I'll second the flashing assessment of C2. We had our whole apartment - walls and ceilings - painted with it. We hired professionals (the same guys that paint for Thomas Pheasant, if you know who that is), so I'm pretty confident that it was applied correctly. And yet, the flashing is extraordinary. And not just the ceiling. The walls too. I have windows that are huge (14' wide, 7' tall, stretch across the entire width of the room) and the walls show as much flashing as the ceiling does. Coat after coat, couldn't get on top of it. Finally called it a day (I was leaving for a couple months and will be mostly gone for the next year), and will try some other brand - ANY other brand - when I get back. Kudos to the paints guys for trying everything in the book, and the paint store who also tried to help solve it, and NO THANKS to C2, who denied even the possibility of such a problem. But no, I would never ever EVER recommend C2 to anyone. YMMV, but our windows proved its downfall. Oh yeah, and C2 matte burnishes so easily: my husband brushed up against the wall and the seam of his cotton button-down made a burnished drag mark in the middle of the wall. His shirt seam (regular dress shirt, regular seams, nothing weird) kind of "polished" the paint right there, making a streak of "shiny" in a splotchy, flashing wall of "matte." (And the paint job was four months old when he did this, so yes, it had time to cure.) So, ya know, not so impressed with C2's durability either. Maybe Aura isn't "all that," like the way people wax lyrical over C2, but my Aura kitchen is perfect, no burnishing problem, no flashing.

Does either one have a tiny overhang of the face frame at the sides of the wall cabinets? We need a 36-inch minus a teensy bit (like 35 15/16 or so cabinet for a niche. I like the rustic wood, and if we could trim them down a fraction to scribe to the wall it would be wonderful. Lowes: This cabinet line Home Depot: This cabinet line

The cabinet box construction is what establishes your cabinet quality: here is a great quick learning guide linkhttp://www.home-style-choices.com/kitchen-cabinet-construction.html * note: For good quality drawers~I look for dovetail joints or mortise and tenon joints at drawer corners. Staples and glue won't last, and for non-custom cabinet lines melamine is my preference over particle board or MDF. The door pricing establishes the overall varied costs of kitchens. This price point is set on the cabinet door construction, the number of trim pieces, the species of wood, and the level of finish ( as well as sways in dollars based on popularity) : Here is a good link to explain door styles and how they are constructed: https://www.conestogawood.com/products/cabinet-doors-drawer-fronts/construction.html *note: This means that you can get the same quality of cabinet in many different cabinet lines, but the exact door that you like can change the price by as much as 100% for the exact same kitchen layout. Doors are often solid wood or wood veneer, and both have value. AND painted door finishes expand and contract at the joints because of humidity...so I lean away from mitered corners if using a painted finish.

Thanks all - the $4500 quote from our Contractor is including cabinets plus assembly labor for doing Ikea (I asked about this directly). This is part of a huge project that involves essentially building an addition, knocking out walls, moving plumbing and electricity, and more, etc. etc. I'm not sure how the $4500 breaks down to cabinets alone vs. labor, but I don't think he is charging much for the labor portion considering all the labor they are already doing on our house on this 5+ month project. I also think at this point reading through multiple threads that it's true we might easily spend more than that $4500 going to a Lowe's or Home Depot even if cabinets come preassembled. I got hopeful for a moment while in Lowes, but I'm now skeptical. We WILL likely cost out some options when the time comes, just to be sure in the end. It's just not at all worth the headache to us to try to DIY the assembly at that time for a number of personal reasons I won't go into.