Define “affordable” - my idea of that in a dollar amount and yours could be tens of thousands of dollars apart. What is your budget?

IKEA. I am a very happy customer.

Trying to stay under $12k for cabinets (materials only)

Ikea

If IKEA cabinets will work in your space, they can't be beat. However, they do have limited size options so that can be a factor especially in small kitchens.

$12k for what size space? Can you post your plan? And I agree with the others to go with IKEA.

Another vote for Ikea. If you don't like the door/drawer fronts, you can get just those from a third party, in a wide range of styles.

Your sink is too far from the stove, with too much flooring to traverse to get from one, to the other. The island appears to be tremendously deep. It will be difficult to clean toward the middle. There’s hardly any storage. You need a better layout.

Please post a drawing to scale, with dimensions. There are several layout gurus here, who can help you get a more functional kitchen.

Agree with the others...IKEA is the best bang for the buck.

Does this help

Yes, that’s better. What’s the distance from the stove to the island? Where do those two doors on either side of the sink wall lead to? If you could eliminate the door on the left, you’ll have continuous counter space, more storage, and have a way more functional kitchen.

As configured, the aisle created on the stove side, is going to be a major (and narrow) thoroughfare, to get from the open living space beyond the kitchen, to the sink. Shrinking the island, and turning it, may be a better option.

3'8" between island and stove

The doors on either side of the sink area go to covered deck (left) and enclosed porch (right). So keeping the doors since they go to different outdoor spaces

Ideally, the sink and stove would be on the same wall, with plenty of prep space in between. Or, to a lesser extent, the sink would be in the island, off center from the stove...so to a avoid two people bumping tushes.

What you’ve configured, would drive most cooks mad...one usually preps next to the sink. As such, in your plan, the prepped food...chopped/diced veggies, meat, messy chicken, or whatever...will have to be shlepped across the floor, to the stove. That’s very inconvenient, and the floor is going to be an unholy mess. Also, consider having to dump a heavy pot of hot pasta water, and having to walk it across the floor to the sink...an accident waiting to happen.

Lowes Kraftmaid came in the lowest for us, they had 2 sales going on plus 10% cash back on a gift card. I did my homework and got quotes from 8 places, local, big box, online RTA, ikea, etc. We have 26 cabinets, island end panels, fridge end panel, mostly drawers and it came in around your budget.

That’s not a 12K kitchen. It needs to be smaller, and to have less of a wish list, to fit that budget. And they discontinued Kraftmade One. It didn’t fit in with their upscale branding direction. Vantage is what fits with that direction.

If you are doing IKEA are you able to assemble the cabinets yourself? If not, be sure to factor in the cost of paying someone to assemble them.

Who designed the kitchen? I’m betting it was the builder, or his architect. A certified KD (kitchen designer), would never have come up with such a poor functioning, disconnected layout. Trust me, you’re going to be miserable preparing meals in that kitchen.

One corner door leading to an outdoor space, would be okay. Two, is too many.

Have you seen this thread that covers like to like comparisons?

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/5647040/white-shaker-battle-ikea-vs-the-rest-of-the-cabinet-world

Budget brands are budget brands for a reason. If you have mid grade expectations for your project, they are not available at budget prices unless you DIY all the labor and put together something like Conestoga.

Now your kitchen project is a year long. Which no builder will allow. And most builders don’t allow you to go outside their sources to begin with.

So start with who your builder uses. Because that’s who you will use. Unless you buy a different house from a different builder. Or build something custom.

I am not a kitchen aficionado but I don't see the massive sin in this kitchen. Add a prep sink in the island and it is a perfect Ice-Water-Stone-Fire work space.

I hate the two doors. You could put an elliptical in the space between the island and sink, but because of that space your refrigerator to prep zone to cooking area will be great with a prep sink.

CliqStudios

Yeah, everyone wants a slow boat Chinese import company that went bankrupt selling junk. And who will go bankrupt a second time if they keep up the same things that put them there in the first place.

You’ll sure be fit enough for cross country after doing laps around that island!