I haven't. That's another option as well. Honestly, I went with Scherr's because of the great reviews and the Ikea/Scherr's combo mentioned so much, so I didn't want to clutter my mind with too many options. That sounds lazy even as I write the words, but it's true. And I wanted a company that understands Ikea.

The final option would be to use Ikea doors after all but the white shaker style IRL doesn't look that great. Still, the color probably is less stark than the Extra White.

You simply are not going to be able to paint cabinets on site and get the durability of an off site clean room production finish. Also, if you tried to glaze over that, it would not adhere well.

Custom paint isn't an inexpensive choice for cabinet finishing. It's a luxury upgrade. It's usually a 20-25% upcharge in most cabinet lines over a plain stained finish. If you want a custom color, that's another 20% in a custom line. So, if your quote was 10K for say a stained maple, by the time you did a custom paint, it would be 14K, which is not even the national average for cabinet expenditures in a remodel. For a custom guy who only makes cabinets and has to hire a guy to finish them, even a plain stain and clear coat is usually around 10%.

True custom craftsmanship isn't cheap. Way too many hacks self apply that label to themselves and don't have the skills to back that description up. Slapping on some latex with a cheap brush from a gallon of $20 paint isn't worthy of the label of a custom finish, but that's what a lot of "custom paint" finishes actually are. You would be getting a true quality job that would be durable, and it's a world of difference between the two.

I went through this exact same thing with my kitchen... got quotes from Scherr's and Barker and hemmed and hawed over whether I wanted to paint them myself (I had the same sticker shock and questions about durability of a DIY paint job). I wasn't sold on Ikea's white doors since I wanted a more traditional look. I looked at all the variations on Shaker doors until my eyes were about to bug out. Finally the night before I was supposed to place the cabinet order, I said "bag it, this is stressing me out too much, a white door is a white door and nobody but me is going to notice the difference" and I ordered Ikea's Adel white with my cabinets the next day.

That may not be a decent answer to your question, but it's how I handled it. Honestly, I'd do the same thing again. Now that the kitchen is installed I notice the door color and the hardware, not which subspecies of Shaker door I have. The Adel is a nice soft off-white that's easy on the eyes, and I really like not having to worry about the finish (I don't care that it's thermofoil or whatever, it looks fine to me).

I am not at all trying to talk you into ordering Ikea's doors; I just wanted to sympathize and tell you what I did when I had the same problem. It helped me a lot to see a picture of an Adel white kitchen installed. That's when I realized that the doors would -- for me -- fade into the background enough that minor styling differences wouldn't matter to me. It might matter a lot more to you, which is cool too (you will have a lot of company on this forum!). Good luck with your kitchen!

I'll offer my experience on painting cabs myself, which I've done 3 times now in 3 different kitchens. I use BM stain impervo oil paint with the best brush I can buy and I have to say, my cabs held up in the last kitchen and are holding up very well in my current kitchen. Agreed that it isn't the (hopefully) flawless finish of a sprayed on pro job, but honestly...WTH? It's a kitchen. And if you get the things primed by them, that will only improve the final outcome of the brushed finish. You can buy a h#$% of a lot of paint for 2,000.00. Or groceries. Or nights out on the town...or...

My estimate from Scherrs was quite high IMO. Maybe I'll find out they are in line as other estimates will be coming in soon, but my initial reaction is that they are pricey for RTA cabs.

Wow - I could have written some of these posts myself. I also will be getting an ikea kitchen and had hoped to do Barker or Scherr's fronts. I didn't even bother getting a quote after reading some other posts on GW. I knew it would be too expensive, and I'm only planning on staying in this house for a couple more years.

I'm probably going to go with ikea fronts, although I'm not sure which ones. I really want white Shaker, but I'm going to ikea this weekend to see the kitchens and colors up close and personal (it's been a while since I've been there). Today I met with a local contractor who only does Ikea kitchens, and knows the line inside and out. I'm thrilled to have found her and looking forward to working with her.

Bonnie

@northcarolina - do you have finished photos of your kitchen? I googled but nothing came up. Would love to see the doors up close.

Thanks for the support - at least I'm not the only one. Deedles, you give me hope if we go the painting route, although the detail in painting all the corners of shaker cabs with a brush scares the he!! out of me, especially since we went with a lot of drawers on the lower cabinets. Our counters dictate a warmer white than Extra White, though, so using their standard white is definitely out as an option.

Bonnie, if she gives you any tips on making the kitchen look less Ikea-y, please share!

Word to the wise about going to Ikea/fill-in-the-wood-door-companyname - it's probably a great route to go if you're using a natural wood and not paint. I've learned the hard way!

