It's rather hard to beat the quality of IKEA for the price. APCI is a huge company, and you'll find varying quality problems if you research any of their brands. If you'd be able to visit showrooms in person and take a look, I think the quality differences of these brands you're considering will be evident. Look at the tolerances of the gaps and how tightly things fit. Compare pricing to the number of in-cabinet accessories you would be able to get. Most of all, look at door styles. Once you get to a certain price level, it's the door style that will guide you to which company you'd be most happy with. If you want to go a little more expensive than IKEA, the UltraCraft brand is also fairly well-built, though not without its quality and warranty issues. I understand wanting to comparison shop, as well you should, but just be sure that what you see in the showroom of big box store brands isn't worse than what you'd get from IKEA for the same or better pricing.

This is exactly the kind of info I am looking for. As I said, I haven't priced out these Modico cabinets at all whereas I have a fairly good idea of how much IKEA would cost. I may be wrong, but I believe that one of the big savings that comes into play with IKEA is that their insert add-ons are restively inexpensive compared to the cost when one goes with other lines of cabinetry. Thanks.

Yes, the add-ons that IKEA offers are great. If you can catch an APCI brand on sale somewhere, then some people have had good success with them, but I would never pay full price. Lowe's often runs huge percentage off discounts. IKEA used to run sales with their cabinetry, but the word I'm hearing is that they're not doing that so much any more and backing off to smaller sales on components, so I wouldn't necessarily wait to purchase if you decided on IKEA. With any frameless line, you'll want to keep your cabinetry widths narrow enough to prevent sagging. I did a walk-in closet with IKEA cabinetry and have some sagging on the larger shelf widths. Check The Sagulator to help you calculate this.

They have very limited availability in the US.

"They have very limited availability in the US."

Who is they?

Ikea kitchen cabinets are completely different construction than their wardrobe series. Kitchens are better quality with Blum metal drawers. Look at the drawer hardware to compare the various manufacturers.

I have been using Ikea for my kitchen designs for over 20 yrs and I still love them , IMO you can’t beat the quality and warranty anywhere for the price. BTW they are also very user friendly if you want to tackle DIY. As for sales they still do kitchen events, bedroom events just like always . The new line form them has some really amazing choices for storage and arrangement. The best is to sit down with the planner and do a design then check out the price , take that exact design to where ever and check prices . Please remember to also check warranty too., Most of the time when anyone has Issues with Ikea it is because they did not follow instructions. The cabinets do not require any glue which seems to always be one of the issues that pop up. The way yhey hand the cabinets on the wall is amazing and so easy until somee one thinks they have a better idea, there is no better idea.

If anyone is interested cabinets manufactured by APCI, the guy at Lowe's told me they are located in Pennsylvania and there is a government mandated shut-down there so the factory is not currently producing any goods.

Many cabinet manufacturers are in PA. They’re all closed. The mandated shutdown is not news, unless you’ve been under a rock.

I am in the planning phase as well, went to Lowe’s for 2.5 hours to sit with a KD. Houzz is right when they say some are good, most are bad! It was the worst experience! I do Love Ikea, but if you need special size cabinets, how do you handle that? The Modico line peeked my inter st and preference but the KD didn’t know anything. I asked her how long they have had them and she said Jan! When I commented on the more space with frameless, she said, “that’s what people think”...lol. When I gave her my measurements and overall design I wanted and I asked her about her recommendations on where to put Appliances, she asked me where do I want them....ugh.. From my research on Houzz...it seems Schuler makes a decent quality cabinet and is the same as Medallion. So, I may go price out Medallion with a real KD, then have Lowes price it out with Schuler and Modico. At least the placement and sizes of cabinets will be correct. Lowes runs 30% off. Kitchens like now regularly and sometimes have additional discounts such as 10% when using a Lowes CC.

In an older post here, it was mentioned Schuler hanging. rails may need to be reinforced for cabinets with heavy dishes.

. .

"If you have the budget, price out Aspect from William Ohs, Prelude from Plato Woodworking, or Harmoni from Bentwood. Those are 3 entry-level lines to outstanding manufacturers with flawless warranty service. "

Are these lines frameless?

There’s absolutely no issue for experienced installers with the hanging rails in Medallion. The only issues with the line arise from the inexperienced designers at Lowes selling the Schuler badge. Which is why they are not allowed to sell inset. And the reason they have not carried frameless. It’s a huge risk to work with a cabinet salesperson who doesn’t have a clue about either. And they haven’t been willing to take that risk.

