The big boxes will not be beaten on price by any local dealer; HD and American Woodmark have made sure of that. You may have other reasons for going local; price isn't one of them.

No cultured marble in the baths please. Truely a disposable countertop.

After rereading, I realized that Erin is apparently not comparing American Woodmark from a local dealer to American Woodmark from HD, making a price comparison impossible.

Dealers always beat box stores. Not just on bottom line quotes. The big bonus is that you have far less mistakes that cost time and money. Box stores are full of beginner level clueless people who might have been in electrical yesterday. They sure are not even close to being kitchen designers.

A year after you start, you might get things straightened out. But there will be a new person in the old cabinet persons place, and you have to start all over explaining where things went wrong and what you need. There is no one in any management position that understsnds enough about cabinets or 2020 design to fix anything either.

If you want to go that cheap route, you'd be better off with Ikea.

Can you get Ikea these days? Do they have inventory to complete a project? Don't think we've had too many on the forums use Ikea lately, which makes me think they also have supply chain issues.

This seems to be one extreme to the other

HD is generally not the best place to purchase cabinets because all things being equal the most important element in a great kitchen is the designer. A great designer can make *ordinary* cabinets look and function great and a bad designer can screw up even fabulous stuff.

No one who is a good designer is going to stay at Home Depot - they will get a job at a real Kitchen & Bath place. And if they are exceptionally good they will start their own private business.

Visit some Kitchen & Bath stores and get a sense of the different lines they carry and the possibilities. Talk to designers there to get a sense of someone you would be comfortable working with. In my experience the K&B stores generally carry different lines from each other to some extent and also they differ in quality and price point - the least expensive line at one might be Kraftmaid or equivalent whereas it might be one of the more expensive lines at a less expensive K&B store so visiting several will give you a better sense of possibilities.

I have a small kitchen and when I remodeled maximizing every square inch was critical to me. I did go with fully custom cabinets done by a local cabinet maker because by the time I upgraded a midlevel quality brand it would have been more expensive than fully custom and wouldn't have been as good.

FWIW there are people who recommend getting an independent kitchen designer. I used one but I was doing a gut remodel of my entire place. In my experience it is almost impossible to find an independent kitchen designer who will take on a relatively small project like a kitchen because there isn't enough money in the project. However if you visit various K&B stores you wlll probably find a designer affiliated with the store who is competent and will provide you with an excellent kitchen.

I think one of the biggest differences between custom and big box is that a cabinet maker can provide truly custom dimensions and accessories. I didn't shop big box cabinets, so perhaps a higher end line could have given me exactly what I wanted, but I rather doubt it (and the price would have gone up accordingly).

My kitchen was designed specifically for my needs: in 3-drawer stacks, the bottom two drawers were not the same height; the bottom drawer was taller, so I could store cake pans on their sides. The cabinets above the fridge pulled out all the way, for full access. The shelves for the Super Susan were spaced differently, to allow for my tallest small appliances. I added a pull-out cutting board in the prep zone. I had a "wall of tall", where half was 12" deep, and have was 20" deep. Since I used part of these cabinets as a command center, it included small drawers for desk things (pens, stapler, tape, etc), as well as 2 built-in file drawers. One of the cabinets had outlets inside, so chargers could be out of sight.

Also the installation was fantastic. One of the drawer fronts was not perfect, and the installer sent it back to the shop and had a new one made before I even saw it. I also got the assurance that if anything wasn't right, they would come back to fix it.

All of those things made locally made cabinets the best option for us.

Custom vs. Home Depot is like comparing a freshly prepared restaurant dinner with a frozen, microwavable meal. Either can serve the purpose, but they're very different as are the levels of service and the price.

"The big bonus is that you have far less mistakes that cost time and money. Box stores are full of beginner level clueless people who might have been in electrical yesterday."

"No one who is a good designer is going to stay at Home Depot - they will get a job at a real Kitchen & Bath place. And if they are exceptionally good they will start their own private business."

Let's drive some specific stakes through the heart of these myths, shall we?

My late buddy Dave was one of the finest cabinetmakers I've known. He drove me to the hospital when I whacked three fingertips off my left hand. He ended up in Las Vegas and made a very nice living selling and designing kitchens at a couple different big boxes. He didn't get repeat business from not knowing what he was doing. I'd match his work against any that every appeared here.

