It really depends on what your budget is and if this is your once-in-a-lifetime remodel or are you remodeling to sell, but generally, Merillat Classic is considered builder grade, and from the research I have done, it is not worth it to upgrade to Masterpiece. When I was shopping for cabs, my contractor recommended Merillat Classic and we looked at them, but when I read that the turnaround time is one week, that indicated to me that they were slapped together. Just to give you an idea....the estimate for Merillat Classic cabinets with the features I wanted was around $8500, while the cost of Dynasty cabinets was around $1800 more but I think the quality is much higher.

It is definitely worth shopping around at the big box stores and independent kitchen dealers and talking to people. I think there are better cabinets out there for the same or less than Merrillat. Good luck!

My Merillat cabinets fell off the wall. Literally. Our house was built in 1999. We bought it and moved in August 2009 (after previous owner). In June 2010, while outside with my dogs I heard a huge crash. Went inside and 95" of wall cabinets were on the floor mangled, the contents all smashed. The backs of the cabinets were still on the wall (tightly fastened). The boxes of the cabinets separated from the backs and came crashing down. I contacted Merillat. The cabinets were, of course, out of warranty. They offered to replace the 4 cabinets that fell (I'm not sure with what, since they didn't make that design any longer), but they wouldn't install - just give us 4 new wall cabinets. My insurance company offered to replace our entire kitchen (since matching cabinets couldn't be purchased, and our hardwood floors were damaged by the falling cabinets). Needless to say, we went with the insurance company replacement and did not replace with Merillat.

I don't know what line of Merillat cabinets are in my kitchen. The doors are thick and still look great (1994) but the boxes are horrid. Over Christmas we removed 2 cabinets from the wall and reglued and did what we could to get them back to square. Like Deb's they were about to come crashing down. We also have had issues with the drawers being stapled and coming apart. I didn't really want to redo the kitchen in this house but the cabinets are making the decision for me.

I also had a bad experience with Merillat cabinets. One unit fell off the wall, the glue gave out but the back stayed on the wall, drawer glides broke (plastic) and the floor of some of the uppers gave out. I was very happy to see them leave the house.

Had Merillat in an apartment. There was a running bet to see which would blow up first--the swelling drawers or the sagging cabinet shelves. Got out in time before either happened.

I wonder if you get the masterpiece version with plywood if the construction would be that bad?

Well, based on the fact that you can get a set of cabinets in a week and all the horror stories just posted above, the only way I would even consider Merillat is if they were the cheapest cabs I could find and I was remodeling the kitchen solely to put the house on the market.

We have Merillat and I am sooo excited that they go away in 1 week. The KD kept pushing Merillat and I kept saying no. Upgraded to Brookhaven - and hope they are better.

We have Merillat Classic (builder installed) in our home. They are 7 1/2 years old and are completely fine, from the finish, to the durability. No problems whatsoever.

That being said, I don't like the the stain (natural oak) and just primed all of the doors today for our reno. I couldn't justify purchasing new cabinets when ours are in good condition. I guess I'm the lone one here. They are NOT quality construction. MDF board, NOT dovetailed, etc. But so far, ours have held up. I wouldn't say run out and buy them, but wanted to let you know that after 7 years, ours are still doing fine. Maybe in a few more years, mine will come unglued and fall off the wall too though--who knows!

Merillat Masterpiece (plywood) maple cabinets are in my bathroom and oak cabinets in the utility room (laundry, crafts, sewing). They are holding up fine for 3 1/2 years.

The bathroom cabinets are glazed. I mention this because the finish on non-glazed sample doors was not visually very good: lots of bubbles around the panel-frame joins. The glazed did not have these bubbles. Haven't seen any bubbles on the non-glazed oak cabs.

At the time, I was told Merillat and Kraftmaid were the same company.

Just make sure you get a good installer. My installer needed "advice".

HTH.

I know this is an old post, but I have to comment. We bought our house with Merillat cabinets in our kitchen, my in-law's kitchen, and four bathrooms. I can't count them all, but there must be close to fifty pieces altogether. I suspect they have been here for almost thirty years (1991?). There is one long drawer that broke, presumably from the weight of heavy silverware, but other than that, every piece is structurally sound. Butttt, you know what they say..." they don't make them like they used to." Anyway, just thought I would add my experience. They are pretty outdated, so I almost wish mine would crash down so we could have insurance replace them. But alas, I'm planning on stripping and refinishing some and painting others.