This thread talks only about pricing I believe. I am interested in reading the responses to your specific question though.

Here is a link that might be useful: relative cabinet prices

My husband refused to look at any cabinetry not made of quality wood construction. No staples, no glue globs, no 'pictures' of wood glued to what they were calling wood but was really a composite or MDF of somesort, and no cabinet displayed with a countertop on it. No splintery wood type material. He looked only at the 'guts' of the boxes; thickness, joinery & material of the boxes. He examined the mechanisms of the drawer slides and hinges - no flimsy or thin plastic; same for the pins holding the shelving. The brand he settled on was Medallion. According to him, we could spend alot more money on a somewhat better product. These passed his grueling tests and exceeded his high standards.

It would be a lot easier if stores would list their prices. I did find a place that does custom for $250 a linear foot with installation (upper and lowers measured separately).

Another vote here for Medallion (Schuler at Lowe's) Cabinetry. They are not inexpensive, but you get the most for your money in terms of construction and cabinet finishes. And they are very customizable (is that a word?) for semi-custom cabinets. I have them in my kitchen and I am very happy with them.

Cienza, how was Medallion priced vs the other candidates, and which level Medallion did you get?

$250 per foot for upper and lowers is $500 per foot. That is not a high price for custom by any means. As a Kitchen and bath store owner I can offer to my customers Hi LO Industries Bridgewood Advantage and Bridegwood custom (they allow custom colors and box sizes but do not offer inset door style continues to be a bummer for me!). The warranty period is weak at 3 years my only other wish they would change.

I can offer my customers Maple cabinets Painted Glazed and Full old world distressing comperable to starmark distressing for $361-436 per foot for the upper and lowers combined. A 10x10 kitchen would be $7,220 - $8,730 Cherry would be the same in cost but without a painted finish.

I can offer brandom Semi Custom cabinets with any sherwin willams stain or paint with their least expensive door style in in 39" wall cabinet height (normally a custom door height) with life time warranty and custom boxes sizes available for $142-192 per foot in maple and $256-$306 for the most expensive door style. So a complete 10x10 kitchen with all trim including light rail moldings would be $2,840-$6,120. Brandom is a good company made in TX and been in business for 30 years

Other brands to consider as viable alternatives Kabinart in Tn (10 year Warranty) Door Components in AL(10 year warranty I think I do not sell them right now want to but am to close to some one who got them first!) Wards Full Acess cabinets Al (lifetime warranty)13" deep wall cabinets standard size. Tru wood AL (5 year warranty) Elite series has soft close door hinges standard. Mid Continent is another product priced to compete with pricing around the Woodmark - Kraftmaid price points. Some stores sell it as Norcraft. Norcraft name will be slightly more expensive becasue of method of distribution.

If you live in the Mid Atlantic Old River Custom Cabinets are hard to beat you have to buy direct to get the best price from Richmond Va Charlotte NC or Sterling VA show rooms. (Normally $300 - $600 per foot)Other stores sell their products but have to mark them up they do not offer discounts to retailers to sell their products they prefer to sell direct. If you buy direct from Armstrong you can get a good price on cabinets about the same as Woodmark as a general rule. Bruce brand is quite a bit lower if you can find a dealer in your area that sells it. They have to be a stocking dealer to get an account with Bruce.

The most affordable alternatives with less options I have seen to date are

Sunco 6 Square and All wood Cabinets all three are imported finished door and drawer fronts. The cabinet boxes are cut and assembled with the pre finished imported doors and drawers for 2-3 week lead times. 6 Square offers life time warranty and has 2 inset cabinets to chose from.

"Smart" is a Amish cabinet company that was solely multifamily. They now offer kitchen at a time orders. I sell smart in my store for $81 - $226 per foot. They have about 12 door styles and 5-6 stains to chose from on most door styles. Very little modifications are possible. It is meant for price matters most customers with mass production driving down the cost. Great product for the need it fills.

Contractors Choice private label Aristokraft cabinet is a great price also in line with Smart. Less door styles to choose from.

