Top lines, or top sellers? There's a big difference there.

Just to clarify, they said top quality, as opposed to top sellers. This is based on everything being wood (cabinet boxes are plywood as opposed to particle board) and the ability to make modifications to measurements.

Those line may be Depot's best sellers, but they are mid range quality at best when it comes to industry quality. Ikea is a budget line that requires a great deal of personal involvement by you to assemble and install them. If you have to have a contractor do that labor, forget it being a budget choice. For a total DIY choice, it's decent quality, but very very limited in sizes and styles. You have to compensate for that by being extra creative in using their limited parts and pieces in creative ways.

Almost any semi custom line has the ability to have all plywood, and to have size customizations. But, neither of those things is any real indication of quality. You can have a very high quality kitchen with furniture board boxes. It's more stable and better suited to frameless applications for one. It gets a bad rap due to prejudice, not the reality of the specs.

Any recommendations for other companies? (Straight custom made cabinets are beyond my budget).

What price level are you looking for? And what type of look are you trying for? What size is your kitchen? Your original post is not comparing apples to apples pricewise. There are cabinets for almost every budget out there, but the answers will be different if your budget is 10K vs 50K for cabinets.

Agree that Blum hardware is high quality, I use it exclusively. But using it on Ikea cabinets is like putting lipstick on a pig. Flat pack RTA (ready to assemble) is not quality. RTA fasteners are in no way stronger than traditional joinery. Particle board will swell and fall apart when wet. I've seen it a million times under sinks and replaced many kitchen and bathroom cabinets made of it. Just about all plywood is made using water proof glue and will stand up to water better than any particle board (China made plywood excluded). All factory made cabinets are based on 3" dimensions. Getting a factory to make an odd size box is next to impossible. They adjust their dimensions that don't fall into the 3" increments with filler strips.

So, if you are looking for quality cabinets, stay away from big box stores and Ikea. Go to a kitchen cabinet dealer and ask for their top of the line or have them made by a professional.

It depends on what you want for options as well. The more options a company offers the more you will pay for their product. Do an online search for allwood semi custom cabinets in your area. You will get quality in an affordable price range.

"Budget" is not a derogatory term. Not sure why you would infer it so. It's a term of economic scale. There is a cabinet line for everyone, including Ikea. Ikea is a great value for a DIYer who lives close to their stores. If you live further away, or aren't at all handy, they become much less of a value. Labor is always one of the larger expenses in a remodel, and they require more dollars in labor to assemble and hang than do cabinets that are already assembled. There becomes a point when that tradeoff isn't a value for a less than handy homeowner.

For quality, they are decent quality, for the most part, but a lot depends on who assembles them. There is less variability on that front from a factory built cabinet. I'm not a fan of the large number of thermofoil doors that they offer, but many people buy after market doors to dress up the boxes just fine. Like any cabinet line, there are good and bad points for each. There are always tradeoffs.

"Particle board will swell and fall apart when wet." Here is a picture of the bottom of my sink cabinet after four years of use. No special care required, I have put wet things down there. Excuse the mess. Care to show yours? Not everyone can or wants to hire a furniture maker to build their kitchen cabinets. There are many other things to spend the kitchen money on.
Assembly..easy. This is for the new cabinets coming in 2015.
http://www.ikea.com/eg/en/assembly_instructions/metod-base-cabinet-for-built-in-oven-sink__AA-706660-2_pub.pdf

Most cabinet factories (Ikea included, but possibly slightly different) and some individual cabinetmakers, use a sheet good product called Melamine to build their boxes. Mostly it's white, but can be obtained in colors and wood grain. It can be on one or both of the sides of the particleboard. It is a plastic material either stuck or thermally fused (higher quality) to the particle board. It is very tough, water and stain resistant, and easy to clean. But...., if the water gets under the surface, (usually at the edges or where a hole has been cut) the particle board will swell, giving the look of bubbling under the surface treatment. If the water continues to get underneath the particle board will begin to flake apart. Particle board is not water proof or even water resistant.

I have torn out many kitchen cabinet sets, either for demolitions or remodeling. Quite often we would not bother to salvage the sink base because the particle board would be so damaged that as soon as we would try to move the cabinet, the bottom would fall out. If I were doing a kitchen for my own home, I would upgrade to plywood boxes anywhere around the sink and dishwasher.

