second visit after initial install, etc, etc. They are pickier than me -- it's a great feeling.

We were so pleased with their seeming expertise and attention to detail that we are having them do vanities and cabinets in both bathrooms as well.

firsthouse_mp used them for their cabinets (with photos)

Hello,

I'm in the early, early planning stage but from what I'm reading in all the posts here, it doesn't seem like you can start too early! I'd like to ask if anyone here has any experience with Kitchen Cabinet Depot (online), specifically their RTA line. Any info would be greatly appreciated.

I'll pitch for Scherr's, too! Love my cabinets, great service, got EXACTLY (customized) what I wanted.

When I first started cabinet shopping, I assumed that Kraftmaid or another semi-custom line would be the best deal for quality and price. I was shocked to receive the Kraftmaid quote, so decided to check into full custom lines just to see the price difference. I was even more surprised to find some of the custom lines were less expensive (some by thousands of dollars) for the same exact layout. I ultimately chose Plain and Fancy, which was not much more expensive than Kraftmaid, but I was able to get inset cabinets and improve my layout because it was fully custom. I chose Plain and Fancy based on quality, price and their interest in respecting the environment. I am so happy with my choice. The quality is really superb. So, definitely shop around.

Also, if you find a brand you like, you may want to get a quote from more than one dealer. There was another brand (I forget which one) where one dealer was double the price for the same exact cabinets, layout and options.

Kitchenkrazed09, I love your kitchen and I visited the Plain and Fancy website and loved what I saw. I now have to compare what they can do for me compared to the few other brands that I am looking at that I got good prices from but I need to be in a budget since I still have to change the lighting, do the floor, get counters, as well as change my upstairs to hardwood flooring due to my allergies to the 21 year old carpet. My allergies improved greatly downstairs when I removed the carpet in 2009. Thank you again for sharing pictures of your beautiful hardware choices with me. You have very classy beautiful taste. So sorry about the problems you are having with the backsplash tiles.

ikea + scherrs!

Thanks Lynn2006! What nice compliments.

I realize that not everyone is willing to put the work into their kitchen that I must. (Poverty is the mother of invention.)

I don't see the need to commit the entire kitchen to the same cabinet maker.

I wanted several cabinets with a configuration I knew was way above my rudimentary skill level. I bought two from The Cabinet Joint (great people!) who sell Conestoga custom cabinets. They were not inexpensive, but they are exactly as I requested.

Along a 16' cabinet run, I used several different brands. Norcroft, Continental Cabinets, LillyAnn, a couple I built and several from Community Forklift. Several were from Craig's List, then some from Craig's List where I went to buy a fridge and she gave me all her cabinets. (Way old and crappy, but I rebuilt them.) I found my lazy susan on the side of the road.

The unifying factor is the paint and doors. They're all matching. The interiors are sturdy and all painted white? They match.

In my bedroom, with another 16'+ of cabinets where I'm making a Tansu, I have Norcroft, several from an online liquidator, and am building the large ones I can't afford to have made.

Another 60" x 90" of cabs are Community Forklift (all plywood: 11 cabs for $60.00) and the doors will come from The Door Stop when I have the money!

I guess my point is that you don't have to limit your configuration as long as you're willing to work a little. You can of course, buy from the same person. If you're lucky enough to have someone Amish build for you, all this was moot. If you're not and your cabinet choice doesn't make what you want? Branch out.

Good luck.
(Oh - Scherr's are great people!)

@breezygirl - what is the name of the local cabinet maker you used?