You are falling down the page so I'll bump you up even though I don't have a good answer for you. :) But here is my opinion anyway.

Re. Ikea cabinets -- I put them in my kitchen and like them very much. Are they too cheap? Not for me, but we'll just have to see what "the market" thinks if we ever have to sell. My guess is that buyers in my area are looking for stainless and granite and would be impressed by the drawers and wouldn't care who made the cabinets. An Ikea kitchen can look however you want it to look, and the functionality is fantastic. I can't speak to durability since ours is only a few months old, but since the cabinets have a 25-year warranty, I decided not to worry about it. Our old kitchen cabinets were made in a similar way and held up very well the whole 25 years they were in our house.

Now as to your door style. I haven't seen that one, but I would caution you that if it looks fingerprinty in the store, it'll look that way in your house too. I went with Adel white and so far am very happy with how they look and how easily they clean up. You could get custom unfinished doors from Scherr's or Semihandmade or one of the other 3rd party door manufacturers if you don't like any of Ikea's. (They cost more, though.)

One last note. It really isn't that easy to "change the doors to change the look" (as they say), depending on how you trim out your cabinets. It's not just the doors; it's the toe kicks, end panels, light rail, and top trim, all of which need to be cut to size. In our kitchen we took the cabinets to the ceiling using an extra piece of Ikea trim, then installed crown molding painted to match. The crown molding effectively locks all the trim and cover panels in, so changing the door color would involve taking out all that crown as well as all the Ikea trim pieces. Oh yes, and also uninstalling the range hood, because there are cover panels on the cabinets on each side of it. BUT if you don't use anything but the Ikea trim, you could still do it -- just plan for it and be aware that it might not be as simple as just changing out the doors and drawer fronts (which is easy).

Here is a link to ebay with your cabinet fronts. Not sure what the price difference is. I added up the cost of replacing door/drawer fronts from IKEA and the shipping came out to what it would cost me in gas to drive. Am an hour away, although I'd love to hang around their at some point.

Here is a link that might be useful: Your cabinets

First observation is that you won't have hundreds of the unwashed (hands at least) masses (I'm including myself here along with the boat load of sticky fingered kids I see anytime I'm at Ikea) traipsing through your kitchen opening and closing all your cupboard doors and drawers on a daily basis. Display kitchens endure a volume of indignities a home kitchen won't. Folks with white cabinets often champion them as being easy to maintain because you can see the dirt and spills, is this so different? I'm Canadian so I haven't seen the new product (does the US still have Adel Beech? - that just got dumped here) but I would focus on what I like and the functionality.

Hm..have you considered buying the cabinets/drawers from IKEA and then buying the exteriors from one of the many companies that actually specialize in creating upgraded IKEA doors/panels?

I think one of the most intriguing parts of going IKEA is the ability to change out the exterior - or upgrade it.

There's a lot of interesting companies doing it. Let me know if you want information about it.

The first time I saw an Ikea kitchen it was in the home of a woman I know who could have any cabinets in the world. Money would be no object. Her kitchen is Akurum Abstrakt and it is a knockout, gorgeous with soapstone counters. I would have used Ikea in a flash, but they are too far away and since we are not DIY, and there were no accredited Ikea installers near us, we moved on.

I don't mind plastic but I don't like fake wood grain. Too cheap for me, but only you can say if it's too cheap for you. I promise not to be snotty when I visit you!

(Oh...I currently have fake wood cabinets now. Wish they were Ikea. Not that I'd keep the fake wood if they were.)

For that price, I'd suggest you buy a door to keep at home for a bit. If you are satisfied with the look and quality, then go ahead. If you are not happy with the door, I'd still consider using the Ikea boxes and getting other doors as mentioned above.

There is a beautiful walnut Ikea kitchen on here (and others, but I have a walnut thing lately so it sticks in my head), the doors were ordered from another place, and I believe they were just finished with tung oil by the owner if I remember correctly. Gorgeous. I'm horrible with names, maybe someone remembers and can point you in the right direction.

