I'm not sure what you're asking for because you aren't concerned about materials or bells and whistles but just how well they're put together. You can put together a pretty sturdy box made of cardboard but that doesn't mean you want it hanging in your kitchen. The materials and bells and whistles are important too. As far as user friendliness, these things I have noticed with my cabinets:
Drawer slides were important to me. I want my drawers to slide like they're on ice. The American Woodmark cabinets that I just got in slide like they're in sand. I put Kraftmaid in my last house. They at least came with the Blum slides which were much much nicer. Another thing I noticed on the American Woodmark was the adjustable hinges have a very narrow range of adjustability.

Some quality factors are: tight joints, screws and/or biscuits instead of staples and/or glue, square, several coats of finish as opposed to few.
Customer service issues can be checked out by googling for reviews.
Reputation is no guarantee of quality.
If the cabinetmaker your contractor uses can show pictures of previous jobs and provide references from homeowners, he may be the best choice. More likely to build what you what and how you want it. May take more time, but shipping should be less. Quite possibly much better quality. Also should be fewer hands in the pie.
Finding the cheapest price is always an admirable goal, but if the quality suffers and you are not happy when all is said and done, then the cheapest price is not the cheapest unit in the long run.
Good luck!

Well, I hope I am wrong, but I wouldn't think that you could get decent cabinetry for a kitchen that large for that budget. Surely others will chime in if I am (as I fervently hope) wrong.

Here is a link to an article in This Old House about construction details:

Here is a link that might be useful: This Old House guide to cabinets

Thank you, this is exactly what I was looking for! I appreciate your suggestions and the guide from This Old House lays out the elements of construction so clearly.

sneezye, just to clarify: I am concerned about materials and bells & whistles, but I know what to look for with them. An all plywood box and full-extension drawers are my two must-haves. In all, we can get what we need in materials and bells with these brands.

Angie_DIY, i am crossing my fingers that you are wrong too! We got quotes on these brands ranging from $10,000 to $16,000, so they are at least in our budget. And now I have a better idea of what to look for to find the best cabinet of the bunch.

Any other advice? What were the deciding factors for you?

I priced Kemper, a basic door style in maple, not all plywood, in a layout with 70 sq. feet of countertop and it was priced at $17,000 before I added bells and whistles. I added some trim, changed a few standard base cabs to drawer base cabs as well as 2 glass doors and the price jumped to $26,000! I found that Jim Bishop cabinets were priced much better and I could get the same number of cabinets for $14,000.

I priced custom cabinets from a small factory in PA, dealing directly with the factory, and the cabinets before bells and whistles were $7,000, not installed. I added some bells and whistes, as well as a matching desk, and had the cabs go to ceiling height and the price jumped to $24,000 installed. Yikes!

Hate to say it, but if you want all plywood construction at that price range, you may want to look at the Chinese cabinets, but I have noticed that GWers prefer Ikea cabinets.

Good luck!

Vogt - I will also mention to you that you could add a closet or walk in pantry built out of sheetrock (cheaper) or an island / peninsula not built from cabinetry to reduce the number of cabinets in your plan. Instead of geting the expensive cabinet to surround your fridge, have it built in with sheet rock. Just an idea...

dilly_ny, wow! what a range in pricing, and what a difference when just a few details are added! our Kemper quote was the highest at $16K, but you're right I think that was with plywood sides only. We're in the Philly area--what PA factory did you look at? I haven't seen or heard of Jim Bishop but will check them out. We have a contractor who will do the installation, so we're already budgeted for that separately. I like your cost-saving ideas -- we are going to do a closet pantry with sheetrock. I'll check out the fridge cabinet alternatives too.

yikes! that's a tight cabinet budget from what I found. We have about 26 ft of cabinets (upper & lower) when comparing all plywood construction from 2 of the 'big box' stores we got prices from $8500 to $12000. We ended up buying from cliqstudios.com for $6,000. They are all plywood and very sturdy. However, the center and decorative end panels are all MDF and I have some (though minor) concerns about how they will age in comparison to the rest of the wood.

The place in PA is in Bath, PA. It's called Blue Mountain. I'll add a link. Patti, thier KD is very helpful. They were recommended to me by a GWer and I plan to buy from them once I get my building permit for my extension. I feel like I can work with them to get some bells and whistles and also make some cost based compromises while still getting a quality product.

Also, be sure you look at the kemper website regarding their cabinet construction and know what was priced. Standard with furniture board? Or upgrade 1? See: http://www.kempercabinets.com/products/construction/index.cfm. My sneaky little NY KD told me it was all plywood, but since I had looked at the web site, I knew their "standard" was not what she preached.

