Aristokraft may be cheaper, but honestly you get what you pay for...

Are you building or remodeling?

@Sophie

I am so stealing that Venn diagram.

American Woodmark

Thomasville

Both from HD.

Cabinets to Go

CTG is gawdawful cheepchinesecrapola. Given free to HGTV project’s, so they hawk it. Woodmark isn’t much better, and their white paint has multiple issues. Thomasville is Diamond is Kemper is Schrock. It’s a decent mid grade line. Won’t be appreciably different in price.

IKEA

Shocking isn't it.. Cabinets are very expensive! For those of us who are not in the industry it can come as quite a shock the cost of kitchen cabinets. I urge you to really search and learn all you can about the various cabinet brands. Visit kitchen design centers and even cabinet makers so that you can make an informed decision. You will learn so much on Houzz. ~boxer

btomic-

Consider Ikea cabinets. Snobs may turn up their noses at this, but there are many threads here on GW attesting to the fact that they are of good quality, offer many customizing options and styles, and come with a great warranty (25 year limited warranty).

I have not remodeled my kitchen, but I will definitely choose Ikea when I do. And I have two firsthand-knowledge data points which convinced me:

1. My neighbor with the $2 million dollar house and swimming pool remodeled his kitchen using Ikea, and the cabinets still look great and perform flawlessly after 5 years of use in a family which includes 3 teenagers.

2. My perfection-oriented (Austrian) contractor that I've used for 15 years told me he installed them when he remodeled his own house, and was quite satisfied.

We went with a less expensive bathroom vanity in the powder room because it doesn't get much use. Even so, tends to nick and has bad hinges. You use your kitchen ALL THE TIME. Try to save by doing your own demo and not moving elec. and plumbing. But don't get cheap-cheap cabinets. IMHO

IKEA- great quality- great look- great function.

The funny thing about the IKEA effect is that the folks who will do IKEA, and think they are great quality, are the same ones who turn their noses up at similarly spec’d products that actually have a ton more choices. They are an OK economy choice. But their limitations are huge when comparing them with almost any other economy line. Aristokraft, KM Basics, Wolf, Mid Continent, etc. Those are are economy lines that offer a lot more at similar pricing. Yet they are almost universally despised.

Ikea is not a mid grade choice. They rely on the over estimation of quality bestowed by the personal involvement in their production. Their sizes and doors choices are quite limited. And, they must be assembled. By the time you account for all of that, their value is objectively a C at best.

Spend some time and do your research. I did 5 quotes varying from big box store to local family run to mid sized companies. Big box Kitchencraft were most expensive and definitely not highest quality. small family company got us custom features at a reasonable price. Not the cheapest, but almost. workmanship was excellent. Ask around for recommendations from friends. This is a huge investment and you have to put in the work to get what you want.

Not sure where you are located but the Amish make fantastic cabinetry and where 100% Custom and less than kraftmaid. Kenrose cabinets

We used IKEA cabinets with custom doors and it ran us about 10k for a pretty large kitchen. You can see it in my recent post. The caveats are that we were building new so could design the layout in a way that worked with their sizing with no fillers. My husband did the installation but that didn’t give me any warm fuzzies. I just enjoy the looks of admiration it gets from everyone who walks in.

The cost advantage for IKEA is pretty much only if you assemble and install. If you are using hired labor, there isn't a significant advantage to other similarly priced lines. And one is giving up the ability to utilize space as functionally as possible which can be significant if one's kitchen isn't large or cookie cutter in configuration.

Cabinets are expensive. But they are going to be a part of your home for a LONG time. This is one area that you don't want to cheap out. You will replace your appliances long before your cabinetry. Kraftmaid is reasonable and usually has different promotions to save as well. Try local dealers, shop around and find a sale for a quality product.

I would look carefully at the finish process for Amish or any other local cabinet makers. It takes some expensive equipment to get the best finish.

“Local custom” is usually fake custom, parts assemblers, who slap on housepaint. Ordering boxes from Vendor A, drawer boxes from B, and doors from X,Y, or Z, then pushing off finishing onto a painter? Nope and nope.

If they don’t use any wood imaginable, and make any door profile that you can imagine, and finish it with a conversion varnish in a clean room, then they’re faking it. Evennthe cheapie American brands will not have bugs and dust in the finish, and will outlast that.

I am about done with my Ikea kitchen install - the cabinet cost with installation (including integrated lighting) was $10k for a mid sized kitchen. With top of the line quartz, expensive backsplash and more expensive pulls, the total cost of my kitchen reno is 25k (including a new induction range, I kept the rest of appliances because they were relatively new). Not too shabby and it looks amazing. I priced cabinets at Home Depot - American Woodmark Reading cabinets, without lighting, was $19k. I don't know how much better they are than Ikea (didn't appear to be), but it's quite a difference. So even with paying Ikea installers, my kitchen reno was a bargain with them and the only thing I DIY was painting the walls.

I use Ikea a lot in my KD biz and IMO even with getting help for install if you are willing to take a few hours to assemble best deal for your money and the storage is amazing do not let anyone tell you different. With some patience with planning they can come very close to looking custom. If you wait for the Ikea kitchen event you can save a lot. My advice is go to Ikea long before the event and get their help with the design

Talk to some of your local cabinetry shops. Ask if they make their boxes and their doors in-house. Because, as Sophie noted, some are just assemblers and you can get what they're assembling cheaper elsewhere.

I have a mid-range house and was doing a mid-range kitchen gut. I went with a local cabinetry shop and have been very happy with the results. My total kitchen cost was about $30k with cabinets being about $18k of that.

We heard over and over again that the same quality and features of Ikea cabinets could be found in "economy line" cabinets sold at our local retailers. In our case that was NOT true. We priced out our kitchen in both Ikea and two different brands (IRC Aristokraft and one from HD). We included installation in our Ikea pricing because we found a local non-Ikea affiliated installer who only does Ikea cabinets.
In the end we went with Ikea since the price difference was negligible even with professional installation. We used their stock "Bodbyn" doors in two colors (white and grey).
At the local retailers, lots was made of the dove-tail drawers/plywood vs MDF boxes/finishes/paint. Honestly it came down to us literally going from HD to Ikea in the space of an afternoon and realizing that the Ikea cabinets just felt better and would function better for us. I don't expect any cabinets in this price range to last forever...our original cabinets were crappy builder grade and they managed to last almost 20 yrs so anything we chose would be a step above!
We weren't 'personally involved' in our kitchen installation aside from the normal design choices. We did use Ikea's online kitchen designer to start, and we also used their in-person design service (where you go into the store and spend time with their designers).
Our cabinets were purchased during one of Ikea's kitchen sales and total cost including installation was just under $10k. The installer was also able to do some customization of stock cabinets since he was very familiar with Ikea. Our total kitchen renovation was just under $25k (includes new DW, stove, micro, as well as granite countertops). It was a total gut job since we had a water leak that necessitated complete removal of everything to the studs, but we didn't change the footprint of the kitchen at all.
At any rate, it would probably be in your best interest to take a rough plan to several different retailers and see which ones fall in your price range. Yes, cabinets are expensive but some are more expensive than others. You just have to find the ones that work best for you and your wallet. Good luck!

Do you live in the Northeast? I am working with a family run kitchen cabinet maker who does his production in Amish country. Really good quality cabinets for the price. I did custom bc I was working with an existing space, but semi custom options available that are less expensive. Might be worth a visit to a place like this.