Stacyneil - Great posting and picture. When I look at this picture, I definitely think high end...and then see it's from Ikea!!!! It is gorgeous! And Natschultz you wrote "Seriously! Why, and I am dead serious here, do people WILLINGLY spend close to a year's salary on a kitchen redo and SETTLE for cabinets that are NOT MADE TO LAST? Why do I feel like the ONLY person on the planet that finds the cost of crap cabinetry ABSOLUTELY OUTRAGEOUS?!?!?" My father taught me alot of things in my 40+ years....one of the most important is - Never count anyone's money. Meaning it's not your place to tell people (or consumers) where to spend THEIR money. If someone wants to spend 5K on a new kitchen it is their choice, as the same if someone wants to spend 150K. I'm pretty sure no one asked for your opinion on how much they should spend on their kitchen. And I'm sorry if this sounds harsh, but you are definitely showing your ignorance by blasting all kitchen designers based on a few articles you have read or have experience with. The harshness in your words are really not appreciated on a forum that offers so much help and assistance to many many people. I'm apologizing to you now.....does that make it all ok?!?!?!

Interesting thread! We built our home 15 years ago and had custom built (and I mean a single guy built them himself) cabinets throughout the house. All solid wood. Book matched. No stain--let the natural beauty of the wood show!. Maple in the kitchen. Cherry in the bar area. Walnut in the kitchenette in the lower level. They are beautiful, no doubt. My husband is a hobbyist woodworker and is a total SNOB about cabinetry. Then we bought a vacation/retirement home in northern CA a couple of years ago. Renovating it now. Here's how I looked at it. - The boxes for the kitchen cabs need to be solid, well built - If I get frameless boxes, I have the choice of changing the doors if I want something different down the road - I want a decent amount of options for designing the space, but I have long ago decided that I never will be a professional cook, and I don't need every single design feature (those of you who cook a ton deserve those clever design details!). - I wanted high end finishes (counter and backsplash in particular). - We have to spend a lot of money on the rest of the renovation and I didn't want to spend so much on the kitchen that I limited what we spent on other areas. So, we looked at IKEA. Don't be scared by the furniture. The cabinets are totally different. When we looked at what we could pay for IKEA cabs relative to other cabinet manufacturers, it was easy to say yes. We considered custom doors, but in the end we decided to do the doors with IKEA too. DH and I assembled and hung a lot of them. He is VERY handy, and he has said many times that it's all about the installation if you are DIY. We found a local former cabinet maker to finish the installation (we had to travel back home). Interesting thing is this guy, who is an amazing cabinet maker, said he can't stay in business doing cabinets any longer because he just can't compete with IKEA (this may be more true in CA than other parts of the country). Now, when I compare the kitchen in both homes, one doesn't feel more "high end" than the other. They are simply very different. Both look custom built. When we sell our current home, will 90% of the buyers out there realize the quality of our cabinets? Nope. I'm sure someone will walk in and say "I can't wait to paint these wood cabinets white". LOL! I will say that working with IKEA is easiest if there is one near you. The people in the stores seem to be very knowledgeable and eager to help. During their kitchen sales it is busy, so go on a Tuesday or Weds. And there is a learning curve when it comes to ordering. What made our process a PIA was doing it from a distance. I won't go into the gory details! Good luck with your decision!

@jdesign_gw Thanks for the reply. We might not be talking about the same cabinet. This is what we have, but it's meant to work with Ikea integrated fridge (which is a sliding hinge). I am trying to find if anyone has modified one to fit a Miele fixed hinge (door on door). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wiaSXa6GoZ4

Our island will have a U-shaped knee wall (both ends and back). We plan to panel the knee wall with IKEA Ringhult High Gloss white panels to match our cabinets. We will have to cut the panels to size. And that means, we will have seams, as shown in diagram attached. Q: What can we do to get neat and clean seams with this high gloss white paneling? BTW, IKEA's refrigerator and dishwasher end panels are 5/8 inch thick, but their other panels are 1/2 inch thick. So I guess we have to use all 5/8 or all 1/2 inch panels, but not both, or there would be a mismatch at the seams. Many thanks in advance for sharing your experience and expertise!