Medallion's Silverline Series (this is their least expensive line). Lancaster (shaker) door in their white paint. Best value in the market in my opinion. Soft close all and you can upgrade exposed ends to be wood. Their fairly new paint process is one of top in the industry. Medallion cabinets build the doors, fill all the joints before final sanding and use a true enamel based paint, not a pigmented stain. They started doing this a few years ago....so ignore any reviews prior to 2014. Bit of advice...don't do a mitered door in paint...no matter what the brand is.

I'm wondering about this pigmented stain vs paint thing. I was looking at Fieldstone cabinets and the dealer insisted that their "tinted varnish" is far more durable than paint. I thought it would look different, but it just looked like paint. This kitchen store carried several brands, but she was really pushing the Fieldstone for quality. True/not true?

We just had Bertch cabinets installed. They are GORGEOUS! We also went with white shaker fronts. I thought we had nice cabinets in our old house but these blow them away.

mcg910, what is the general price point of Bertch? Trying to figure out which brands I should take a look at. Thanks!

I'm curious on that too mcg910. We had Bertch in our old kitchen and liked them (installed before we moved in) and our favorite contractor so far sells them. I don't know how they price out against Medallion premium though, which is what we have now and the best quote we have gotten so far (from Menards, not a private showroom).

Kate - I will say the house we used to live in had Bertch cabinets that were installed several years before we bought the house and still looked beautiful 10 years, 2 kids and 3 dogs later when we moved! They were very nice cabinets, but like you I am not sure how expensive. Our kitchen in the house we just bought has Medallion premium cabinets that were installed over 10 years ago (not sure exactly when, but the owners before the ones we bought from did the kitchen), and they are still look nice and work well too. I wouldn't be afraid to use either of those lines. Not sure on the pricing of the Bertch but the Medallion have been some of the lower cost semi custom cabinets we have gotten quotes for so far.

I am interested in hearing about Bertch as well. They are sold not too far from here and I had considered checking into them, even though I have heard that the place that sells them is expensive.

Lynn - no :-). We have an interior designer who will be involved, and depending on her level of kitchen design ability, we will use a kitchen designer if needed. I imagine they (as well as our builder) will likely have their own recommendations I'll check out, but I feel more confident going into the process if I've done some basic background scouting. Sounds like Medallion has lots of well-deserved fans, as does Bertch.

Bertch might be a little more than Medallion. You may want to see if you can get Great Northern cabinetry. They are a small mid-west cabinet company that makes great cabinets at a Kraftmaid price!

Look into Shiloh. They are a semi-custom company and I've been very happy with their cabinets a year out. Don't assume your interior designer knows anything about kitchen design other than helping you pick colors/product etc. Leave that to someone who plans and orders kitchen cabinets every day and has done so for years.

Debbi - I looked at Great Northern's site and they look good, my main concern is it looks like you have to go to the highest price level to get dovetail drawers. Do you know if that is true? Do you have much experience with them? What is the quality like? They look nice but I can't find a ton of reviews online.

I sold them when I worked at a different location than I do now...They do still offer a basic drawer box and you can upgrade into the better ones. With all the upgrades they were still pricing out the same or even less than Kraftmaid. They do a lot of handwork on their cabinets. They are a small company which is why you won't hear much about them. I sold many kitchens with them - the cabinets are beautiful. It is almost 10 yrs now since I worked with them and one of my clients flips houses - I did her kitchen with them and she still loves her kitchen....

Good luck in your search!

Don't buy brands that make you play upgrade games. Buy the brand that includes everything you want box construction wise as their basic construction. Lines that make you play that upgrade game, aren't true mid grade lines until you play that game. With the associated upcharges that take you over what a true mid grade line would charge you from the beginning. In other words, it's cheaper to start where you want to be than to start off doing a la carte upgrading to get where you went to be.

Sophie, do you have any lines you particularly recommend or with which you've had good experiences?

Thanks Debbi! I contacted a distributor. She is about 2 hours from me but willing to come out here and told me where I can go see some of the cabinets (she is independent so no show room). I am sending her the specs for pricing and if it is online we will go look. Appreciate it, choosing cabinets is so hard!

Sophie - good thing to keep in mind, thanks. We are getting multiple quotes from several different companies and comparing them, with all the things we want in each to get a true comparison. In her post Debbi said her experience was even after paying for the upgrades they were in line with other mid range manufacturers. If that is true it is worth it to me to at least get the quote. I know a lot of companies are standard plywood boxes, after researching here and other places I don't know that I really care if the boxes are plywood, so for me I would prefer the option to upgrade to that (or not) rather than being forced to pay for it because it is standard as is the case with some of the companies we are getting quotes from.

choosing cabinets is so hard!

Yes.

Kudos to her for traveling to you! I hope it's a fruitful visit.

And kudos to Debbi for mentioning the cabinets. We really do appreciate you pros contributing to this forum. It's a jungle out there, we can use all the inside help we can get. :)

You want great brands? Dynasty. Plain and Fancy. Woodmode. Crystal. Better finishes. Much better finishes. Better wood selection, grading, and quality control. Better customization. None are actually ''high end''. But. TANSTAAFL.

Kate, we have a 17 foot wall of upper and lower cabinets, a 13 ft wall of lowers, and a 6 foot wall of lowers and cabinets over the fridge, We also have a 72 in island. I think all of those cabinets were under $10K. That included some other trim pieces for a hidden pantry door.

Thanks, Sophie, that's exactly the sort of list I was seeking. We're happy to pay more for quality, just don't want to pay unnecessarily more, if you know what I mean. In home building we find that the same quality of things often vary greatly in pricing for mysterious reasons or for "name," and that's what we're trying to avoid.

Wow mcg910! That is below my Medallion quote for less cabinets and Medallion is the lowest we've gotten so far. I will definitely be looking to get a quote! Can I ask what area you are in?

Thanks, Debbi - we’ll be checking out several different companies. Unfortunately, it looks like both Candlelight and Great Northern aren’t carried by dealers near us, but I’ve seen recommendations for some Pacific Northwest regional companies that sound similar.

mcg, I know Bertch carries 2 lines. I am assuming this was the stock Market Place line you put in?

@beth09 Market Place and Kitchen Plus according to the invoice. Full overlay shaker door and cabinet. Apologies, it was closer to $14K. I thought the baths/bar were included in the total but they weren't. Hope I didn't throw anyone off track.

@strob06 We are in Iowa. :)

Dynasty cabinets are wonderful as is Omega's Customer Service!

The nice thing about Dynasty is that many of the same door styles and finishes are in both the Omega Dynasty and Omega Pinnacle lines (Pinnacle is Omega's custom line). Why is this nice? Because you can mix and match cabinets from both lines.

We found that when customizing the Dynasty, they often cost more than the Pinnacle cabinets that came standard with the items we were adding (e.g, interior finished to match the exterior). We have a mix of both semi-custom and custom cabinets in our Kitchen for that very reason.

So, Sophie is right, many times upgrading a lower end cabinet will cost more than going straight to the higher-end cabinet that has what you want as standard. I'm not saying that's always the case, but I suspect it is more often than not.

mcg, thanks for getting back. :)