I'll put in a good word here for P&F. Mine are painted and 10 y.o. I have shaker doors on the cabinets combined with slab front drawers.

The cabinets have been excellent. There have been 0 issues. The drawers and hinges work really well. Just recently was the first time I needed to do any maintenance and it required that I remove 2 drawers and tighten screws in the brackets.

The painted surface wipes down beautifully. I was told there would be cracks with inset doors but there have not been. They are all plywood construction.

Expect these cabinets will look good for another 10 years at least. There is a small amount of wear just showing on the edge of the pull-out garbage bin. The inside of my knife drawer is showing some wear as well. Those are the worst things I can say.

Also, if any customizations are needed they do it very well. They did a custom plate rack for me and provided wood for shelving we built out on the sides of the fridge cabinet after the KD mismeasured.

I would definitely buy this brand again in another home.

Plain and Fancy.

I have P&F in my own home and I am a KD that has sold it for over 15 years. It is my favorite line of cabinets and I've been in the industry for 30 yrs. I have zero issues with this brand. It is a great value for the price which is somewhere between Mouser and Wood-Mode.

I quoted a kitchen a few years ago for a doctor's family....a high end home in one of my area's nicest neighborhoods. They had used Mouser (cherry stained) when they built their home about 10-12 years prior. The finish was not holding up well at all. I don't recall what he said Mouser did about it...but obviously not much. About a year or so before they decided to remodel....he hired another company to fix the cabinets. He said they looked good just long enough for his check to clear. He was very upset that he had spent so much money on what he thought was a high end product. And then wasted money on them again with Kitchen Tune Up.

I ended up not getting the job, they went with another KD and got Provines Cabinetry. But I heard through industry friends that he had bad luck once again. Not sure if it was bad primer or what. But he ended up having all his door and drawer fronts remade...at least once, I think...maybe twice. It ended up being a nightmare. But I did hear that Provines made it right and they were very happy after it was all done. So nothing at all against them...just odd that one person had such bad luck on the finish of cabinets. And for Mouser....that may have been a fluke or maybe they have since improved their finishes.

But for me, P&F has made their cabinets the same way for years and have stood the test of time.

My vote is for P&F.

Would you pay an extra $2 grand to go from a Toyota Camry to a Mercedes Benz? Why not pay the extra for your cabinets?

Heh, I'd certainly pay the extra to go from a Camry to a Benz. I didn't think Mouser to Plain & Fancy was such a jump. I figured it was more of a Lexus to BWM.

Kompy, we love your kitchen. We're going for a similar white kitchen look - white shaker-style cabs, Frosty Carrina countertop, and either white or honed carrara marble subway tile.

The KD that our GC recommended finally got back to us with a quote for Bernier cabinets. It's significantly less than Centra, and is supposed to be 3/4" plywood construction with a 3" shaker door. But I haven't been able to find any info on Bernier online. Their website has very little info, aside from them being Canadian, having a 5-year warranty, and a picture of their 3" Shaker door:

This is the P&F door we were considering:

Neither KD has samples or displays in stock or has sold these brands before (P&F and Bernier, respectively), but at least with P&F there are other dealers nearby who's displays we can check out.

Pic of our Mouser inset cabinets for reference.

Only a 5 year warranty vs a lifetime warranty?

That's what their website said. I found it rather strange myself, as everyone seems to be offering lifetime warranties.

Though I don't know how easy cabinet warranties are to collect on in practice, or if it's mostly a marketing thing unless you can prove that you've maintained internal humidity at 40-45% all the time or something like that.

I'd pick Plain and Fancy over almost anything else. It's that nice. As far as warranty support, yes, it's important. Some brands will do whatever they can to get out of a warranty claim, while others will do just about anything as long as it's reasonable, without griping about a time limit. Masterbrand cabinets (the parent company of Dynasty-Omega) owns Aristokraft, which is an entry level line. I had a gentleman contact me about a drawer glide failure on cabinets that he bought 10 years ago. The line only has a 5 year warranty, and is using completely different glides now. Didn't matter. Aristokraft sent the man the entire drawer glide because they couldn't replace the single piece that wore out 5 years past the warranty date. And that's on their entry level line!

I've always thought P&F beautiful, because I've seen it used many times on This Old House. The current season in fact is installing P&F cabinets in a blue-green color - the This Old House homeowner is brave about color! Having said that, I always thought P&F did not make frameless cabinets, and only made inset cabinets. I am a frameless gal, so did not consider P&F for that reason. When did P&F start doing frameless cabinets?

I am linking the This Old House episode that shows the P&F cabinetry in green-blue. The link is to the entire episode, but you can click on the bottom of the video screen where it says "Scene Selection" (after the "sponsor ad" plays); click on "Scene 3" to go right to the kitchens segment. It's about 2-1/2 minutes long.

Here is a link that might be useful: This Old House Kitchens Segment - Click on Scene 3

This post was edited by Sahmmy on Tue, Nov 11, 14 at 8:31

I don't know when they started offering their frameless Medley line, but I've found GW posts from 2009 mentioning it. Which is reassuring, as they would have ironed out any issues in the frameless production over the years.

I've had P&F since 2000 and I believe it was available then too. I just installed a Walnut frameless P&F kitchen this month and the homeowners LOVE it....and my installers said they were built very beautifully! I will someday post a picture of this kitchen...when they are 100% finished. They got the P&F Transition 3" door in Walnut (nutmeg finish). See brochure photo of Transition attached in Cocoa finish.

