We're gutting and rebuilding the kitchen in our 1920 Colonial Revival home. Our builder is recommending a custom cabinetry company here in Atlanta called Bell Cabinetry. Anyone with experience with Bell? We are doing a flush inset cabinet style that will have a very simple flat panel (maybe a little simpler than I would like, but the ones with pretty beading were beyond my cabinetry allowance). There are two cabinetry lines we are considering. The one that fits within our allowance does not have dovetailed drawers, and the drawer boxes, cabinet sides, tops, & bottoms are 3/4" inch birch plywood. The finish is catalyzed lacquer.

The top of the line cabinets (the budget-buster line), on the other hand, has maple dovetailed drawers and 3/4" maple purebond plywood cabinet sides, tops & bottoms. Finish is conversion varnish. Drawer guides are Blum Tandem Blumotion in both lines (undermount, full-extension, soft-close).

I liked the fact that the most expensive cabinets had dovetailed drawers, and the maple looked better inside those cabinets than the birch in the less expensive line. The color of the birch seemed to really vary in appearance from cabinet inside to cabinet inside in the showroom. (But how often are your cabinets left open?) Other than the wood and the finish (did I read that conversion varnish is more eco-friendly than the catalyzed lacquer, which has lots of off-gassing?), most everything else is the same, in particular the Blum hardware.

Thoughts? I've never bought cabinetry before and am feeling paralyzed. I did feel a bit better when I opened a drawer in my friend's fancy new kitchen the other week and saw that not only were her drawers not dovetailed, there was a visible staple on the side!