So I read this about the 10-20% suggestion -- "The suggested numbers will be skewed at both the low end and the high end. It's really hard to do anything less than a 15K kitchen in a 50K house, as even rental grade components still cost a certain amount. It's the same with the upper end homes in areas where the market hasn't crashed too badly. When you live in a 1950's 1400 square foot box close inside the beltway in DC, you're not likely to spend 100K on a kitchen, even if your home is valued at that 1M. Most of the value is in the land, not the home." I was thinking "holy moly" until I read the qualifier -- five bedroom house in Arlington way inside the beltway (closer to 4k feet than 1.5) and we never ever pondered 100-200k when we were updating our kitchen. With respect to cabinets, we went the other way when updating (not remodeling -- and not gutting and rebuilding) our kitchen. When we bought the house a little over 13 years ago, it had a newly updated kitchen. White Shrock cabinets -- no solid wood was harmed in their construction. We never loved them, but we never hated them either. They're still fine. Heavy use from a family of five (well, 5 for the past 9 years) and they're still fine. Some little issues here and there, but they are not falling apart or listing or coming off the walls. When updating the kitchen early this year we started with the cooking facilities -- a 36" range and proper hood, with adequate ventilation. Added a new floor, because it really was time, a new matching pantry (which does have some solid wood inside), and small things, such as pot racks. We elected not to replace the cabinets because the old ones basically still work for us and the basic white looks fine to us -- not beautiful or lovely or awesome, but fine. Lovely cabinets are lovely, but it's a big kitchen, and the extra 30k or more we might have spent on substantially nicer cabinets was money we chose to keep. Similarly, we kept our granite counters -- not our favorite pattern, but a decent neutral tone, decent counter space, and they've held up just dandy to everything -- hot pans, you name it. I've nothing at all against the up-market cabinet suggestions. Paying for quality materials and workmanship absolutely makes sense if it's in-budget and appreciated. I'm just adding the perspective of somebody who has found a more budget oriented option to hold up fine. For me, the kitchen is about cooking. Storage is necessary, but I start with the cooking equipment -- range or top plus oven(s), ventilation, and prep space. For me -- just my perspective -- the boxes come somewhere down towards last. For free, I'd swap them in a heartbeat, but it's not free.

No, the drawers are not peeling inside. We have HomeCrest throughout the whole house. We also have them in the basement bathroom and have a kitchenette down there. A few months after installation, some of the kitchen drawers needed adjustments. It was done very quickly. My husband just pointed out that one of the 36" drawers is off a little bit, but I had not noticed it myself. The drawer holds pots and pans; so the weight probably caused a little bit of settling. We did not buy the cabinets directly from the factory. We used a small local cabinet company as the go between; so I cannot say how working with the factory is. I don't know if you can even buy factory direct or not. One mistake I made was having a corner sink because that was how the builder designed the kitchen. That row of cabinets is L shaped and there is a lot of wasted space in that 90 degree angle. In order to use it, I would have to literally crawl under the sink to reach things back there. All in all, we are happy with all of the cabinets. I do wish I had more. Seems there is never enough space in cabinets or closets after you're in a house for a few years. Good luck with your cabinet hunting.

I chose Homecrest, a little upgraded (the doors and drawers I think so they are soft close). They have worked out quite well and we get lots of compliments on the design. So far have also held up nicely!

What did you end up using?