I don't think IKEA is particularly cheap, if you figure that labor has value even if you aren't paying for it directly. I haven't been impressed with their prices, not once you get all the bells and whistles added. I do like their hardware and use pulls and knobs from IKEA in my own vintage kitchen

Go to a store that specializes in cabinetry and also sells Kraftmaid. They will be a little more expensive than those in the big box stores, but there are so many more options AND they stand by every cabinet, and inspect them all carefully. It was well worth the extra money.

Innermost cabinets are the best built cabinet Home Depot offers. First of all, they have a lifetime warranty, not 25 years. They use Blum hardware, cadillac in the industry. The bottom of the drawer box is plywood, not paper coated. The sides are 3/4", not 1/2" like other brands. They use wood glue, not hot melt like the others, which can give the strength of 3000-4000 lbs. per square inch as opposed to hot melt at 200-300 lbs per sq. inch. They use an oil based finish not water based, which is smoother by far and more protective. They use many, many pocket screws to attach the stronger, thicker back to the cabinet, not glue and staples. Your cabinet will NOT fall off the wall. And because of that strong back they can go much wider without that pesky center stile in the front. They custom make their boxes for shipping to fit the cabinet, they don't put a reduced depth cabinet in a standard depth box. They want your cabinets to arrive without damage. You have much more flexibility in sizes than any other cabinet line HD sells. You can even send them a drawing to build something not in their spec book. Go to the HD, take out a drawer, turn it upside down and stand on it, it won't break! Oh, and by the way, they are not HD's most expensive line, and the things you can get the factory to do cuts down on the cost of install by your contractor. If you order a glazed finish, they apply that to the sides of the cabinet, so the tone will be the same as the front. No other line does that. And the pride the factory workers take in their job is impressive. They want it to be done right the first time! Enough said? Yes, I am a HD kitchen designer and toured the factory yesterday. Super impressed! Hope I didn't bore anyone.

oh, and you will still love your Innermost kitchen in 20 years, Ikea, you will probably replace in 5.

Read through this; [https://www.houzz.com/discussions/problems-with-innermost-dsvw-vd~937961[(https://www.houzz.com/discussions/problems-with-innermost-dsvw-vd~937961) , and then go buy your cabinets from a independent local kitchen cabinet retailer, not some big box store.

And Innermost is paying attention to the problems experienced by consumers and fixing them. They focused a lot on that during our tour, they are a family owned business and take customer issues seriously and showed us the improvements made this past year. I am looking to sell my home and buy a condo and Innermost will be in my new kitchen if needed! I don't feel like a big box designer at hd with the quality of cabinets we offer. I can offer the same high end custom designs as any other kitchen dealer! before I worked there, I never would have thought you could get the style and custom touches we offer, and I came from a dealer, same quality issues, just more overhead, less traffic, higher costs.

Ah! Lovely little dust ups like this are very informative.

@ProSource Memphis- I disagree...budget does deserve a raised eyebrow. I have a dealership for a "stock" or "budget" line of cabinets. I sold one job; never again. I back - charged the company because I had to fix finish problems, damage and disfunction hardware, some of it before I could even deliver the kitchen. Their offer? 10% off my next order instead of paying me for fixing their manufacturing defects.

Budget lines have less options and lower quality.

A word about Blum hardware: they may be the Cadillac and have the most name recognition, but they are not the Mercedes.

what is the Mercedes??

Hettich Quadro slides.

Have heard of hettich, can you elaborate on why they're better. will ask Innermost to use them maybe!! :)

They use an all ball bearing construction. Unfortunately Blum does not show what kind of system they use; maybe nylon rollers? Anyway, I have sold a line that uses Hettich slides. They have a full custom line as well; their "modular" line is considered semi-custom and pretty much blows away any of the "custom" lines I have looked into or sold.

Joann,

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/problems-with-innermost-dsvw-vd~937961?n=25

These are the problems I had with HD and innermost. At least you admitted that you are a HD kitchen designer and trying to sell the product to consumers. Unfortunately, I had that same speech you gave from my HD kitchen designer. I drank the koolaid..... then I realized it was poison and I was getting screwed over on a $15,000 kitchen. They dont take customer issues seriously. They screwed me around for 3 months and right when I was ready to take legal action in small claims court against them, they finally gave me a refund for the crap job that they sold me. So yeah, great customer service! If you want your problems fixed, threaten to sue!

philter25, I admitted it, btw, because everything I have posted is the truth, and what I believe to be true from my own experiences.