Also comparing one company to the next for price comparison is not the way to go about it. Armstrong and Norcraft have the flat slab door as a high priced door while Smart Aristokraft and Brandom have it on the low price point. Wards 13" deep wall cabinets are standard size where many of my companies charge 50% of cabinet list price to modify depth and they do not care the amount of change in depth for the cost of the material. It is the same price for a 1" change or a 9" change. The fee is in the cost of operating the equipment used to make the cabinet more than the cost of the extra plywood. You can not make educated decisions based only on cabinet brand name. You have to get out there and look at the products available in your area and chose what looks good to you. Then take that quote and compare the same list of items with another company that sells the same product. That will tell you much more then asking oppinions on here of brand name pricing. I tell my customers up front the price per foot range that most customers pay for any given door style and brand name I have. Most stores do not do that. Mostly cause they are to lazy to figure it out. Sure their are exceptions but it is generally pretty close.

I priced Medallion and Schuller at the same quality level. The Medllion (from a kitchen and Bath place) came in almost twice as much as the Schuler. In the end I went with better quality custom that was the same price as the Schuler and added inset for only $1,000 more. I am very happy with my cabs

Dave-
You are the first person I have ever seen mention Ward's cabinets here--except me. I asked about them a couple times. They are sold by two different dealers I visited with and both strongly suggested them as excellent bang for my buck. I was not happy with the interior finish of the drawers--it just seemed sort of unfinshed and sloppy. Are there different Ward's lines? The designer ended up pricing out Heartland by Duracraft of TN. I was pretty much ready to go with them when I got the specs--they offer a 1 year limited warranty. This is just not acceptable to me. Am I crazy?
Both of these lines had lots of flexibility at a pretty low price point. I am doing 15" uppers throughout. We want to do soft close door hinges too.
Any advice for me? I am in SW Florida.

Dave, I perused most of the Manufacture's sites, but I didn't see one that made euro cabs. Where would you recommend I look? Any with 1/4 sawn maple slab doors?

Willinak-I'm not sure which 'level' we got, but I'd have to guess upper level. All the doors and drawers close 'soft' that is they do not slam. The drawers open all the way out; you can even see the backing of the actual drawer when you pull the drawer out. The shelves are actual wood (not particle board with wood veneer). The backings and bottoms are wood too. Dovetail joinery on the drawers. We priced four or five different brands; this one was the 2nd to highest price. Woodmode was higher priced, but lacking in design, style and features. My husband didn't think the extra cost was worth the difference in construction. Also, our salesman & my husband got along very well (and my husband doesn't usually get along with anyone well). Since he was most comfortable working with him, that helped the ordering process, planning and overall experience alot. Especially since I changed our layout 6 times before we finalized.

twosit:

The classic and Renaissance lines both use the same drawer box solid wood with dovetail and undermount glides. I am surprised you were disappointed by one. The Eco choice line is bamboo which will look different as all bamboo cabinets are not solid wood as Bamboo does not grow to be thick enough. You will see the layers of bamboo in the dovetail. Wards has been in business for a long time. The drawer box should be not an issue for you. Some dealers do not have an eye for detail. I just sent back half my initial samples for a company I use pointing out they were not consistent to which the company agreed and has remade them for me. That is still not good avertising because they should have been right the first time. Any ways. I would look around some more. I do not have an account with Ultracraft who is a competitor to wards to be able to directly compare pricing. What wards brings to the table is 13" deep standard. You are going deeper which is great if that is what you want. 13" deep really helps those on here who say their dinner plates will not fit in the cabinet with the door shut without modifications to all wall cabinets which drives the minimum price up. Wards also has out of this world finishes for those who want more than a paint and a stain. They distress in several differnt types and they brush stroke secondary layers with accent tones for a really cool look. You do not see standard finishes like Wards offers in most product lines mentioned over and over on Garden Web.

Willinak:

Euro Cabinets to me means full access or Frameless cabinets. If that is what you mean Wards only makes Frameless cabinets and Bridgewood makes all cabinets in framed or frameless for the same price with a shorter warranty period than the Wards Lifetime Warranty.

Don't leave out custom cabinet makers. I saved several thousand bucks over Kraftmaid and other brands by going with a custom cabinet maker: frameless, no MDF, excellent hardware, no wasted space in my kitchen with fillers.

If you post a thread titled "looking for custom cabinet maker in XXXX (your general geographic location), you will likely get guidance for custom cab makers.

Dave, thanks for the info on Wards. looks like they are limited to the southeast, and I am in Western Colo. Maybe they would ship to Colo.