Frameless choices are only in certain market segments as a test to see how much money they lose over issues. Before they think about rolling it out nationwide. The last time they had a nationally available frameless line was Kraftmaid’s Valencia line. And that was a huge money lost disaster in badly designed kitchens. I don’t know what they think will change this time. They offer even less training than they did 20 years ago! As in, virtually none other than “shadowing” for a week. . Your “cabinet specialist” could have been selling lawn mowers the week before.

Frameless and big box is not a wise bet.

@julieste Harmoni is frameless. Prelude is framed. I believe Aspect is also framed. I'm waiting on a quote for my own kitchen from Jay Rambo, another great company that does both framed and frameless.

live_wire_oak

Thanks so much for the lowdown on the frameless cabinetry choice at Lowe's! It's interesting because I did have one salesperson at Lowe's (or was it maybe Home Depot) who mentioned that they used to have a frameless line, and then all of a sudden it disappeared.

@back2work Thank you. I met with the owner that sells Medallion and their version of what Modico is for frameless, I think. It’s called Design Craft. I will not go back to Lowe’s!

Are you saying that Medallion is not a good cabinet? From reading on here no I have read it’s a good semi-custom cabinet. I will look at what you have recommended. Thank you!

@Dana In order to fully evaluate Medallion, you need to also look at Schuler reviews. They are the same cabinet company made on the same assembly line with the same customer service department and exact same quality control. Here are links to a few reviews to help you get started in your research:

• September 28, 2018 - Medallion fails to fulfill lifetime warranty on over 20 cabinet doors with finish rubbing off
• March 2020 - Schuler cabinets with mutliple quality issues, finish defects, customer feels "sick" about it
• February 4, 2016 - Reviewer Paula Alonzi said the Medallion rep warned her that they don't stand behind warranty and 10 years is most you can expect from the cabinets lasting in good condition
• 2 years ago - Scroll down thread to find recent comments on Schuler finish blistering from mariacc2
• April 7, 2015 - So many damaged or broken pieces with new Medallion cabinetry that rep would not offer to fix and told customer to fix everything themselves
• 2 years ago - Scroll down to see comments from jenniferpicola about Schuler finish chipping, discoloring, and pieces arriving wrong with no warranty fix that she threatened a lawsuit at Lowe's in attempt to get service

This is merely a start. You can find quite a few other reviews around the web. Keep in mind that positive reviews are sometimes from dealers who have never lived with the cabinetry and may not be disclosing their position as a dealer or designer who has no real-life experience living with the cabinetry they recommend.

There are so many other companies that get stellar reviews for quality, customer service, and warranty fulfillment that if it were my hard-earned dollar, I wouldn't risk going with a company that has even two or three negative reviews about failure to fulfill warranty terms. Every company will have a quality or manufacturing mess-up now and then, but many failures especially with long-term wear of finishes with no follow-up on stated warranty terms is a huge red flag.

I did read some already that did concern me...reminds me of when we bought a top of the line Sterns and Foster Mattress. It’s failed in less then a year and they wouldn’t warranty it! So,I’ll never make that mistake again! I did make an appointment with one of the companies you recommended that has frameless cabinets. Thank you for your input!

@backtowork I see that you are looking at Jay Rambo cabinets. I know this is difficult to do, but how much are they? Are they the same as Bentwood cabinets? I have absolutely no idea what costs are for cabinets. The Bentwood sales person isn’t the most cooperative. I do want good quality. Thank you!

A bit late to the thread, but this is really a PSA for anyone out there contemplating buying Modico cabinets; don’t do it. This is my sixth kitchen I’ve gutted/renovated. Due to the pandemic, most boutique cabinet stores in our area were shut down, so we went to Lowe’s to buy cabinets. Despite the terrible reviews, we had a very good designer at Lowe’s and we thought, how bad could the cabinets be? Turns out, very, very bad. We did an entire kitchen in Modico and the quality of the product and service is the worst I have ever experienced. Seven months in and we still have defective cabinets, missing pieces that we never received and mismatched pieces (we did an all white kitchen but received cabinets in two different whites, two different door front styles, and two different cabinet interior colors). The construction is flimsy and the paint finish is very poor quality (in multiple places, you can see the wood underneath and seams cracking). We have not gotten any meaningful response or help from either Lowe’s or the cabinet company. I would 100% stay away from Lowe’s for cabinets or the company that makes Modico.

So sorry to hear about your experience! Thanks you for updating so others will avoid this product. Unfortunately, I think the pandemic has created many problems for many people who have planned to re-do kitchens. In our case, we've kind of just given up for a while, and your caution is sending me back to my original plan to use IKEA (when their supply chain problems become resolved).

@Dana I missed seeing your question last year, but if you are still shopping, Jay Rambo will come in less than most any equivalent Bentwood quote. I also had difficulty getting service from the Bentwood rep system, which is a shame because they put out a good product. The Prelude line from Plato Woodworking and the Ascend line from William Ohs are also good options to consider.

