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.

Hi Athomesewing, We're across the continent, but while we were designing our kitchen, we visited the website of a Seattle cabinet company many times. We even referred our own custom cabinet maker to their website a couple of times when we were designing some unusual details of our own kitchen. I think they build custom cabinetry, but also offer a line of semi-custom cabinets. If I lived in Seattle, they would've been top of my list for places to contact. I can't vouch for them from personal experience, but their website is highly detailed and impressive. Here is a link that might be useful: Seattle Custom Cabinets

Ok, this is a long post with lots of pictures. I am going to try to give you as much background (and details of what I went for) as I can to help you compare KM with a cabinetmaker. I have an older house (1932) and not a single wall is plumb nor is a single floor or ceiling level. My ceilings are less than standard (most of the kitchen is about 92", the slanted roof section that caused the most headache is less). There are 2 kinds of custom cabinets (both shaker style inset) that were in the house when we moved in. We hired a cabinetmaker on the recommendation of our flooring guy who made some built-in bookcases and a tall bathroom cabinet. This same cabinetmaker made cabinets to match the KM cabinets in my kitchen (and I absolutely wish I had hired him to do the whole kitchen, but I found out about him much too late). The instructions I gave the KD was that I did not want anything fancy--no moldings at the top, and no scribe (which I really dislike) because I wanted to keep a clean look. We decided to go with KM cabinets because it seemed most were pleased with the product, and the style seemed like it would work with our home. In my case, the two different KDs I went to would not release the kitchen plans until I had signed a contract, so I did not have a list of cabinets nor did I have any idea of what each individual cabinet cost--I only had a total cost for all the cabinets. The quality of the KM cabinets I would describe as OK (at best). Cabinets are about paying attention to the details and so many custom cabinetmakers meticulous. To me, a lot of the details of the KM cabinets seemed like they had shoddy workmanship (I will give you some examples below). With KM cabinets, anything that was not a basic cabinet (like an end piece that needed a filler, or a side that needed to be finished) was an extra and the costs added up like crazy if the standard cabinet design was altered in any way. Another disadvantage for KM (and any cabinet "line" versus an individual cabinetmaker) is that if and when something goes wrong, it takes roughly 4-6 weeks to have a cabinet replaced. With a local cabinetmaker, it is pretty much instant. The only disadvantage to a local cabinetmaker that I can point to, is that the finishing of the cabinets is one more process. You most likely will not find the baked on finish (and I admit, that is a nice feature IMO). Here are some examples to the points above: KM Huntington doors and drawers are made with solid stock frames, but the inset is "skin" (which is thin and not a solid piece of wood). This is what the KM doors look like (the interior): And this is what the skin looks like on it's own: This is the same door style that my cabinetmaker made with a flat back (inside) with a more substantial panel: This one little detail may not look like a big deal on it's own, but that little lip on the inside of the KM doors (especially on the trash drawer) catches more dirt than I would like and it is just one more thing to clean. DH doesn't like the fact that the cabinets clatter whenever you shut them, again this is because of the fact that the center panel is so thin compared to the rest of the door. We don't have that problem with the custom set. The KM drawer fronts are simply screwed to the drawer. The inside lip tends to catch a lot of gunk (what you see here is wood dust from the install): KM talks about the dovetail joins in the drawers. These are meant to add strength to the drawers and they are a mark of fine cabinetry. I was appalled when I saw the joins on the drawers in my KM order. My kitchen only has 5 drawers and two are ok, but here is what 3 of the 5 look like: The non-KM drawers in my house were of a lesser quality (they are not dovetailed, and they are plywood, not solid wood) so they are not a direct comparison, but they have held together quite well for over 10 years without anything pulled apart. I do not have the same confidence with the KM drawers. The KM full-overlay will drop to the frame if you have any fillers (I know there is something they can put on an overlay, buy that is an additional cost). Two standard upper cabinets placed side by side look like this: Lower cabinets with top drawers look like this: And those fillers (extended styles I think they might be called...I will have to look it up) look like this when placed between cabinets: When you get to the end of a wall, your choices are: extended style (end) scribed to the wall, a gap, or a moulding. Here is what each looks like: I think the scribe looks the best. For the KM option, you need the extended ends which is an added cost. I asked the cabinetmaker to match the rest of my kitchen (and I didn't want it to stand out with all the funky odd overlays that ended up in the rest of the kitchen), so this is how the cabinets line up in the alcove (the stain is not on yet): To give you an idea of the difference in quality, this is one of the tall cabinets the same cabinetmaker did for my bathroom (the panels I asked to keep open because I plan to insert fabric, and it is painted instead of stained). The floor, wall and ceiling in this room is uneven (but you would not know it from the cabinet): For me, I could do a direct cost comparison in the alcove (because this wall had to be re-built same for one upper cabinet). The cost for the KM pieces (end panels, doors, one cabinet and filler pieces) for the alcove was about $1600. labor to install was $1000 (total roughly $2600). The same alcove using a single cabinet from KM (about $300-350) was $800 for the cabinetmaker (materials and install), $160 for a specialty pocket door hinge, and the staining (estimates were about $250-300): total on the high end--about $1610. Important to note that the cabinetmakers price includes install. Also note that if you are going with a granite top that is 2cm with KM cabinets, it will need a plywood under layer (that was an extra $300 that no one mentioned in any estimate but came in as an "extra"). Again, it would have been part of the package with the cabinetmaker. I know that every case is different and a lot depends on the individual cabinetmaker as well as the particulars of your space and preferences, but if you can get drawings to an individual, take a look at their work and talk to a few clients, I highly recommend it. Oh, one more thing. When you asked about the "full overlay" cabinet at the shop you mentioned and got a blank stare, I bet you if I said that to the one we hired it would have met with a similar look. To him, it was either inset or overlay (and if it was overlay, it was just a matter of how much...and in the KM cabinets vary from cabinet to cabinet (as you can see from the photos) even though it is all still called "full overlay").

Decornovice: We are in NJ and are going to use www.heardwoodworking.com My architect recommended him for top quality 100% custom. We met with Russell the owner and his price is the same as a local shop quoted me for omega/dynasty. Russell's cabinets include install and there is no tax b/c he installs so it's a capital improvement. He is very passionate about his cabinets which he calls furniture. Love that! You may also remember Smarge- she used a custom guy for built-ins and her bath. If I remember right, she loved him and wished she used him for the kitchen (I have no idea about prices...) From Smarge in NJ: Our cabinet maker, as I'm sure you've read in other threads, is the #1 favorite sub our contractor used and we have hired him directly for many other projects which we love. His name is Rich of Siena Woodworks in Rockaway NJ (973) 495-2000. He is talented, intelligent, calm (valuable on a busy job site!), and very good at planning details in advance. If I knew then what I know now, he absolutely would have done my kitchen (although I am still happy having worked with my KD bc I had no clue when I started planning the kitchen. I used Jeff Kennedy who works out of The Sawhorse in Millburn. I just would have preferred cabinets by Rich instead of the Kountry Kraft I bought.)