I would think any dealer would ship their cabinets any where. My website if it ever gets done will be a unique one where you can estimate your cabinet cost without having an exact design. It would be easier then having to fiddle with a shopping cart. I have paid 2 individuals 1 a 50% deposit to build my site with 100 plus pages and a 2nd person 100 percent of agreement over a draw schedule and he has vanished before the site was organized the way I wanted it, nor released to google to show up on the first page for cabinet searches. He said he needed 1/2 days work to get it shined up. So annoying! Kitchen design on computer is done thru go to meeting software and a conference call. Many in the industry think that kitchen and bath stores will need to go in this direction to succede. The dealer makes a nation wide network of remodeling professionals to do the hands on work and the dealer does the design and sending of the products from anywhere. I personaly intend to take the concept 1 step further and have the remodeling guys keep sales centers in thier home offices of all the brands sold. Then the dealer has everthing where the customer is. Although in the case of Wards they are funny about that. Wards will not ship out of the state of the dealer location without company approval. So their are two ways to do that get the approval or send it to your store and then send it to the customer location. Obviously if you did the 2nd and had a warranty problem you shot yourself in the foot. Honesty is the best policy!

Call Wards and they will tell you who is around you. You may be surprised!!

Janet, it's not illegal, not fraudulent, just not well known, and yes I don't like it either. You will find it everywhere. A friend has a dental office, and pays a monthly subscription to some person who sprinkles foo-foo dust every so often that allows his practice to pop up first in a search for dentists in our area. It's part of the online business practice now days. Did you ever wonder how/why certain ads or sites pop up when doing a search?

If we could only get this site to stop-the-pops, I would be most happy!

I am almost afraid to type this, but....I don't get pop-ups with this site. Just ads on the side that I don't read.

Twosit, you are too lucky! Or, you also may be using a pop-up blocker, which works well, but on some sites you don't want it blocking because it will take you to another screen, which may be what you want.

@willinak

Janet, it's not illegal, not fraudulent, just not well known, and yes I don't like it either.

Well, it's probably more "black hat" than "illegal." Still, it is questionable to sell something you don't own. The Google results page belongs to Google, not to the consultant who is selling the first result slot to Dave. Promising to create a website that will be easily searchable by Google is one thing, promising the first slot is something else.

People who sell things they don't own are also more likely to run off with your money without delivering, as poor Dave has found out.

The "foo-foo dust" your dentist sprinkles has another name--spamdexing. Basically, it's possible to fool Google (or other search sites) into thinking a website is extremely popular and thus get a higher slot in the results page. Google then scrambles it's algorithms to prevent this, and the spamdexers adjust their tactics as well, and charge your dentist for more "dusting."

No argument that it happens all the time, and may be a cost of doing business on certain search terms.

--Janet

Here is a link that might be useful: Wikipedia link on spamdexing

Janet, not condoning the practice at all, just acknowledging it occurs.

Well sorry about all the controversy! I was just trying to basicly state that many dealers in the 21st century are learing that over time brand name recognition allows the customer to take faith that the product will be consistent to the name recognition. Stores are working on ways to get customers outside their immediate geography using the internet. My webdesigner had said he could write the coding of the website so that google fully understands its content. Content is king. That helps you to come up higher towards the top of the list. If google truly knows your content pixy dust of statistics manipulation and other factors are less likey to move you as your content is king. Now if I could only find him to finish the job! I feel like the politician from The gulf coast talking a while back on the famous sound bit of get something done "we are dying down here"!

We are getting DuraSupreme Crestwood line. Got alot more for my money (solid wood doors, 100 lb. glides, full extension, blumotion) than any other place I checked out. Dynasty and a custom cabinet maker were the most expensive.

I live in Minnesota and DuraSupreme is made in Minn. so maybe that helps?
Also got good pricing from Diamond brand (Lowes).

Allwood available through Costco seems to be very reasonable. The quality is outstanding for the price. The only problem is that they have limited sizes.

My contractor wants to use Bruce cabinets I have had Kraftmaid and was satisfied. Just the two of us so they won't be abused but I want quality and durabilty. Any suggestions. Thanks

I found this ranking and rating and it has been very helpful. https://www.mainlinekitchendesign.com/general/kitchen-cabinet-ratings-2017-reviews-top-selling-cabinet-lines/