The only advice I can give is that any finish you will get from a manufacturer will be far superior to anything you can do yourself unless you have the skills and equipment already in place. Simple wood with clear polyurethane is about the only finish I would advise in a DIY setting if you want a professional-looking finish, and even that would not have the durability of what a cabinet shop would achieve.

Just curious, do you believe that a careful painter can't paint a good finish, rmtdoug? That's what I'm planning on doing so I'm curious why you think this would be a bad idea.

The wife and I are about to start the second phase of Barker cabinets for our kitchen and we can't say enough good things about them.
I can only speak to my experience, but when we compared the sample cabinet we got from Barker to the stuff at our local Ikea, we immediately dropped Ikea from the running.
The price for the cabinets were very close. The Barkers ended up a few hundred more when all was said and done but they just seemed like a higher quality product.
The plywood boxes, the construction hardware, the door quality all were just a step above. It is silly, but watch the video on the Barker site of Chad throwing cabinets off the roof to give you an idea of the build quality of one of their cabinets.

We also liked the fact that we could custom size the cabinets to fit the kitchen. We weren't working with a designer so getting the most from our small space was a lot easier for us being able to custom size each cabinet down to the 1/4". Chad was also a HUGE help during the planning stage. He was very quick with replies to emails, usually by the next business day.

Also the fact that they source all their materials from the US meant a lot to me and my wife.

The only down side to going with Barker is the finish pieces (finished ends, molding, etc.) do tend to add up quickly. But the finished product does look great

I prefer the look of a hand-painted to factory sprayed finish myself. (Comes in especially handy when you have to touch them up!)

I think that The Cabinet Authority has gotten positive mention here for quality/price.

Oh, and I found my cabinet maker by googling "custom frameless cabinets Ohio" . Maybe the same search for your state would work too.

I looked into both IKEA and various RTA cabs. I ended up using a semi-retired KD who provided an excellent price on US made, all wood cabinets. Ian very happy with my final price and the quality of my cabinets. I'm happy to share his info if you're interested. He works out of Pennsylvania but I'm in the northwest and he worked with me, so New Jersey would be easy.

I went with Barker. Just ordered my entire kitchen and bathroom. I feel very good about Barker from all of the reviews, photos and excellent customer service I have received from them.

I just ordered my replacement door/drawer fronts from Barker, too. Just for one cabinet for now. I wanted to make sure I understood the measurement process so I'm testing on one cabinet before ordering the rest.

It was kinda complicated because I have old custom cabinets so the dimensions aren't necessarily even on each side and also had to work around built-in breadboards. So their instructions didn't necessarily fit the issues I'm dealing with. But they sure helped point me in the right direction. I've been measuring, re-measuring, and then re-checking the re-measurement all day! Phew!

I've read numerous positive reviews about Barker both here on GW and elsewhere.

I've done Ikea boxes with Scherr's doors, painted white by a pro after delivery in my last Kitchen and I JUST had my finished white cabinets delivered today by Conestoga (via Cabinet Joint), both were/will be installed by professionals.

Even though someone else painted them, it was a major pain in the butt to deal with. This time I happily had them prefinished, it was worth the cost. I was very happy with the Scherr's doors though. I think the cost savings are if you paint them yourself and install them yourself, otherwise Ikea isn't *that* big a savings from Conestoga. Well in my opinion, of course, and in my area (NYC).

Conestoga are not frameless though, I think that is what you may be looking for.

This post was edited by dollymibella on Thu, Jan 29, 15 at 21:25

I went with Barker. I only needed cabs for my island and desk area. One of the big draws for me was the wood construction. The drawer boxes are beautiful from Barker, while the Ikea boxes are merely functional. It was also important to me to be able to customize some sizes, which isn't an option with the big blue and yellow box (and I do love it). I especially wanted some file cabinet drawers for the desk. The trim and molding pieces do add up, and I wound up doing the painting myself. Still, we are very happy with the results.

Here is a link that might be useful: My kitchen refresh

For those asking about site-painted cabinets vs factory finish, here's a link to a previous GW thread on the topic.

