We had a custom media/plasma tv cabinet built by Thomas Cummings Woodworks. This was back in 2004 and we no longer live in Boston, but his site seems to be active and updated. We had a really good experience and Tom was/is a very personable guy. The cabinet is made of mahogany and is a sturdy solid piece, which has withstood several moves including an international trip to Japan for a few years. So definitely a solid, well made piece of furniture. Here is a link that might be useful: Thomas Cummings Woodworks

I had the exact same thing done (working with existing cabinets and building new doors, custom island, a few new cabinets, pull outs, painting). The way I blundered into the carpenter and team who did my cabinets was through my friend's extensive renovation. "Johnny" was a subcontractor in her much larger project (but not tied to one GC or company). He built bathroom cabinets, a new kitchen island and custom mudroom built-in storage units for her. I hired him directly after seeing his work and getting his estimate. So - you might want to ask anyone you know who's having renovation done about any carpentry subcontractors they had. And just keep constantly asking around. My guy doesn't advertise - he gets business thru contacts and word of mouth. I grew up in NoVA - where are you? My parents still live there and might know someone - they're always having something done to their house. I'll ask them.

The deal where you order a cabinet w/o glass is called "glass ready." It's more economical to buy the glass you want locally and it's easy to install. I have to ask: who does the cooking/clean-up at your house? You have some really strong opinions on stuff like pull-outs, so I hope you're the one who has to cope with crawling around on the floor to reach the thing at the back of the cabinet as well as the person who has to find the step ladder to remove heavy appliances from over the fridge. I get your frustration, but pull-outs and drawers are engineered to carry heavy loads and perform just as intended, which might be called "ergonomically smart." Personally, I love having my dishes in a drawer just opposite the dishwasher vs where they used to be over the dishwasher pretty much over my head. When I can open the drawer by the stove and locate the right pot at the back of the drawer vs having to crouch down and unload everything in front of that pot and then re-load afterwards, it makes me a much happier and more efficient cook. God knows I spend enough time in the kitchen without increasing that time with mindless make-work. As for construction, you need to check out the terms "particle board," "furniture board" and "plywood." You really aren't going to want all-wood cabinets for structural reasons. "Furniture board" (a variation on particle board) has a sort of standard quality, which is "good to excellent." Both plywood and particle board come in various grades ranging from crap to excellent and one should not be mistaken for the other. FYI: This many kitchen cabinets, in a roughly 11-odd feet x whatever kitchen plus these china cabinets (glass ready) cost us $14,000 3 years ago. They came from Home Depot. We did the install ourselves. Note that we have a pantry with pull-out shelves on the bottom half, a lower corner unit with a super-susan (the best!!), and an "easy reach" upper corner cab. Under the peninsula is all drawers. Because we have such a small space to work with, as do you, we chose frameless cabinets which gives you just that little extra space when every inch counts. Amish cabinet makers are awesome, but they don't do frameless as far as I know.

We have had a great experience using David Couture, who builds cabinets for BackeBuilt, Inc. We have just completed a mega-kitchen renovation which included a teardown to the studs, an exterior wall move and unexpected structural issue that our architect failed to predict, which Mark Backe handled gracefully. We have a huge set of new cabinets with all the usual bells and whistles including Blum soft close on doors and drawers, a Rev a Shelf corner storage unit, custom panels on fridge and freezer columns, two Miele DW's, and the U Line bev ctr. David is careful, committed to quality, and a nice guy: I happily left him alone in our house or with our kids. (If you're interested, email me for contact information. I'd email you directly but it looks like you've chosen not to make your email address accessible to other GW members. Mine is so you should be able to email me)