This is not exactly the same thing, but I ordered cabs from Crown Point only primed. I wanted White Dove (not one of their standard colors) and also had read a lot here about DIYers painting CP cabs themselves, the authenticity of the brushed finish, etc.

I didn't paint mine myself, however, had painters do it (in oil for durability). As a side note--I wasn't watching closely the first few days and only too late realized they were spraying, not brush painting, which gives a totally different texture--they redid them when I pointed it out but still did not end up with those fancy brush marks in exactly the way I'd hoped.

Four years later, I have chips on several cab doors (I have some inset and some overlay), and major chipping on the island, which will have to be redone.

So IMHO a professional finish is worth it, whether from Scherr's or Ikea. Good luck with your decision!

I have no experience with Scherr's, but since you mentioned that had you known, you could have gone with another option for nearly the same price: if you haven't opened the packages with the frames, are you perhaps still within Ikea's return period? I'm not sure whether you're looking at the Adel or Ramsjo door styles, but IIRC, the Ramsjo white is a little bit softer than the Adel off-white, maybe because it's wood and light seems to reflect off of it differently; it's not a pure Shaker style, but it's fairly close, just a little more decorative. Either door is relatively inexpensive, at least in comparison to the overall cost of a kitchen renovation; it might be worth purchasing a single door and staging it in your kitchen to see how you feel about it when it's in more realistic lighting than the Ikea store and when you've been looking at it for a week.

It's a lousy feeling to be "set" on something and then have complications arise. I hope you find something that you really like that works within your budget!

I went through almost the same decision process as northcarolina, so I have sympathy!

We wanted blue painted cabinets, but Scherr's quote was too high for us. I have no doubt that they do a great job and I'm not suggesting that they are overpriced - we just couldn't afford them on our very low DIY'er budget. Barkers was more affordable on every count, even when comparing identical layouts unfinished to unfinished, so we were planning to go with them and then I would do the painting. Shortly before we made our cabinet order, I completed some building and finishing wood furniture projects, and from that experience I was confident that I could do a good enough job that I'd be happy with it. However, I also realized that I didn't want to! It takes so much time and energy to do a good job, and I just wasn't up for it.

With that in mind, we tweaked our layout a bit so we didn't need custom sizes, and we were then able to go with Ikea using their Ramsjo white door style. We've had the cabinets in for about week now and still have to finish trim and other cosmetic stuff, but we are very happy with this decision. It is not my original vision, and it's not what I would have done if my budget was much higher, but it works for us right now.

>if you haven't opened the packages with the frames, are you perhaps still within Ikea's return period?

If you're within the return period you can even return assembled cabinets, although it's an incredible hassle to get them there.

I've always thought scherrs was very expensive. Shelayne used advantage doors, but I don't know whether she painted them or they did.

I've gotten quotes from Scherrs for some clients, and yes, they weren't cheap. But they weren't out of line for what you'd be getting. They provide a super high quality product, not a middle of the road one. And doors and drawer faces are the most expensive part of the cabinet. Most people don't realize that.

Take any cabinet quote that you've gotten and figure that 60% of it is for the doors and drawer fronts, and 20% of it is for the molding parts and pieces. Only about 20% is for the actual cabinet boxes. Putting expensive doors and drawers on Ikea doesn't end up "saving" as much money as you think if you are comparing the quotes to a low or mid range line. You need to be comparing the prices with quotes from more upper end lines. You may be paying the same price as a mid range line overall, but you're getting a higher quality product from the process.

We, too painted our own new cabinets. We bought Crystal maple cabinets that were sanded and ready for priming. We used BM Advance primer and Advance paint (yellow)--by recommendation from our great local paint store--and both primed and painted our cabinets. I can't tell you how happy we are that we did it ourselves and how great it turned out...I was really worried, but with the extensive remodel we were doing, we didn't have the funds to order custom painted.

We've had them for a year now and absolutely no issues. You have to wait 30 days for the paint to set before you can scrub them, so we were a bit careful that first month, but definitely used the kitchen. The cabinets clean so easily and I haven't noticed any paint wearing off. Honestly, though, if it ever does, it's an easy fix...just pull out the can of paint and touch up.

I also love how the finish looks...matte, but no brushstrokes. The paint is very good at self-leveling and you don't need to glop a lot on to cover. We did one coat of primer and two coats of paint, with a light sand in between each coat. No top coat. We used brushes on the frames and rollers on the drawer fronts. We've painted many a room before, but were certainly not pros.

I also used the Advance paint (apple green) on our open shelving, which gets a lot of use since I store our mixing bowls and serving bowls that are used daily. No marks or chips as of yet.

The best part is, if you ever tire of the color, it's super easy to change to a new color. Just a bit of sanding. Not like changing out from a factory finish.

My parents bought painted cabinets in their new build from a good cabinet brand and after 3 years, it is chipping in the corners of her pullout trash bin and one other drawer.