Another of my cabinet shop co-worker and friends, Mark D., had his own K&B shop. His wife went to work at Lowe's and Mark subbed as an installer. Absolutely one of the most knowledgeable installers in the states.

LIvewireoak, a regular contributor here a while ago, quit a custom shop to go to work for Lowe's, much to Sophie Wheeler's dismay.

My ex-wife, after ending her career as a construction safety executive for the 4th largest rigging contractor in the country, utilized her journeyman electrician status to work at Lowe's in the electrical department for 9 bucks an hour. The pay sucked, but it was much less stressful than having General Motors demand you fly to Mexico the next day. She found it quite amusing when guys would come in demanding to speak to another male that knew something about electrical.

So here are 5 myth-killing documented examples of the amazing quality of personel the big box stores are able to attract and keep. Make it 6 please. I subbed for Lowe's right before I sold my shop.

I appreciate everyone’s opinions! My biggest question was about others’ experience with HD cabinets in general, I realize my post in it’s entirety was probably confusing.
I understand that HD cabinets aren’t comparable at all to custom, but we couldn’t help but be curious about the difference.
For reference the custom kitchen plus 4 pretty standard bathroom vanities (3 single sinks one double) will be about 58K and the HD quote was 34K. I know that is still probably difficult to understand the quote since you don’t have my actual plans in hand, or the line of cabinetry, but it includes a 4x10 island with hidden pantry doors and 42” range hood. Painted cabinetry throughout. Solid maple fronts, plenty of drawers and some custom inserts.
The service at the custom store has already been above and beyond-I expect that we will get what we pay for, it’s just that simple.
The quote for custom countertops are quartz in the kitchen and cultured marble in bathrooms - I 100% agree with the first commenter about the cultured marble-I was surprised that they offered that at their small store but I’m sure they are just trying to stay within our budget…
HD gave us the lower quote with quartz everywhere which is honestly why we started even playing around with the idea of using them. Obviously their cabinet build is of subpar materials, etc. but it has been tempting.
I’m hoping the custom store can work with us or perhaps we can find more affordable quartz elsewhere, but use their cabinetry.

All in all I’m 99.9% certain we will go custom for the kitchen given our wish list and this being our forever home. Quality and durability are important to me but of course budget is king and not unlimited. Our boys are still very young so I’m not sure we necessarily need custom in their bathrooms for example so we are still mulling over that. But I don’t think the cost difference there is super substantial there at that point, and I’d prefer to support a local business with better quality and service.
I admit I was probably looking for some confirmation bias but can see the answer is clear 😅, it’s just tough picking and choosing where we are going to “splurge vs save”. We are building a $250/sq ft house (definitely not a $400/sq ft budget but in the rural Midwest our budget still gets us fairly far)…but as everyone knows the finishes that buys you is vastly different that it would have even a few years ago.

Joseph Corlett, LLC I always focus on your comments because you make it so real. Thank you for your insight and solid performance as a poster on Houzz and your years of experience.

I have owned 3 different homes in my life (one condo, 2 houses) and have had the kitchens redone in all of the homes. We went with Home Depot for the first and Lowes for the 2nd too, mostly because of budget. I had excellent experiences with all 3 kitchens. The only negative experience I had with was the countertop company through Lowes on the 3rd kitchen. I used Kraftmaid cabinets on the first, I don't recall the 2nd, the 3rd were American Woodmark. All cabinets held up very well during the time we had them. In fact, my daughter stood on the American Woodmark cabinet door to reach the upper cabinets (she was 8) and splintered the cabinet. Sadly, the style we had was no longer in stock as it had been over 5 years since we installed them. I brought the door to a local woodworker to fix and he was impressed with the craftmanship of the door I brought (and was able to fix the door, fortunately for the child).

I just wanted to give an alternative perspective. We used the in house designers for all 3 projects. I loved the 3rd kitchen best.

It's not just about "will they last?", it's about getting exactly the features and layout that you want.

