Waypoint, are made by American Woodmark, sold at Lowes and Home Depot. Good cabinets at a value price point.

Brookhaven are a good quality upper mid level brand.

The Brookhaven seems fine, but honestly, not quite as nice as what I have now. It's possible I'll be able to use the cabinets I have now in the new house but it will be a lot more difficult if I'm not working with the builder's normal supplier.

I'm going to meet with my KD from this kitchen next week and talk it through with her. She used to work at the company the builder works with so she'll be familiar with the cabinets they carry.

My remodeler used a local custom cabinet maker. His prices were considerably less than the box stores and the quality seems to be much better. Do you have that option?

Not really. If I'm going to go with something other than what my builder offers than I know I want what I have now. The problem is the degree of complexity it adds to use our own subs. I'd really prefer to have everything under the builder's umbrella, so I need to figure out how much I care.

I think if the builder's kitchen place does brookhaven they might do woodmode for you. Thats that company's framed cab line; brookhaven is the frameless. This way you use the builder's subs but you can use a "higher-end" cab line.

Generally woodhaven got good reviews when I looked years ago. I think I recall some gw kitchen mixed these lines in one kitchen.

They did have Woodmode, but told me that was just the higher end door fronts, not that the cabinets were different. The cabinets themselves are what I'm concerned about, the basic Brookhaven door fronts seem fine.

They said there were two Brookhaven lines, Brookaven 1 & 2, and that that was the difference between framed and frameless.

Are you saying framed is preferable? I thought frameless was generally preferred?

I have framed now and was looking forward to the increased space of frameless.

There isn't a "better" between framed and frameless. If well made, both are perfectly acceptable. If you see a kitchen reno on HGTV where the guy hoists a cabinet box over one shoulder, carries it in, and slings in into place, chances are good that's an inferior product, framed or frameless. Framed are more common in the U.S. and frameless more used elsewhere. A large part of the reason frameless are more used outside of the U.S. is that frameless construction uses less wood. Europe has had longer to cut down their forests so wood is a scarcer commodity there.

Then there's preference. I so prefer frameless for space reasons - my previous kitchen was dinky and my current one is smallish. OTOH, some so prefer framed because they want inset, or they just like the look better. Either can give you a sleek modern look (well, not inset) or a traditional look depending on the door style chosen. Preference and practicality, not "better."

Woodmode and Brookhaven make both framed and frameless cabinets. Woodmode is the higher end line. The difference is that I believe Woodmode's cabinet boxes are plywood and Brookhaven's are MDF. You can get Brookhaven in plywood but it's an upcharge. (If I'm wrong, someone correct me.)

I am personally going with frameless because I prefer more interior space that frameless allows. If you want something like inset cabinets, then you want framed cabinets.

Poor weird choice on my part. I should have said "general preferred", not better.

I do not want insert doors.

According to the catalog Brookhaven 1 is frameless and Brookhaven 2 is framed.

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