Just my experience!

So - update:

DH and I sat down and compared the different quotes we had gotten from Scherr's - in early December, I had gotten a quote that included the custom paint but it was $2k less than what this one was. We put them side by side and, while we had made a few minor cabinet adjustments, we realized the biggest problem was all of the end panels we were getting - the two fridge cover panels, the back of the peninsula and then all of the upper and lower end panels. It ended up being 80 more square feet we were getting charged for, along with an upcharge for shipping such big pieces.

So what we've (tentatively) decided is to *just* get doors and drawers from Scherr's, then do the cover panels with the help of a friend who is building is own house. We were planning to do our own crown molding anyway (and paint that) and I'm assuming end panels don't get the abuse the painted doors/drawers would get. They are also MDF which to me isn't as worth it to pay the same amount per square feet as we are the solid wood doors/drawers.

What do you think of that compromise? We're pretty handy, so I'm not worried about the quality of workmanship. My only concern would be that the professional paint matches the DIY end panels enough that the average person doesn't notice it.

That sounds perfectly reasonable to me. Cover panels ought to be pretty DIYable. Even if you have to purchase a paint sprayer for those part, you'll be ahead.

lovetodream -- I don't have photos of my own kitchen, but a Google Image search for "Adel white kitchen" pulls up a lot of other ones, if you still want to see any.

It sounds as though you have reached a good solution. More thoughts from my own experience:

The front edges of the cover panels are at the same plane (more or less) as the fronts of the drawers and doors, so there is some potential for edge dings. Also don't forget all the extra pieces you'll need, though you can probably get them on the fly from the lumber place as you go along. If you're using a range hood that's mounted under a cabinet, the upper cabinets on each side will need cover panels. That means that the sides of the cabinets flanking the range will also need cover panels to make all the widths line up down the run. (If you're using a standalone hood over a cooktop, obviously you don't need to worry about any of that.) Let's see, what else did I run into... don't forget light rail and top trim. If you are doing anything besides the Ikea standard, you will actually have an easier time getting custom trim to match if you are painting everything including doors yourself. To get our uppers to reach the ceiling, we used some kind of flat trim from Ikea (don't remember, probably light rail turned upside down) and then crown molding from the lumber supply mounted on top of that. Getting paint for the crown to match the Ikea trim took a couple of tries.

My feeling after doing an Ikea kitchen is that using everything from Ikea is much easier if you're going to do things the Ikea standard way -- all the holes are predrilled, all the finishes match, etc. But if you are going to customize trim etc, it's easier to cut down wood than thermofoil-covered MDF, so you will be saving yourself at least a little bit of annoyance there. The fellows who installed my kitchen were willing to cut down Ikea trim pieces the way I wanted, but it did complicate things for them. (For ex. I thought the Ikea light rail was too wide so they ripped all those long thermofoil-covered pieces down, which also meant they could no longer use the Ikea installation hardware so they had to drill new holes and use other hardware -- etc. They did not complain about any of this and yes they were wonderful.)

Re. the DIY paint matching the professional paint -- I think Scherr's uses Sherwin-Williams colors, so you should have no trouble getting a color match. However, the sheen might be different, so you might want to have a chat with the people at SW to see what they suggest you use. Maybe even paint a test board (comparing to a sample door if you can) to make sure it'll be close enough to suit you. The crown I painted is a little bit glossier than my doors but not enough to bother me (it is crown molding after all).

If you're still looking for Adel white kitchens, this is probably the most popular one I can think of (with a number of good suggestions for customizing, too):

EDIT Should have mentioned that I don't think they use the same glass in the glass cabinets now. I think it's just plain, but not sure about that.

Oh, and if you put Adel as your search term at houzz, you can see plenty of other examples.

Here is a link that might be useful: Dalborough's little white kitchen that could

This post was edited by writersblock on Sun, Jan 6, 13 at 13:44

Loveto dream - would you mind sharing what the $$ difference turned out to be between going all ikea, vs going painted Scherrs doors and drawers, leaving out the end panels?

Thanks,
Bonnie

Sorry, Bonnie - just saw this. We knew going into Ikea that we were going to use Scherr's so never priced out Ikea doors. From glancing at our Ikea design before we removed the doors/drawers from the final order sheet, I *think* it was about $2k from what the final cost will be at Scherr's (although we're still tweaking, as you can tell).

I can tell you that painting Scherr's doors cost $17.35 sq/ft (that's two coats of primer and custom paint color) so that does add a considerable amount to the bottom line. If we just got them primed, it was about $2k cheaper for our particular kitchen.

If you want to get a quote from them even before you purchase from Ikea, you can email your Ikea design and they can give you a quote.

HTH!