Here is a link that might be useful: Blue Mountain

I have to ask about "butt cabinets" -- that paired with the image of a plumber under a sink cabinet and I am laughing out loud!

We seem to be doing OK with our choices and variation in cabinet options, and haven't had to compromise on anything with sizing yet. I agree, it is all in the details. All of the local kitchen places around here seem to deal with just a few cabinet lines each, and like you say, without knowing what I don't know, it's hard to compare between lines.

Thatgirl: Are all cabinets from cliqstudios.com with MDF ends?

Thanks for the link dilly_ny. The Kemper quote was for upgrade 1, but not upgrade 2 the all plywood option.

Butt cabinets have nothing to do with plumber's butt, although I guess my posting might have given that impression. LOL!

More on butt cabinets:

A butt cabinet is one where the two doors "butt" together, rather than have a center stile (upright member) behind where the doors come together. It's a more complete access issue because you have access to the whole cabinet interior, not just half and half. It can be a construction issue as well. Some cabinet lines use thinner materials and cannot construct butt cabinets because they won't have enough support without that center stile. I wouldn't deal with a cabinet company that didn't at least offer butt cabinets in their line, even if they were an upcharge. :( Many cabinet lines offer them as a standard without you even having to ask.

Butt doors will all have a tiny gap between them, because of the clearance needed to be able to open both doors. That bothers some people, and it doesn't bother others. If I'm spec'ing a butt cabinet with interior lighting, I'll also spec what's called a "dust strip" by cabinet companies, or a T astragal by door manufacturers. It's a small strip on the back side of one door that covers the gap. That means that you have to close that door first and open the other one first. It's not a big deal for a glass display cabinet, and it keeps the light from shining through, but it can be a pain on more often used cabinets so those don't usually have that spec'd.

Now you know more about something you didn't even know existed than some box store kitchen clerks do! LOL!

Vogt, if you are in the Philly area, you should look into Amish-made cabs. More legwork, for sure, but many people report getting well-made custom cabs for cheaper than stock cabs that way.

The doors and frames on my repurposed 80 year old cabinets are a full inch thick wood. There are still some places that will do this as an upgrade. I don't think it really adds anything to the soundness of the construction but it looks and feels solid and nice.

I learned a lot from this thread. In fact, I think I should rename this thread after my 2 favorites: "butt and biscuits!" Thanks for the education! Angie_DIY you are right, I wanted to get out to Lancaster area but got sidetracked (lured?) by convenience. It's hard enough getting to local shops between 10am and 5pm M-F. I'm thinking I need to take a day off work next week and hop in the car for a cabinet tour of central PA.

Unfortunately, the TOH link only discussed face frame type cabinets. Most cabinets built and installed today are a European style cabinet where the doors fully occlude the view of the front of the cabinet. It is true that most boxes are constructed from veneered "plywood". But all veneered material is not the same. Some have MDF as the core, some have different numbers and qualities of ply. Some are lumber core and the only plies are the veneers and a single subsurface ply. Some are wood veneer on both sides, two different veneers on the inside and out. Some are Melamine on the interior. Every type I mentioned impacts the price. Then there are the quality of the hinges and glides (vast differences in performance and lifetime). Your decision to look at only one cabinet maker, is IMO, a mistake. There is even the possibility of semi-custom cabinets. If price is an issue, then always use materials as the guide. Choose the better materials for a given price.
Richard

To me, what i want to see first and foremost in a quality cabinet is the finish. If its painted, is there dust in the paint or are there drips? If its stained is it evenly wiped or does it look blotchy? is the top coat so shiny, it looks like it will flake off in a few years. Are the edges kinda bare, like the stain couldnt stick to them? Is there stain and paint in the crevices and corners? too much or too little? After the finish, I would say hinges and drawer glides are the most important. Blum seems tobe the leader there.

If you do the central PA cabinet tour, it's worth visiting and getting a quote from Oxford Cabinet shop - we're really happy with the cabinets they made for our kitchen.

Communication was a bit more difficult, and I ended up making the Philly->Oxford trek a few times to keep things on track and to advise them of some last minute changes that were necessary post-demolition. In our estimation, the small additional hassle was worth it.

You can see pictures of their cabinets installed in our kitchen at the link below. The price for the cabinets with install was within your price ballpark, however our kitchen is quite a bit smaller, but we probably have more custom details (beaded inset, cabs to the 9' ceiling) than you're considering.

Here is a link that might be useful: Finally finished! kitchen thread