I used Bellmont 1900 series. Your budget is almost twice what they cost me, but your kitchen is a little bigger. The cabinets are very sturdy and should end up in your budget depending on how much you are charged for installation and how fancy things get.

A few at various price points-
Shiloh, Innermost (aka Design-Craft), Canyon Creek, Merit, Luxor, Cabico, Elmwood, Crystal, Dura-Supreme, Brookhaven/Wood-Mode, Qualtiy Custom Cabinetry Inc.

This post was edited by jakuvall on Tue, Jan 13, 15 at 8:00

"Shiloh, Innermost (aka Design-Craft), Canyon Creek, Merit, Luxor, Cabico, Elmwood, Crystal, Dura-Supreme, Brookhaven/Wood-Mode, Qualtiy Custom Cabinetry Inc."

Jakuvall, I assume you have some experience in each company you listed? In your opinion where would they land in ballpark pricing for the OP's project...sell price not dealer buy price?

I just answer as to what is out there- the budget is realistic could make the budget in most any- just depends.

I have worked with Luxor, Elmwood, Brookhaven, Wood-Mode, Cabico, and Quality Custom.
-a few others I investigated extensively, a few I run up against and I've worked with 3 others not on the list.

I'd investigate what is available where you are buying. Present your budget, see what is offered, how they work- then make your decision based on an overall assessment of WHO you are buying from.

Just shopping brands is like throwing darts at a barn- you will likely to hit something but it may not be on target.

Am I missing something? With a budget like that s/he should be able to get custom whatever he wants and still come in under budget...?

Thanks to all for your comments. I would have thought with the budget that I would not be significantly restricted, but I have gotten quotes as high as 80k for cabinets (and that is for semi-custom not custom). I was told for Crystal that we couldn't get frameless with a simple Shaker door in our budget. Unfortunately Cabico is not available in my area. I have Shiloh in my bathroom which I like so we are definitely considering it again.

I started shopping cabinet lines rather than designers as I have found designers I like but they carry no cabinets I like, or their price is significantly over budget, or the advice they give is questionable given what I've read on this forum, or they simply want to design the kitchen of their dreams not mine. I was hoping to simplify the process by narrowing down to several cabinet lines and then meeting with designers that carry those lines and seeing who fits personality wise.

Where do Inner-most (aka Design Craft), Merit, Luxor, Elmwood rank amongst cabinets? I've seen the rank-list on this site of various cabinets and don't see them listed.

Just thought I'd mention that Barker is frameless. They are RTA but have some customization available. And they get good reviews on here.

Brookhaven and DuraSupreme's frameless are very high end, at least to my eye. They are also very well respected and in many areas, it seems. You might want to check them out.

My budget is lower and I'm considering Bellmont 1900, Barkers and IKEA.

I am using Scherr's. They are a custom RTA company. I liked Barker's as well. But, I was intimidated by their website. I contacted custom cabinet shops and got a referral to an independent KD. I paid her to create my plan. Scherr's worked up the specifications for me. They should be delivered around the first of March. I think I am saving around 35% to 40% by assembling them myself. My carpenter is available to provide back up assembly if I get myself into trouble.

80 k really? -shaker? What brands?, which didn't you like? why? what is driving the cost?

Per foot pricing doesn't work the way it is usually done. We do manage to ballpark based kitchen footage just a relative guess.

Kitchen footage counts every run of cabinets along each wall, that means that corners count in both directions, include appliances. It really doesn't matter how many fewer wall cabs there are actually if there are as much a run of walls as bases the guess will be too low.

When I looked at your list I took the 33 ft to be feet of kitchen- I think that may not be the case?
Taking a second look at your list- 33' lowers, one DW, 36 range and 36 fridge, plus 4.5 talls about 46 ft of kitchen- if there are a couple of uncounted corners you could be at 52 feet if kitchen. Just compared to a current job in py frameless brand that typically is a tad less than Crystal and guesstimate is in the lower 30's. Must be missing something.

To answer your question-approximate price in groups low to high-
1-Shiloh, Luxor, Innermost, Elmwood
2-Elmwood, Brookhaven, Luxor, Merit, Cabico
3-Cabico, Dura Supreme, Elmwood, Luxor
4-Wood-Mode, Elmwood, QCCI
5-QCCI

Those listed multiple times have multiple construction options. Merit is a more of a guess than the others.

Sorry to hear your having a rough time searching. The right "who" should be offering ways to make the budget in a give and take process.
BTW I often disagree with things on this site :)

I did an extensive cabinet search in my area and found a local frameless cabinet shop..... They made their cabinet on site in a workshop behind their showroom that I was able to tour. It was very reasonably priced..... frameless cabinets should be since they're not using as many materials. However, I will caution you that the people really need to know how to install frameless cabinets. Frameless cabinets are just as strong as framed cabinets AS LONG AS THEY'RE INSTALLED CORRECTLY. I felt comfortable with my cabinet makers since all they did was frameless.

I'm attaching the link of my cabinet maker so you can have an idea of the type of place you should look for in your area. Most people on this forum that I have spoken to, I was able to find them one in their area with a quick Google search.

Here is a link that might be useful: Design Line Kitchens- NJ

We have Ultracraft, a frameless line that is comparable with Innermost. Another option for you to consider. ETA, Innermost is available at Home Depot. It is also sold as Design-Craft in independent Kitchen and Bath stores.

This post was edited by vinudev_liny on Wed, Jan 14, 15 at 11:43

redmonkey where are you located? we had custom frameless cabinets done in a shaker style. our kitchen is roughly 14x11 U-shape with a peninsula (so almost square) and our custom cabinetmaker was wayyyy less than other quotes we got from KDs with semi custom lines (including ultracraft, design craft and shiloh, though the shiloh cabs we got quoted were for inset but that was a free upgrade). if you are in the new york area might be an option for you. they haven't been installed yet, but we saw the build and are finalizing color now. a whole other challenge (who knew there were so many whites to choose from?!)

Jakuvall --
Unfortunately the 80k quote came from a KD who created a design and then told us that would be the cost of cabinets, but we never picked cabinets and I don't know which brand (although I know they carry QCCI and a variety of Eurpean brands).

Got told by another KD that we couldn't get frameless in Crystal in our budget. And we didn't really like Medallion which they offered as the in budget option.

Truly, I have no idea why the numbers we are getting quoted seem so much higher than what others on this forum seem to be quoted. We aren't using fancy wood, crazy stains, a huge number of inserts, etc. These quotes have been for very basic doors/woods.

I have always viewed this project as a series of compromises--either budget gives or we compromise what we get/want. Just seems that the quotes we have been getting really are pushing our cabinet choices to lower tier cabinets.

I keep hoping that I can find the right "who" who will work to find the right compromises but have so far come up short. That's the only reason we switched our approach to "find the right cabinet and then we'll work with the designer(s) that carries that line".

AGK2003--I live in Denver, so along way from NY. I've also found that there are many lines listed on this forum that simply aren't available in Denver.

Have you priced out Shiloh? I'm down in Colorado Springs and have been working with an awesome shop here but it's obviously an hour away from you. What aspects of box and drawer construction are important to you? That will also narrow your search significantly

I've had Innermost shaker-style cabinets for about 18 months. They have been very durable and great for us. They are also fairly inexpensive (I don't know how big your kitchen is, but you can buy a lot of cabinets for $30K -- at HD the discounts really brought the price down. We spent less than half that.)

I bought the optional upgrade to plywood - not sure if I needed it but am happy with what I purchased.