"Pleased enough" was not meant to be derogatory. I really like them. It's is just hard to determine the expectations of others on a forum like this. I live in a modest, turn of the century farmhouse. We have not scrimped but we are also not the "spare no expense" types either. My expectations for cabinets sound a lot like yours. They needed to look nice, last well, work well. I was not in need of a lot of custom doodles and options. Things I liked: they seem sturdy enough, they had plywood upgrade to 3/4 inch thickness I think, they were well packed, they had enough variety for us. Things I didn't like: there are a couple of my doors that have little marks along the edges (not very visible at all unless you have the door open) from shipping (I totally did not have the option to unpack every box and whine about how they looked to the nth degree). Some of the drawers don't close quite as aggressively as they need to so with the soft close I end up "finishing closing" them sometimes. As for the pull outs and stuff, they are built by me and put on pull out hardware available from Lee Valley. That's a whole other issue and if you go that way you might want some feedback about them. All in all I am very pleased with my MidContinent cabinets. They were a good value. They are DECIDEDLY better than what we had. I am not particularly hard on things so they will last a long time. They had a look that I wanted and they were fast. Ne

Oh no the sparkle is definitely very subtle. In the 9x13 sample I have there are only a few of those sparkly flecks so its not very noticeable really unless the light hits it right. It’s not at all like those other “sparkle” quartzes. I had my heart set on it was so sad when I discovered it’s more off-white 😢 the Stonemark I assume is the same as the MSI Perla White (I feel like stonemark and msi must be the same company?) and I considered that too but up close it was just too cloudy looking, imo.

Yes you're right! So I had the old Carrara marmi and they were getting a new lot in June that would be whiter so I think that ended up being the difference. They said the company switched manufacturers and the whole lot they had received was the off white tone of marmi. It's identical to the first picture! I had no idea there was a new vs old. Luckily they were very helpful and are allowing me to pick out any quartz from the show room and replace it for $300 whichever I choose. I could have gotten the new marmi but I would have to wait until June when it comes in. This felt like a great option to me though as the higher up quartz was not really in my price range at all. So I am happy with that and I got to look through many different styles of white quartz slabs in the warehouse and bring a few home to decide. They are going to replace the whole thing. Now I just have to choose between Cararra Morro and Calacutta Clara!

I just went to the MSI showroom to view slabs. The slabs of Arno I saw had dark gold veining only with a bright white background. No other colors or variation. It was pretty. I'm on the fence. Our contractor said to look for jumbo sizes only. I wasn't expecting that and now feel somewhat limited. Arno is pretty and comes in prefab and jumbo size. Check out Vadara Quartz. I prefer their quartz colors. I also went to their showroom and I think their quartz is gorgeous.