The best quality cabinets are hand-made. I've had experience with Heritage, Poggenpohl, Bentwood, and Craft-Maid (with a C, not a K) and they are all exceptional. There are also some well made stock cabinets from use Marsh Furniture Company and quite a few semi-custom lines like Cuisimax USA, among many others. I would avoid home center lines and ready-to-assemble cabinets if you want anything custom.

Our price range is 20k-25k.

We just a quote from Kemper. At our price level. Our these quality cabinets?

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Kemper makes a great quality mid grade cabinet. All 1/2 construction and with quality soft close hardware standard on doors and drawers. Avoid mitered painted doors, but avoid those in any cabinet line.

If you are saying your 20K-25K budget is for cabinetry and not the entire kitchen, then I can highly recommend Omega semi-custom in either the Embassy line or their Full Access. High quality all wood construction with excellent finishes.. Expect to pay more for any specialty and or painted finishes..

Yes, just the cabinets. Great!! We will check them out as well!!

You'll have to have a small kitchen or small want list to use Omega semi custom. Most projects in them have averaged 35-55K for me. Of course, those have all been inset, which is a 15% upcharge before you even get to the paint upcharege, and other features.

I don't think our kitchen is small so might not be for us.

Thank you for all your replies!

I love my DuraSupreme cabinets. I went with a semi-custom line and am thrilled with the results.

My Brookhaven contractor grade have held up very well to four kids, just shy twenty years.

KBC Design, is that price just for the cabinets or does it in c lude install as well?

I went w/ Wood-Mode's Brookhaven line. In round numbers, we spent $32K for cabs only. That includes 8'W pantry wall, 5.5'W hutch, 6.5'W oven/fridge wall, 8'W island & almost 12'W sink wall. We got some upgrades, like lattice door fronts on one section of sink wall & hutch, beveled glass doors above sink & desk area of hutch, shaker end panels on island & sink wall. On sink wall also got appliance garage, mixer lift stn. & 2-bin trash cab. Island included two spice pull-outs. Lower section on pantry, & 1 section each on sink wall & island have roll-out shelves.

Thanks Bruce. I'm glad to know that when I see prices posted here that in general they are just for the cabinets. I have a 12x12 kitchen with cabinets only on 2 sides (l shape). those 2 sides also includes the fridge, stove sink and dishwasher, so I done have a whole lot of cabinets. I am adding a 24" pantry which will add to the expense.

MollyM440, our original K wasn't big either, which is why it was dysfunctional. It had peninsula, which we originally planned to move 10" twd DR & nuke its uppers, which blocked line of sight & light from patio doors. But our CKD recommended nuking peninsula altogether & installing an island. The island afforded tons of storage & w/o peninsula we were able to take sink wall cabs almost all the way to patio doors. In the old "L" of sink wall, there was much useless space in uppers & lowers due to inaccessibility & one had to lean over countertop to reach what was on far corner of it. The sink wall cabs now have almost 2' more of usable, functional space. Before reno, we used broom closet down hall as aux pantry, as well as institutional-style rack in garage. So much more functional. We still have rack in garage, but it's now for bulk items, not everyday stuff.

Sounds nice! My designer wanted to add an island, but I don't want one. Just don't think it will work in my kitchen
Glad that you are happy with the results.

MollyM440, I went thru all that b/c we have a lot more cabinetry than a K w/ our s.f.-age would suggest. Even if we'd stayed w/ original plan to move peninsula, better design would have been a big improvement. But "Sydney's Revolution" made it an huge improvement. She's our CKD, & the revolution is effectively rotating peninsula 90º to create island. There's 30% overlap of original range w/ island rangetop, so vent ducting & electrical didn't have to be moved, & gas & electrical already in place.

Hi Bruce, what line of Brookhaven did you get?

Lana, I'd have to confirm w/ CKD, but I think it's B-hvn II, the frameless line. It's definitely frameless. Door style is Colony, wood is maple, stain is Cordovan. Over sink & desk on hutch have beveled glass, on cab over garage & upper on hutch, diagonal lattice.

Lana, I'm on phone & don't have a lot of pics. Here's one from DR that shows end of island, sink wall & fridge/oven wall in bkgnd. Upper at far end has lattice, over sink beveled glass. Mixer stn. under toaster, garbage betw. it & sink. Not shown are pantry & hutch.

Don't buy Merilatt. We bought white Merillat cabinets as our previous maple ones we had for 15 years were Merilatt and beautiful. Their quality is awful, holes cracks, joints that show. We had the Merilatt rep come over to our home, he acted as of "we should just deal with it" he did order us about 1/2 of the new doors we requested which are in worse shape than the originals!!! I wish I would've known the quality of Merilatt before, I would have looked at another line!! We are now dealing with a lawyer-YES they are that bad!

I can say Wood-Mode/Brookhaven has great service. We had one piece that had blotches in the stain. I gave a pic to our CKD, she communicated w/ them & they FedEx'd replacement to us. There was a delay b/c everything is made to order but the replacement was perfect. No hassles.

Also check out Elmwood Cabinetry from Canada. We use them all the time. Semi-custom. They have a page on houzz...do a search.

@bruce thank you so much for the photos. Your cabinets are beautiful!

@Lana, thx. Here's pic of hutch. Bottom drwr under broom closet against wall is doggie feeding stn. I can post pic of pantry wall tomorrow if you like.

@bruce Thank you, I'd love to see that if you have time!

@Lana, will do. I have more pics on my desktop.

I had a tight budget and choose Kraftmaid after spending many trips to different stores. We were working with a 203K loan and wanted to keep our costs low and quality good. I know this is below your budget; I'm sharing my experience for those out there with a similar budget. We are not PROS or wealthy, but we wanted a good kitchen that would withstand trends and not hamper us in case of resale.

We took our kitchen down to the studs ... installed red oak flooring, crown moulding, Romano Bianco granite counters, KitchenAid stove, Samsung fridge, KitchenAid dishwasher, granite composite undermount sink, Moen faucets. We had additional work done, but the cabinets, hood and range came to about 15K.

what brand of cabinets did you use?

@Amyzing, love your handle! Clever. Your K reno sounds interesting. Got pics?

@Lana, here's the pantry wall. The double door side also has roll-out shelves. At 70-y.o., these are a welcome option as we don't have to get on knees to reach what's at rear of lower shelves. The pantry & hutch area had been an 9'W, 5.5'D on hutch side & 8'D on pantry side breakfast nook. Also I've attached a better pic of fridge & oven wall. Cab over ovens has vertical dividers for cookie sheets, platters, etc.

@Mimi Jensen. Which product line in Merilatt had the quality control issues?

One of my favorite lines is Executive cabinetry. Also we are a dealer in Omega cabinets which are beautifully made and in my kitchen. I have designed kitchens for 30 years. Traveling everywhere in the US from ultra contemporary to warm traditional styles.