Our first house was a spec house, and while the structure was good, the builder went cheap on things like light fixtures, carpet, and cabinets. The kitchen was a 10'x10' U-shape, with a 48" sink base flanked by lazy susans. There was one drawer stack, 12" wide. The shelf in the only base cabinet was only 12" deep - a half shelf. There were three 12" uppers, and 2 upper corner cabs (black holes). After living there for 14 years, we finally had the money for a remodel.

The old cabinets were not falling apart - in fact, they were all structurally sound, and went on to live in our garage, laundry room, and the neighbor's garage. Everything was repurposed except the sink base.

The new kitchen kept essentially the same footprint, with a few minor tweaks, but by customizing the cabinet sizes to fit the space, we ended up with 3 nice drawer stacks (18", 24", 30"); easy-reach uppers in the corners; more efficient upper cabinet space, as well as the features I outlined in my post above. The kitchen became a dream to work in, and we increased usable storage space by 50%.

It is about balancing the customization you desire with the cost to obtain that customization.

The new kitchen kept essentially the same footprint, with a few minor tweaks, but by customizing the cabinet sizes to fit the space, we ended up with 3 nice drawer stacks (18", 24", 30"); easy-reach uppers in the corners; more efficient upper cabinet space, as well as the features I outlined in my post above.

Literally every single one of these cabinets is available from American Woodmark. American Woodmark is a standard semi-custom brand. They have three different drawer stacks, all available in 3" increments from 12" to 36". So every single size of drawer stack that you now have is available. They have several versions of corner wall cabinets including a 24" easy-reach corner that is available in heights of 30", 36", 39" and 42".

This is not to say that every size and desire is available, if you have room for a 28" drawer stack then we are back to the original balancing act. Would you rather pay more money or use a 27" drawer stack? If you would rather spend more than sacrifice an inch, then American Woodmark is not the brand for you. However, Lowes and Home Depot both have access to manufacturers and lines that allow for full custom cabinet builds, so you can still get a 28" drawer stack from those stores, just not in American Woodmark.

In reality there are times where your space is awkward enough that going full custom just makes sense. Most times a quality semi-custom can work for your space. Sometimes limited stock cabinets (IKEA) may fit well and can create great value.

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As to quality... in my experience, quality is different than custom. To use the restaurant analogy, some restaurants are serving fresh food and some are reheating frozen items cooked in a distribution center and often people are paying for the ambiance rather than the food quality. Some custom shops are high quality, while others are not.

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ETA: I am not really a fan of American Woodmark. I am a fan of full custom cabinets from quality local makers, but I also realize that you create value by evaluating the specific cabinets against your budget and needs.

We gotten custom cabinets twice and semi-custom once. We did not use Home Depot, but in our experience, custom cabinets are a total waste of money unless you get super lucky with a great cabinet maker and have a complex project. I think Kraftmaid has a 20 year warranty. So, if I had to do it again, I would select Kraftmaid over custom.

If you are near an Amish/Mennonite community, look into their cabinets.

I just replaced my bathroom and pantry cabinets.   IKEA designed my pantry, but has not had cabinets in stock for over a year so I ordered a more expensive brand from HD, which came in broken pieces no fewer than FOUR times.  Those were returned and replaced with some of the least expensive at HD, which came whole.  They are looking great, good enough quality and I will be able to remodel if I choose in 10-15 years with no regrets. I have quartz from HD and it was the best part of the process.

Maybe splurge on the cabinets (the closer the

manufacturer to your location the better) and save on the countertop

We had the same dilemma a few years back and after lots of consideration went with HD. We had no problems at all and very happy with the quality (and the price!). In retrospect I probably would have gone with IKEA though, but my contractor at the time was adamant that it was sub-par to HD.

Erin - I was told today by a HD kitchen cabinet consultant that September 12, 2022 KraftMaid Cabinetry will have a price increase. They will also discontinue some colors, and add new colors and finishes. “Linen” is one of the paint colors they will stop producing.

@Erin My last house where I lived 20 years had Kraftmaid Cabinets purchased from Home Depot and installed the year before we moved in. (I found HD's layout drawing in one of the drawers.) The cabinets held up great, still looked great when I sold it in 2020. The current owner doesn't have any plans to replace them, she seems to like them just fine. I had considered going with HD for my new build but neither Kraftmaid nor any of their other lines had green available (and I had no desire to have plain cabinets painted on site,) and I wanted green! I went to 2 different K&B places and after quotes came in, I went with Shiloh, I didn't need to pay the extra f$5000, before add-ons like Lazy Susans, or the ability to have my cabinets made in 1 /8" increments, the standard 3" worked fine for me.