I also considered Ikea after seeing the kitchens here, but the store is about 3 hours away and I am the type that needs to visit the display a million times and play with things first. Plus I have a crazy work schedule so I would have a hard time with all the assembly.

There is a beautiful walnut Ikea kitchen on here (and others, but I have a walnut thing lately so it sticks in my head), the doors were ordered from another place, and I believe they were just finished with tung oil by the owner if I remember correctly. Gorgeous. I'm horrible with names, maybe someone remembers and can point you in the right direction.

It's vsalz's kitchen:

Here is a link that might be useful: walnut/quartzite kitchen

Should have added that while that one is more traditional, semi-handmade has really spectacular slab doors for ikea.

what is too cheap: anything that you spend your time on and either aesthetically or structurally or otherwise you instinctively know that it will leave you,well, still wanting or needing to turn around in a few years redo/modify/seriously tweak/take it apart/possibly repair replace or otherwise deal with an incomplete,unsatisfying end result. Some folk may feel just fine about "cheap"-there is no rule against cheap-it's how you justify/accept it-you can't change your inner instincts and the fact that only you know your goals and plans in totality. You can get cast off cabinets and stuff at the Habitat store or spend mega and get full custom- and everything in between as well as mixey matchey is out there. it's about your end point of feeling settled or not, with what you do.

Yes! Vsalz's kitchen! Thank you, writersblock.

And I think herbflavor nicely captured what I couldn't figure out how to put in coherent words :-)

NorthCarolina, thanks for the bump up and your perspective. The fingerprints are up high, so I can't really see small children doing it. My DH and I tried though to no avail to leave a fingerprint and couldn't. I could see it though in a kitchen getting pretty smudgy though.

Techicolor. Thanks for finding the link. There were a lot of missing sizes that I would need, so that's not going to work.

Caryscott, it looks like the US still carries the Adel Beech.

Steph2000, yes we've considered just buying the boxes. If we went that route though, we'd probably work with the neighbor who does major wholesaling for kitchen materials and knows all the right people.

I too just don't know about the fake wood grain. It's reasonably convincing but it's kind of like just knowing it's fake is bothersome. Like a diamond compared to a cubic zirconium.

Williamsem. I think that's what we should do too. The lighting in IKEA is awful to say the least. I don't know how many things from paints to furniture that look great in the showroom and then look horrible at home. I've learned to take things home that are just barely tolerable (especially paint swatches) at the stores and just love them at home.

IKEA has a walnut that I didn't care for. Vsalz's kitchen only used the boxes not the doors themselves from IKEA.

Herbflavor, you did hit the head on the nail. I'm going to bring a sample home, and decide if this door is going to have me always looking at them wishing I had spent the extra dollars, time and effort to get something I really like. I'm not that particular so if I don't think I'll be happy with them, they probably wouldn't look right in the end.

Thanks for all of your thoughts.

The one thing that I noticed about your post is that you really don't seem too excited about any of this:

I liked but never loved the Nexus Brown/Black ones (they seemed to have a dull finish). These new ones look very similar but have a nicer sheen but wow these are basically plastic cabinets.

I am not sure what your right answer is, but it doesn't sound like you found it.

Do you have existing cupboards that are worth repainting? Or, consider that there are a lot of small and mid-sized cabinetmakers who can do a really nice job building cabinets that you might actually look forward to.

Good luck!

Colorfast, you're right that I'm not excited about any of the options I've looked at BUT

I've mulled over a lot of kitchens here on GW and also out Houzz and there isn't anything I can say I love the cabinets. There are obviously beautiful kitchens but again nothing that says, I've got to have that.

Coastal_modern's kitchen is something I really liked a lot but it wasn't that cabinets or anything in particular other then the whole entire kitchen came together that I really connected with. I'm VERY excited about adding windows to the kitchen and opening it to the rest of the house. None of the materials have me excited though.

We're doing a MAJOR remodeling so using the current thermofoil cabinets is not an option (but we did consider it for awhile).