The custom cabinet store should provide you with at least one sample piece showing exact the color and finish on the specific type of wood. How does the finishing of custom made cabinet compare to the one of Brookhaven?

Due to the long lead time of ordering cabinet, we used custom made cabinet for the hallbath including highly customized features. We even specified the direction of wood grain. With a few redid on small areas, it turned out pretty good.

For our kitchen, we are considering Wood Harbor since we only need a couple custom made features. It is clear to us the stain finish on our custom made cabinet is not as great as Wood Harbor. Since Kitchen is a heavily used area than hall bath, if something happen down the road, we feel it is much safer to have a big company to back up the products than an individual small cabinet maker.

As a side note, we prefer to use cabinets by reputable companies. We do not put much expectation on the cabinet dealers since they could move or be out of business any time.

Would you please share what make you to consider Brookhaven?

Thanks azmom. My husband is going to think I am delaying the project some more, but I will get samples.

Researching cabinets is a hard task as gardenweb is really the only site with any depth of information. Brookhaven kept coming up with positive reviews. I actually wrote a sampling down so when I doubted myself I could read these comments and remind myself that I did my research (I know it's silly, but I am the worse at second guessing myself)
Comments about Brookhaven included:
high quality
excellent
one of the better painted finishes
quality and finish top notch
love them
like fine furniture
exude quality and craftsmanship
wonderful, well made, beautifully finished

DCK
I have Brookhaven cabinets. They are NOT plywood boxes. They are pretty and look nice but be aware that they are a composite material.

I did have a failure of my heavy drawer - The wall blew out and I am still getting this problem resolved. We are going to horizontally split the 42 inch drawer to have an "inner" drawer to offset the weight.

I don't think the problem was the cabinet or the materials- but the GC used 3 screws on each side - if you have a heavy drawer - have him reinforce the screws.

Would I do it again - possibly, but I might look at custom as the price point is not much different.

Now is this a pretty kitchen or not :-) OK, I am a bit prejudiced in saying it is pretty.

Here is a link showing my failure.
http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/kitchbath/msg1020404519236.html

I am not saying they aren't good cabinets - just know what you are getting. Most cabinets in this range are not plywood.

a2gemini- Sorry I missed your post. Your kitchen is lovely!
The cabinets (and everything else) is terrific!
I'm sorry you are having this problem in your new space. The custom guy does use plywood boxes. Thanks for weighing in.

My pleasure. I like my cabinets and the finish is great. Somehow, I thought for the price, they would be plywood. Not a good idea to do a new kitchen when dealing with DM health issues long distance plus a new job(although now, I am officially retired - but why am I working)
Looking forward to your kitchen.