I'd suggest taking a look at Bakers and Scherrs--both sell RTA cabinets available through their website and both also sell doors for ikea cabinets. Both have gotten good reviews on previous threads on these forums. We are going with Barker, but aren't far enough in the process to give a review yet.

A range splurge involves a budget for the vent and makeup air both, not just the range. Be sure to double your budget for that, or halve your budget instead and choose something else. Be very careful of having the Bluestar needing to be matched in appearance and quality for the rest of the kitchen. You wouldn't pair a $900 white top mount fridge with it for instance. Not if you want the house to look cohesive.

You said you've budgeted for pro appliances and not just a range so we don't need to worry about hoods and matching fridges and stuff. So good. If you have the exact models/sizes already selected that helps.

Go to some of the big kitchen shops that have multiple lines and just poke around.

I find it really helps to have a basic layout first if you're actually getting pricing. Then your shopping is simplified because everyone is quoting about the same thing. There are also things that can be done to make a layout itself less expensive--sometimes a bank of big drawers is less expensive and just as functional as 2 banks of smaller drawers in the same space, for example.

We've budgeted for the Blue Star (floor model discounted), Range Hood (tbd), Kitchen Aid dishwasher (higher-end model), and a Fisher and Paykel French Door Fridge. I understand the need for the kitchen to look cohesive, but in my opinion that doesn't mean highest end cabinets. I really think that it will look beautiful with slab-door cabinets and white countertops, whether we go with Ikea/Semi-Handmade or something else. I definitely wasn't suggesting a white fridge....

Factor in that MUA first. It can ruin your budget for everything else if you don't account for that expense. And stay out of the box stores.

Ditto on the Make Up Air. MUA is an issue because of huge volume of air that ventilation units are removing from the house. There are codes in effect since 2009, that require Make Up Air where a ventilation unit moves over 400 cfm (varies by location).

Here's an article:

About Make Up Air Requirement

The information about MUA is fascinating. I will discuss with our contractor. We don't have a fireplace or open chimney in our living space and we do have super drafty single-pane windows (maybe they will help by letting air in?). Thanks for the help. We're going heavy on appliances because my husband is a very serious home chef. It just makes more sense for us to focus our budget there for our lifestyle and we plan to be in this house a LONG time.

Get a cabinet quote from a local cabinet maker. We were able to get some really well built cabinets for a much better price that way but we did have to stain them ourselves.

I also recommend finding a local cabinet maker vs. box stores.

Semi custom vs. custom affords amazing customization.

Consider lower cost wood choices like maple vs. cherry.

Consider a simple design like Shaker vs. intricate edges and layering.

Reconsider how incredibly important cabinets are and that you want quality that lasts, function that utilizes as much space as possible for storage, and most of all, be sure you or your designer measure twice and order once. This includes making sure your cabinets and drawers do not interfere with the appliances you've chosen.

Did not go with a "local cabinet maker" because they were no less expensive and the finishes did not seem to be as durable. JMHO

Picked Shiloh, felt it offered the most value for $$$ spent. Medallion was my 2nd choice.

No, our finish is not as durable because we finished them ourselves but we were able to save about $7k total on cabinets by choosing custom in our area of the country where custom is the more affordable option. Our cabinet maker offered to finish them in a shop in a controlled environment for an additional $2k. It all comes down to personal preference and what you find to be most important if you are trying to stick to a budget.

There IS a huge difference in durability between a cabinet that is consumer painted on site with house paint and a cleanroom finished cabinet finished with a high solids conversion finish. Just read the KCMA Testing Procedures to see if you think a locally produced cabinet can achieve that quality. And then test for yourself.

We have Kraftmaid cabinets. We tried Lowes first and they took almost a month to come up with a proposal using my designer's plans. I felt like I was being jerked around, so I sent my designer's plans to Designer Cabinets Online (after talking to them on the phone) and got a proposal in about 2 days. And the cost was about 40% less than Lowes. It was a little scary buying remotely, but I was really, really happy with the results! Cabinets arrived ontime as promised.

FYI, I went with Kraftmaid because I wanted reliable and fast, and they had all the features I wanted with solid construction.

I whole-heartedly agree regarding being careful with painted cabinets. We have friends whose custom cabinets were painted in the standard way (like you'd paint your walls), and the paint wore and chipped and looked terrible within a year. They keep bringing the cabinet maker back for touchups. The same cabinet maker does great with stained wood cabinets, but you need the industrial, baked-on paint for painted cabinets. Kraftmaid's paint finish is excellent. We also have a custom shop that uses the industrial paint finish process, and we used them for other parts of the house.

I don't doubt that a conversion finish is more durable than painting in the home. However, we last painted the kitchen cabinets in a rental around 2000-2001 so the finish is about 15 years old. The finish is just fine. No chipping or anything. My laundry room has a lot of built-in pantry cabinets and they were painted in the early 90's. The only small chip, and it is quite small and barely noticeable, where we bonked it when moving some furniture through the adjacent door. A good finish can be achieved with painting. But it is a LOT of work requiring proper prep, thin coats, and curing between coats and before the cabinets get heavy use. We'll be painting our cabinets during our remodel and I'm really not looking forward to it. I'll need to focus on knowing how much more I'll like it when it's done because the process will drive me crazy. Just my meager 2 bits.

I have to admit I'm sometimes confused by reports about site-painted cabinets not holding up well. Our 60's site-built cabinets are original to the house, and they were painted in the mid 80's. (Sadly, not in a color I'd choose.) Obviously painted by pros, very well done; brushed on, but the brush marks are barely visible. After 30 years (!) there is almost no chipping or visible paint failure.

Probably in the 80's there were less EPA restrictions on paint ingredients; was the paint quality better back then? When I read comments about painted cabinets "looking terrible within a year" I wonder if it has to more do with the way those particular cabinets were painted...and with the quality of the paint the painters used...and how well they prepped...than the fact that they were painted, or painted on site in a home. I am puzzled how our site-painted cabinets have held up so well, while newer painted cabinets seem to have more problems.

We used a local cabinet maker. My kitchen isn't very big, and I wanted to make good use of every available inch, so completely custom was important to me. I had heard nothing but terrific things about this company, which has been in business in our community for 20+ years.

I was thrilled with the results, and I feel like I got a heck of a lot of value for my money. Two years later, my kitchen is everything I dreamed it would be, and my cabinet guy made the process as painless as possible.