I have used HD for many other items on this build, Anderson Windows, for instance, and the man who helped me was very knowledgeable. Good help at the big box stores can be found, as @Joseph Corlett, LLC said. (BTW, Mr Corlett, I ended up putting Corian Rosemary on my perimeter kitchen cabinets with their integrated sinks and I LOVE it.)

We are just completing an install of Kraftmaid cabinets designed by and purchased from Home Depot. This is the 2nd time we’ve gone this route. The first time was 15 years ago. No issues.

This time, we have had significant product issues (and design issues). Kraftmaid has had to resend us cabinets 4 times now and I’m currently awaiting additional parts to address problems that weren’t so significant that we couldn’t install them - things like flaws in the doors, broken drawer trucks, etc.

This has been going on for MONTHS.

I would warn you against that route. Even if the design had been perfect, the issues with the cabinets has been ridiculous. We paid too much to have had this many issues. And we had to fight to have all of it remedied…I wish I had had a KD to help manage some of that battle.

They do look beautiful, but we paid for all maple doors and plywood boxes. I am sure they’ll last well. I may never recover however 😂

I can only speak of my experience as a homeowner. Last home was a custom build, so I had control over all choices. I went with Omega cabinets for the entire house ( kitchen, wet bar, master bathroom) except for the laundry, where I chose Kraftmaid.

If I remember the cost, the Omega bill was around $80,000.00. After two years the Omega started to fail..the paint peeled, the joints on the doors (looks like a puzzle piece) started splitting. Rep came to the house and told me that it was because I lived in area that has high humidity. When I told him that the entire house was climate controlled, he changed his theory to "I opened the dishwasher door when it was running and the steam cause the problems". No excuse for the cabinets that were not near the dishwasher, but were peeling and splitting, too. Long story, after months of pursuing the issue, someone from the main office came to look, and every door and every drawer front was replaced.

The Kraftmaid in the laundry room? Perfect, perfect.

My daughter is redoing her kitchen (IKEA which was all she could afford at the time). I think she will go with Kraftmaid, but she will deal with a large cabinet/tile local store with bona fide designers. What she will miss is all the interior fittings that IKEA has. I give IKEA thumbs up for providing an option for anyone who doesn't have money to outfit a home. It can fill the bill.

My friend went with Amish cabinets and her kitchen is lovely.

I go both ways. Invest in high end quality cabinets that will last a lifetime or spend less for cabinets which may or may not last a lifetime. Bottom line, the kitchen you install this year will be so out of style in 10 years (manufacturers will make sure that happens). Maybe we should start thinking about a kitchen the way we think about purchasing a car. Will I love it in 5 years?

Somewhere a bit better IMO than big box or Ikea but about the same savings is Fabuwood. i shopped around a lot and love my fabuwood- this is my second house and my kitchen was fairly customizable but about $20k less than custom.

Fabuwood are not RTA - they haven't been for years. They've changed/improved a lot from what they used to be and I've had a good experience with them in 2 homes.

Compare the cabinet price apples to apples (without false rebates to buy their high margin products). Make sure a cabinet expert measures on site for you accounting for drywall, trim, plumbing, etc. Watch and ask about "matching laminate" used on sides and some parts. Once you get into mid grade factory cabinets you're often paying custom prices.

Verbo - So starting from a baseline, least worthy (No 1) and building to the best quality (No. 10) cabinet quality, could you name kitchen cabinet makers (and their various sub-levels), please. You seem to grasp the good vs. bad and guidance is always desired when learning from the pros or the experienced.

Pro always push to max budget and custom, as it how they make $… But we are as customers should do our homework and search for better option. i would not do HD as it is middle man. Also hard to communicate middle man… Find good company locally that offers opions you like.

People visiting these forums with floorplan postings are ahead of the ordinary consumer. You can get info here a designer won't give unless you know to ask. All wide drawer lowers, single bowl sinks and induction cooktop/slide-in range to list several. Lighting is also overlooked. Post your floorplan to get the benefits.