If you are still pricing out cabinets, go back to Lowes and ask them to also price out your layout with Schuler. Lowes' Schuler cabinets are Medallion, just different names for different styles. If you get a catalog of both brands, you can easily see which are which. Almost all the modifications that are available for Medallion are also available for Schuler, including 39" uppers.

@Lisa Binder I'm so sorry to hear of your problems. It's almost a relief to me personally to hear stories like yours since I was so close to wanting to go with Schuler. I had read a few reviews similar to yours concerning delivery or product issues that scared me away, but to be honest, all of the lower-priced cabinetry lines have similar reviews. It's very, very common to see defective products delivered that customers have difficulty getting warranty service on. Keep at it, and hopefully someday soon you will get recourse. You might even consider filing a claim legally against the company if it comes to that. You have to go up into very high-cost cabinetry like Plato Woodworking, William Ohs, or Jay Rambo before you see 100% satisfaction guaranteed in both quality and longevity. You probably got a lot of linear footage of cabinetry for $50K from Schuler, and that same amount of cabinetry would have been more than double and possibly triple or quadruple in most of those lines I mentioned above.

Saz1, I had the weirdest experience with Crystal not that long ago. I had existing cabinetry by Crystal and we were trying to add a couple of cabinets to the layout. The cabinets were a current style etc. I contacted Crystal via email to get the name of the local reps. Brian, the person on the other end of the email, wanted to try and locate the original dealer. I explained that we just wanted a few matching cabinets so it really wasn't worth that level of trouble. I told him we just wanted to go with the closest supplier and gave him my zip code. Several emails later he still wouldn't give me basic contact information for a local dealer. He was insistant that he know the location of the house so he could try and connect me with the original dealer. So I by passed him entirely and found two crystal dealers on the internet in my location. The first was very nice and simply never actually called me back with a quote. The second one refused to even talk to me because the amount wasn't high enough. I eventually spoke to the supervisor there and basically bludgeoned him into taking my needs to give me a quote. I told him that I expected them to provide some level of customer support and that the cabinets were only a few years old. How could they sell to people if the response when they needed a new piece or a replacement piece after a few years was to go screw themselves? He finally had someone call me back and take down the cabinets I needed. I did recieve a response weeks later that basically was scribbleing on the back of a napkin as far as I'm concerned. Also, it didn't contain any amounts at all! Apparently they had questions but if you can't quote ANY of the 3 cabinets I need I think it's pretty sad. So. My experience was really poor and I would never order from them on a customer service side. What I ended up doing was having a cabinet guy make me a few matching cabinets. He was very frustrated because each of the cabinets was slightly different than the others so trying to match them was a real bear. He showed me how all the drawer fronts were actually slightly different sizes, heights, etc. YMMV.

I'll chime in! We are in the process of installing, right now, Krafmaid cabinets. We have simple shaker style cabinets (Hayward, also called Putnam) in cherry with honey spice stain. This stain really is light and just evens out the tone some. We even (horrors!) got them from Home Depot. So far, they're fantastic. Truly. We had an absolutely amazing and creative KD from Home Depot. We were lucky and were able to use the KD that some friends had used for multiple projects -- after they "interviewed" probably a dozen KDs from different Home Depots, Lowe's and smaller companies in the area. She is really great and was able to know when to incorporate bath cabs in a few limited places so that the sizing would do what we wanted. I think getting a creative and experienced KD is key, and we were VERY lucky to find her. We are still installing, but have unpacked everything. We have one door that needs to be replaced due to a crack in the joint, and one with glass that the glass has a tiny crack. This is no problem and we'll just switch out those doors. All the cabinet boxes have been perfect (square, plumb, in perfect condition). Once you receive the cabs, you have 90 days to let them know of any issues. So far, our KD and Kraftmaid have been wonderful. The cabs are very solid and the finish is great. The wood is fairly consistent and we only have one stile that I would consider to be a lesser cherry than a true mid-level cherry. But it's not all that noticeable and I think is reflective of using real wood. I don't know anything about American Woodmark, but our KD recommended Kraftmaid as she said they're very responsive and easy to work with. So far, she's been right. We did upgrade to all plywood boxes, soft close on all doors and drawers, and a few other bells and whistles. I just wanted to chime in because I know KM gets bashed a bunch, but so far, our experience has been great. And they look great!