I've never used that Merillat line but when I had Merillat cabinets, they were very responsive when there were issues with some of them. Of course, that was before all precrazy days of building right now, so who knows how they are now.

I know Reico carries other lines, at least they do in my area. Perhaps the green color is limiting your options, not sure. Can you check other brands at Reico?

Personally, I think the current cabinets while very nice are as you say, very traditional. Have you looked into getting new cabinet fronts and keeping the boxes on cabinets that will stay? Don't know what the options are for that in your area so you may not be able to get the color you want without going to a cabinet maker. So maybe you could do a blend, new fronts on the existing and all new on the added ones.

All the best to you on your project!

Merillat is just Kraftmaid with a different name. Same OH factory, same everything. Starmark is overpriced dreck. Pull those out and sell them, and recoup a little towards new cabinets. You just lowered the price delta further, or in the black, and ended up with a better product.

To get the best possible price for used cabinets, you need to really document well what you have. You will need a floor plan, with cabinet sizes, and indicating the finished sides, and any internal organizational aids. List the age, brand, door style, color, and who locally carries them, so that the buyer can source additional to make them work in their kitchen. Make sure they are advertised as ”almost new”.

Take a copy of that to the local kitchen place that sells them, with $100 for the lead designer, and they might even help you sell them to a builder or flipper client. Because they will get additional $$ out of selling more parts to make it fit.

Thanks for the reply! Yeah that was my hangup on the current cabinets. If we're going to spend the money we might as well get it done the way we want it.

Reico carries Merillat, Ultracraft, Greenfield and Green Forest. I don't know anything about those brands, but the designer at Reico told me the Green Forest is going to be on the more custom end and the price will match. If one was significantly higher quality I would certainly consider it even if it costs a bit more.

I did get a quote to reface the current cabinets, paint, and add new cabinets, but it was $3K higher than just replacing them all! I was very surprised by that.

Here's a really crazy idea to check out. Can your builder get J&K cabinets? If so, it might be worth it to get those and have them professionally painted to the color of your choice. They are very inexpensive but surprisingly well made. I put them in my laundry room when i did my kitchen/LR/DR laundry room reno. I figured if I was doing simple shaker style there, why spend a lot of money. I did all custom with a local cabinet maker for the kitchen so I wanted to save someplace and J&K did that in the laundry room with excellent quality. Of course, that was four years ago before things went crazy so who knows these days.

if 26 k was price for all the work to get to the picture with all new green Merillat I'd work off that. If it does not involve labour /other elements of project with this GC then I guess you might make a case to look elsewhere. So for 26 k with GC all lined up and all work included???? I might go forward with a couple tweaks. I am not sure what attracts you to the green but leaving it intact as shown except on the walls around the U area is what I'd do. Could you place white wall cabs to the right of window and around the corner ? As far as Merillat Masterpiece you should be okay. They are so huge and been around since the get go. Remember reviews are generated often when something was amiss and lots of factors play into that. Double check what quality drawer glides/ cabinet construction and warranties and call back procedures . Double check that full extension and typical upgrades are included vs you must make selections. What are the details behind your pantry doors as far as roll outs ...anything else??? Getting back to the overall: my hunch if this is just cabinet price its just okay......you still have more costs with GC. If you like the GC it might be worth going w this as opposed to quitting and starting over. Change the wall cabs and if you like everything else just double check the details/specs and move on it . Thats what I'd do.

$26K is just the price of the cabinets and I double checked the quote that it includes full overlay doors, full extension drawers, all plywood construction. The pantries and several of the base cabinets include the roll out trays.

We are renovating the whole house with our GC and have already been at it for months so there’s really no going back as far as that selection. Since we’re removing a load baring wall, vaulting the ceiling and reconfiguring the layout, the cost is about $16K for labor and building materials. The counters will be around $11-13K as I want a full height backsplash and waterfall on the end of the peninsula. The kitchen project won’t be for months as cabinets are currently all 6 months out and we haven’t placed the order yet because we’ve been indecisive.

I added some pics of the room the kitchen will be opening up to. We’ll be removing that whole wall between the kitchen and dining area and adding bar seating on the peninsula. We are also removing the railing and raising that “pit” to be level with the rest of the dining area so it will be much more open. The view from the dining room is out into the trees and it’s very green most of the year (this picture was from last winter when we bought the house so you don’t get the full affect). Also the whole interior of the house is painted a yellowy beige and we’re going to have it repainted to eggshell white as we feel it looks rather dingy as is.

We like the green b/c we are surrounded by trees and have dark wood trim. We liked the idea of bringing some of the color inside and not adding more wood. Originally we wanted dark navy but decided the green went with the spirit of the house more. The house was built in ‘77 so not truly MCM, but has that vibe. I do like the kitchens posted above, but I’m not sure about adding more dark wood even though it would fit the house. It is something to think on though.

You don't have to do dark wood, you can do light wood. What will the floors be in the kitchen? I highly recommend drawers in lower cabinets vs. pull out shelves. I've had both and it's drawers for the win.

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Since all the trim in the house is dark wood we figured if we did wood, we should stick to a similar color. Not sure if I like the look of light wood honestly. It reminds me of IKEA for some reason. If we went with stained over painted I’d probably prefer a medium dark similar to the third picture in Beverly’s post. I am a bit conflicted now about doing wood vs doing the original green we picked.

We were planning on tiling the floor- a light color tile though we haven’t chosen it yet. The dining area will be a medium dark hardwood. I do prefer tile in my kitchen just because if there are spills, etc I don’t have to panic about the wood getting wet. Plus we have two dogs who drip water after drinking, lick the floor etc lol.

Wanted to thank everyone for their input! We had the kitchen designer back out yesterday and we decided to go for slab front cabinets in a medium stain with brushed gold hardware. Here’s the updated design and the stain color (the stain color is on a sample door, this is not the door style we chose).

Just read through all of this looking for reviews on Merillat Masterpiece. Hoping you might see this and share if that is how you went? I love the medium stain and slab change you decided on. I hope your project is complete and you are loving it!

We did go with the Merillat Masterpiece. It’s been a super long process because we are renovating our whole house and made major structural changes to the kitchen/dining area. I actually haven’t even seen the cabinets yet as they’ve been sitting in boxes in my garage for months! The crew is here today getting them unboxed and ready to install so I’m very excited. I will post a picture once they’re in.

Thank you! And good luck! I hope you love them!

The kitchen is pretty much complete…except Merillat sent us cabinets with doors that are too big. Half the cabinet doors don’t close and they are rubbing when you open them and getting scratches. For $22K top of the line cabinets it’s pretty irritating to have this big of an issue. They tried to “solve” the problem with new hinges but of course that didn’t work so they’re finally ordering new doors for us that are the right size. We love the look of the cabinets and they do feel as if they’re well made so I’m hoping once the doors are replaced we’ll have no further issues.

I had Merillat Masterpiece (Civano was the door style I believe, maple) installed in my kitchen in 2011. Our house was a very traditional style. I absolutely loved them and they held up beautifully through three kids and a dog. We sold our house in 2019 and the cabinets looked as good as the day they were installed.