Would like to know what those in the know have to say about cheap, budget type cabinets and something a notch or two above those.

Thanks guys and gals.

Retired custom cabinet maker here.... Cabinets can be found that are made out of solid wood products and not the cheap particle board / melamine /etc product without going the full custom cabinets route.. Might have to use filler panels or two to get between cabinets to fill in for a wall to wall fit instead of maybe a larger cabinet or two custom built to cover the distance. .......................... drill sgt.

Thanks Drill sgt. I appreciate your thoughts from a professionals perspective.

Our home has, what I would call, mid-price cabinets. The frames, drawer fronts and cabinet doors are solid wood and the drawers themselves are plywood. The sides, bottoms and backs are particleboard. The cabinets are over 20 years old and look great. Last year we replaced all of the drawer slides and door hinges with soft close hardware - to the tune of about $500 or so.

Our daughter and SIL own a very high end cabinet shop doing cabinets, doors, flooring and trim for multi-million homes. Very different stuff then our house.

Mike

We have 32 year old middle of the road cabinets. The drawers suck, the lazy Susans always need adjusting.
We had all our fine China in one cabinet. One day there was a big crash and a huge mess!
If we ever replace these, it will be with real, solid, 100% hardwood cabinets.

Cabinets are always a challenge. We have Merrilat in our house and they have painted wood faces, wood drawers and particleboard boxes. They also come with soft close hinges which are nice.

The cabinets we use for our apartment developments have a wood from but are covered with thermafoil, particle board drawers and soft close hinges.

Personally, I like the wood drawers and soft close hinges at they will stand the test of time. Yes, you will pay more but you will appreciate the quality better instead of regretting the decision of cheapening out.

I’m going to agree with Drill Sgt.

Please don’t consider any cabinet with particle board…just don’t. I don’t know where you are located but if you have any Amish (or similar clans) near you they will make beautiful cabinets for a very reasonable cost. They are true crafstsmen.

Are you allowed to choose your own subcontractors or will you be using ones recommended by your builder?

I have 20 year old Kraftmaid cabinets that have aged fantastically!

Drawers all still work great and doors are just as straight as when they were installed.

They are natural cherry and have an amazing patina from all the years.

Drill sgt is on the money, if it fits your budget then go that way, its something you will see, feel and use every single day.

Soft close hinges and drawers are a big plus.

We have hardwood front cabinets that the builder installed 30 years ago, had the doors changed out with hardwood custom doors that help improve the look.

The island we replaced has custom built hard wood cabinets with hard wood drawers, higher end hinges and soft close, the difference is very noticeable but it is a focus piece and will be very well used, so better quality means longer life.

We did a complete kitchen remodel last spring with Kraftmade from Lowe's. We used their design service and took in our floorplan and they came up with several options. It turned out great, we were extremely satisfied.

Thanks guys, some great info. We are working with the builder. Originally he told us he intended to get cabinets from a shop in a near by town. Then he went to a local guy for a bid. Not a bad shop but just more of a lower end assembler I would call him. Not what we want in this project. So working back through the process with him. The builder has been very good through the first phase of the build and do not foresee any major issues.
We are looking for cabinets about a 7 on the 10 scale I would say.

White oak faces if that is the term. Wood drawers with soft close hinges would be nice based on recommendations in this thread

HRK.

Your kitchen looks very similar to ours. This is the day we changed the paint colors in the house.

I know they take a lot of flack but IMO you cannot do any better than IKEA cabinets for off-the-shelf type non-custom cabinets. Yes they are made from particleboard but are very well made, I did a condo kitchen with them in 2010 and they were really good and easy to install. The rail mounting system is great. They are designed to be able to be fit into existing spaces without a lot of trickery and filler panels etc.

This time around, my wife and I went with Bertch cabinets and are very happy with them. The kitchen design shop also offered Wolf cabinets and we both looked at each other and said "NOPE!". Wolf is a bad word around here, being affiliated with our former Governor.