Use Ikea boxes and buy door and drawer fronts from a supplier. These might help:

[https://www.houzz.com/discussions/barker-doors-vs-semihandmade-vs-scherrs-in-ikea-kitchen-results-dsvw-vd~5182903?n=74[(https://www.houzz.com/discussions/barker-doors-vs-semihandmade-vs-scherrs-in-ikea-kitchen-results-dsvw-vd~5182903?n=74)

[https://www.houzz.com/discussions/real-photos-cost-ikea-cabinets-scherrs-solid-shaker-doors-dsvw-vd~5563689?n=39[(https://www.houzz.com/discussions/real-photos-cost-ikea-cabinets-scherrs-solid-shaker-doors-dsvw-vd~5563689?n=39)

Thanks! I feel like an idiot bc I may be missing something here, but I had started down this path and wasn't seeing what I needed either. Meaning I was only seeing either unfinished doors or doors that were pre-finished by Barker, Scherrs, and SemiHandmade in specific colorways (no custom options). I could very well be overlooking something, but I wasn't seeing an option to have a factory finish custom color for doors alone either :(

Having said that, perhaps a better last resort than ditching the color would be to see if I can do Ikea boxes and unfinished doors and see if I can find someone who can provide a more factory-like finish? I will have to look into that as well.

Thanks for the thoughts!

I know Scherrs will custom paint a color..Sherwin Williams deck I think...but there is an upcharge. Another poster realized that she could cut the cost of a custom color order by painting her own panels, island back, and fillers. Thus, they would be wood not mdf as quoted. I have no idea if matching sheen would be an issue. I do not know about Barkers. Good luck!

Finishing correctly, either locally or from a supplier, is not an inexpensive choice. In almost all cases, to get a factory tough conversion varnish from a cabinet finisher, the costs are equal to or more costly than the total costs of the other cabinet components. A painter is NOT a cabinet finisher! Just an cabinet finisher conversion varnish finishing already existing cabinets in a remodel is 7-9K. That’s fairly consistent pricing, for that level of finish. You can save some, because it’s being done 100% in a shop instead of on site. But you are still looking at 5-8K for finishing. Add that to the 7-10K product cost. If you’re paying for assembly too, you need to add 2-3K for that.

Already assembled and finished cabinets from a good manufacturer will be very close in costs by the time you go that route. Unless you really enjoy the DIY bit that you bring to the job, I’d urge you to explore other manufacturers.

Self spraying with a paint like Cabinet Coat is obviously less expensive, but much more labor intensive for you. Plus the potential cost of tools that you may not yet own. That’s the only time that doing the mix and match components makes bottom line sense. You trade off durability for affordability and much more DIY involvement. That’s a trade that plenty of people make in order to keep costs low. I’ve done it for a buffet. But I didn’t need to worry about long term durability there. Plus I already own finishing equipment and an air compressor.

The one thing that will translate into a price difference is the fact that a new door does not have a previous finish that will need to be cleaned and sanded nor will the cab faces. In my area I do not think that getting doors/drawer fronts painted with a conversion varnished finish would run $5-8 thousand. Price will obviously be affected by the number of pieces though. Best bet is to get a Scherrs painting quote and then start looking in your area for someone who will finish locally so you can compare “apples to apples” for painting costs. Then if local painting is an option, getting a Barker door quote if they do not custom paint will give you another point of cost comparison. Hope you get the color you love!

Quality materials and labor have a basement cost. Buy an existing factory made cabinet, in the color and finish that you want. You will be ahead of the game. Beyond the all too true and quite accurate economic reasons listed above, there's the single point of responsibility for the end result. That's a big issue when you are trying to put together different parts from different manufacturers and then have yet another third party try to site customize them.

There are so many things to go wrong, and because there are so many people involved to point fingers at each other, its up to you to resolve, and pay for the resolution. You are acting as the job GC to try to coordinate all of these moving parts and different people. Be sure you are ready for what that really means. One big thing it means is that you need a bigger contingency than you think you do.

I did this price comparison 4 years ago, so there's been 4 years of price increases from everyone. But all of these DIY cabinet scenarios are not as cheap as everyone thinks. Not when you are comparing apples to apples. If you aren't comparing factory finishes and custom sizes, then you aren't being honest about comparing.

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/barker-cabinets-kitchen-designer-layout-help-dsvw-vd~3032345?n=63

I missed a lot of the notifications for this thread, but thank you all for chiming in! I ended up unable to find anything close to what I had originally been looking for (and also finding that the RTA + painting costs really did just add back up close to the original plans). But holding out and having the issue of shopping around ended up working out because the store/line we were looking at had a big sale on our choice that discounted the final price into a range we were more comfortable with and, notably (live_wire_oak you are totally right!!) not that far off from when you added up everything to get it done with Ikea/DIY.