And I agree with LWO about warranties, they are only as good as the company itself. A limited lifetime warranty with company A might not help you out at all after 10 years. While a company with a 5 year warranty might bend over backwards, even if the warranty has expired. P&F now has a lifetime....but they use to have a 7yr warranty for many years.

The thing is....anything major (ie the FINISH) will usually happen within the first year. And hardware, like drawer guides, are one of the toughest things to replace or retrofit.

I've had P&F since 2000 and I believe it was available then too. I just installed a Walnut frameless P&F kitchen this month and the homeowners LOVE it....and my installers said they were built very beautifully! I will someday post a picture of this kitchen...when they are 100% finished. They got the P&F Transition 3" door in Walnut (nutmeg finish). See brochure photo of Transition attached in Cocoa finish.

And I agree with LWO about warranties, they are only as good as the company itself. A limited lifetime warranty with company A might not help you out at all after 10 years. While a company with a 5 year warranty might bend over backwards, even if the warranty has expired. P&F now has a lifetime....but they use to have a 7yr warranty for many years.

The thing is....anything major (ie the FINISH) will usually happen within the first year. And hardware, like drawer guides, are one of the toughest things to replace or retrofit.

{{!gwi}}

Thanks folks, you've convinced us to go with Plain & Fancy. We may be eating ramen for a while afterwards, but at least we'll have great cabinets.

Hello - I am considering Mouser Centra and Plain and Fancy - what line did you end up selecting and are you happy with it? How has the painted finish held up after a few years? Thanks.

Hi Nicole,

We ended up going with Plain and Fancy in painted white with the frameless MDF style, because we really liked the way their doors looked. With the amount of money we were spending, we felt it was worth it to get something we loved rather than something that's merely okay. One of the doors arrived damaged, but was quickly replaced.

We love the cabinets. I think the paint has held up well, given that we have three kids (a teenager and two toddlers, and I'm not sure which are tougher on the cabinets). There's some visible vertical lines as the paint has split at the joints on some drawer and door panels, which is expected with time on painted cabinets - and is worse next to the dishwasher / microwave, due to the heat and humidity. And the paint is scuffed off on some of the corners of frequently used drawers. There are some dings and dents on the sides of some frequently used doors and drawers, probably due to us hitting them with various objects. But I'm sure that I'm nitpicking, since I'm looking at the cabinets closely every day. I think if someone came in and took a look at the kitchen, without carefully examining every drawer panel, they'd say it looks great.

I will say that the installer is as important as the cabinets. We went with a cheaper installer, because they were $1k+ cheaper, and kind of wish we hadn't. They ended up nicking and scratching the insides of some of the glass door hanging cabinets while installing, and while you can touch it up it's never going to look as good as it originally did.

Thank you for your input. Are your doors all MDF, or do they have MDF center panel. I am happy to hear you like your cabinets, however your comments about the wearing finish, vertical split lines, dings, and scuffing after only a few years gives me some hesitation about the P&F line. I have considered P&F as a finalist due to their reputation for high quality finish, so I would like to get the same feedback from anyone who has Mouser/Mouser Centra or Signature Custom Cabinetry. Is this typical for all painted cabinets? Can anyone share their experience with either of those two brands?

Only the cabinet frames are MDF, the doors and drawer fronts are all solid wood.

All painted cabinets are prone to paint splitting along the seams over time, and I think all of them will chip and wear. I do not have other painted cabinets to compare to, but everything I have heard suggests that other brands will wear as fast or faster.

It's also possible that I'm just hyper sensitive to the imperfections - much like one is likely to notice faults when looking in the mirror that no one else would notice.

Only a few panels (the drawers closest to the microwave and cooktop, the door above the oven) exhibit paint splitting along the seams, and only the panels on the silverware drawer and trash/recycling pull out next to the microwave (our two most used drawers) exhibit scuffs on the panel corners. Likewise, the chips are mostly confined to one section of our pantry cabinet where we were careless with a plastic cereal container with hard pointed edges.

I'll attach some photos, and hopefully they'll give you a better idea (please excuse the mess).

These are overall photos, along with closer photos of the worst of the wear (splitting paint on drawer panels next to microwave, scuffs on trash pull out, chip and scuffs on fridge doors), to hopefully give you a better idea.

I could likely touch up most of the wear with the paint stick and marker provided with the cabinets, but I've been too lazy to do so.

Thank you again for the input. I can't see any of the imperfections in these photos - I just see a lovely kitchen :) What is the P&F door style you used?

Thank you. :)

As I said, you have to get close (and zoom in on the photos) to see the imperfections. I notice them because I'm looking for them and know they're there. The only thing that's of possible concern, that I noticed today, is some splitting along the veneer on the bottom edge of the uppers framing the window above the sink. I may contact P&F or our dealer about that.

The door style we used is the Shaker style. It has a 3" border on panels large enough to accommodate it, and smartly shrinks the top and bottom border on shorter drawer panels to maintain good look proportions and allow easy pull access.

Mouser Centra does have options for door produced using wood but also using a superior MDF product.

I m having the same situation, not sure which one to choose. does PF is so much better than mouser premier or mouser centra? Does anyone have experience with Shiloh? Among these, which one has the strongest materials? Thanks in advance!