@julieste The price of lumber has been going up and up from summer of 2020 through early 2021. I don't know that I would put off anything for fear the costs would continue to rise and come back down anytime soon. IKEA is about the lowest cost option you could get with some modicum of quality, but please spread your net a little wider and consider some other options. For my own remodel, I went with a local, custom manufacturer that provided a good balance of quality to cost.

Design Craft from ACPI are frameless cabinets. I have just completed a design with Design Craft and getting ready to order it. Their factory is located in Indiana, as far as I was told and will be shipped from there. Project is in Columbus, Ohio.

I have installed a couple of Schuler Cabinets. Both Schuler kitchens were ordered from Lowes, I did the design and made sure it was ordered correctly. Didn't have a problem with quality, no replacements, no damages. Here are photos. It was Quartersawn oak, Chestnut finish with Artisan door style. Kitchen was done in 2018, Bar addition was done in 2020. The second Kitchen was done in 2007 in Rustic Alder Natural finish with Dalton Door style.

When you have a modest budget there are not a lot of choices.

@Celery. Visualization, Rendering images Very True. Just out of curiosity.

The Kitchen I've just completed

is in Design Craft (ACPI). Brookhill Door flat panel (Price Group 2), Island is SMOKE, Kitchen is TUMBLEWEED, All Plywood Construction. I am charging $6000 for cabinets. Where do you rate this Kitchen. It as 11 cabinets, 2 shelves, 6" end panel, back panels. Where would you rate the cabinets - Cheap, Affordable, Expensive? Island Countertop is recycled (Baltic Brown) , Kitchen counters are group 1 quartz (coral clay, blanco city or noki) and floor is vinyl plank.

@MAV Design Concepts LLC $6K USD for 11 cabinets is on the cheap end of what any consumer would be able to find in pre-finished cabinetry that is made with a minimum nod to quality, but so much really does depend on door style, finish type, number of drawers, and trim selections in terms of cost. A contractor with a builder's discount putting in unfinished cabinets to be sprayed on site could cut the costs further depending on the basic quality of the cabinetry. My experience shopping for cabinets for a remodel as a consumer paying full price is that most quotes for a 10'x10' standard kitchen with premium door, wood, and finish selections ranged from about $10K USD up to $30K USD with most quotes settling at the $20K USD level in 2019. Generally speaking, the more you pay, the better the reputation of the company and the guarantee of quality and longevity. A lifetime warranty on the finish is standard with high-end cabinetry.

@Aglitter

I agree with you that the price of $6K is low. But, my aim here is to make high end cabinets easily available for remodels to people who cannot afford it and are forced to deal with stock cabinets. We also have to consider the value of the home and how much it will appreciate once the remodel is done. Are they able to salvage 80% of what they invested? In the long run, it costs people more if they have to replace their stock cabinets after 5 years or less. If the budget for the entire remodel is $18K. 1/3 of that is cabinets roughly is reasonable. If the budget for the entire remodel was $10K I wouldn't do the kitchen with ACPI Design Craft line, it'll be stock cabinets. Some new builders are staying away from stock cabinets. It is not necessary that you will get high end cabinets only at high prices. A good designer is able to provide good quality cabinets at affordable prices by smart designing and knows how to cut costs while ordering materials. I have to constantly advice my customers on what will and what won't raise the price and that's how I stay within their budget.

@MAV Design Concepts LLC I thought you were simply asking a question and didn't realize you were demonstrating your method of work, so that's fine. I'll just comment briefly on a few more brand observations for anyone else finding this thread in research.

I hadn't remembered running across the name Design-Craft but looked it up and realized it is a frameless line made by Elkay which also produces Innermost for Lowe's, essentially the same product. Anyone interested in frameless cabinetry from Innermost or Design-Craft should take a look at a showroom installation in person to see the overall box quality, measurement tolerances, and terms of function that the door and drawer hardware will provide. Also you can find reviews of both brands here in the Houzz forums. I'll leave it at that by way of a word of caution. I did look at numerous frameless brands for my remodel including Innermost, Belmont, IKEA, Ultracraft, and alternately a few others on the higher end of the price and quality spectrum as well and ended up going with framed cabinetry, so the price ranges I quoted above are more applicable to framed cabinetry with 5-piece door construction in natural wood. If you are going with laminated cabinetry (usually frameless), you'll find a big difference in longevity between a brand that doesn't apply the edges in a way as to create a waterproof seal and companies that do, and that is one thing that sets apart the brands that offer lifetime warranties on their cabinetry products and have stellar reputations for fulfilling those warranties.