Here is a link that might be useful: Factory finish vs painted

Funkycamper - Not at all. Painting your cabinets is fine as far as that goes, but it's like auto factory paint jobs vs. your back yard with a spray can. Unless you have essentially a clean room that is temperature and humidity controlled and expensive spray equipment and the skills to work with commercial finishes, it will never be as good on a repeatable basis as what can be done in a commercial setting.

I'm glad I read this post because I've never heard of barker until now. Their website looks great!

Funky camper, I painted my original ugly oak cabinets a couple years ago. I was thinking if I ever got new cabinets someday I could buy unfinished and paint them myself. There is always a high premium to adding that paint from the mfg. I would think the mfg has a better paint plan than little ol me but that doesn't mean I wouldn't try to paint them myself. My cabinets now look great :)

The thing about Barker and most other RTA is that they really are NOT all that cheap for what you get. Not by the time you factor in assembly and finishing. I can get assembled, factory finished cabinets, for not even 20% more than what they charge. Not Chinese either. They are only inexpensive if you have zero value to your DIY labor and don't mind the lack of durability of a backyard finish. (There have been several recent threads from people with relatively newish ''custom'' cabinets with backyard finishes deteriorating.) If you have to pay contractor labor to do that, then forget it. You're spending MORE than you would for equivalent factory finished cabinets from a dealer.

Hollysprings, please share more specifics as that is the question from the OP.

Yeah, I can definately do Diamond cabinets if you have to pay someone to assemble and finish.

Barker cabinets can be ordered factory finished. I'm not able to offer price comparisons, but I can say that my GC thought painted barker cabinets very reasonable in price, even including the need to assemble, given the customization available. He was comparing to lines he has used previously and Is basing that assessment on a phone call to them to discuss price and lead times. We need some shallower than standard cabinets for our sink run. We have not ordered yet.

It would be interesting to see a side by side price comparison of an assembled brand that allows that kind of customization and has the same quality hardware, etc. Then we could see whether the savings would pay for assembly, not even pay for assembly or come out ahead.

Here is a link that might be useful: Barker finishes

I would never claim that homeowner finishes are better than factory finishes but I'm not convinced that they're worth paying extra for if someone is on a tight budget and if someone is willing to do the careful work to finish their cabinets themselves.

My laundry room has floor to ceiling pantry cabinets with the rest of the room painted to match. It was last painted in the early 90's and there are only two teensy chips. And those are on an outer corner and probably done by us when we bonked it moving fridges through the room. We have a rental last painted about 12-13 years ago. Not a chip even though several different renters have moved in/out in that time. We were sure we needed to repaint during the last tenant change and just needed to do a good cleaning.

The laundry/pantry was professionally painted but the kitchen was done by us. We did take care to do priming, several thin coats, sanding between, yada yada and created as dust-free of an environment we could for the doors/drawer fronts by creating a plastic "room". Hand brushed on, not sprayed. It's a lot of work to do it right and I'm not really looking forward to doing it for my remodel but it will save me over $2000 to do it. I consider that savings a good "salary" for my time.

We had to gut a kitchen in another rental and purchased the off-the-shelf, unfinished cabinets at HD. We hand stained and sealed those. After several years, they still look great. The current tenant loves them and the new kitchen allowed for a small rent increase.

If I was more flush, I'd pay for factory painted in custom colors in a heartbeat. But if I was more flush, I wouldn't be repurposing my cabinets and going to Habitat ReStores to buy the other cabinets I need but, rather, ordering a new custom kitchen. But, alas, the rentals don't provide enough positive cash flow for that kind of splurge!

This is an interesting discussion. I'm just having a hard time with the warnings of doom and gloom if one does it themselves. Although I do agree that one must really understand how to paint or stain properly in order to get a good finish and be willing to put in the effort. But it's not impossible to do, nor sub-par if you do it well. Just imho.

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Honestly, if you had waded through as many idiotic "want to paint my cabinets with no prep" questions as most experts have, you'd have a very jaded eye towards any homeowner doing a proper job to get good results with finishing. Sure, it's possible to get a 85% as good as a factory finish with high quality products and a backbreaking amount of work. Some people are on a tight enough budget doing that is what it takes to get them into the kitchen that needs to happen, so they buckle up and do the work.

However, a lot of people contemplating this route because of the "savings" will NOT be doing the amount of work that it takes, or using $90 a gallon coatings. Most won't.

Thanks for everyone for your input.