The sales associate did mention that come Monday there would be an additional $3000 that would come off my price via a promotion.

We also got an estimate from Lowes. It included an extra discount *and* 10% for my dh's military service (he's a retired vet). Our custom quote came out better - I don't remember how much better, though. Our custom cabinets came with things that we couldn't afford from Lowe's - standard features in our custom cabinets were soft close, full extension, top quality, specialty wood, frameless, and of course, they were *custom*, so precisely the size and design that we wanted.

It's definitely worth it to get a quote from a custom shop or two. Surprising as it may seem, very often the custom will beat the price that you would get from a big box store.

(I am in Western Wash, by the way - Snohomish County)

I've always done better with custom, pricewise.

Depends upon your location and the features you're looking for. If I were quoting a job like that, $20,000 (going off the top of my head here) would get a pretty nice kitchen setup.

- full-extension, soft-close, undermount, ball-bearing slides
- pullout shelving for base cabinets
- lazy susans for both upper and lower corner cabinets
- taxes and install included
- face-to-face, in-home service with a professional to walk you through the features selection process (the number of options is overwhelming)

...and possibly granite or Corian counters with an undermount sink.

So yes, you should check out the custom makers. Lowes cabinets look cheaper at first, but custom builders will often get you better features for a similar price.

This post was edited by JAAune on Sun, Nov 2, 14 at 1:39

My kitchen is from Lowe's and Schuler cabinets, the total cost of mine was at $10,500. I didn't have any custom inserts, or pull outs. Lowe's was great to work with, and the cabinets are nice. You can look at my link below and see how many cabinets I have.

http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/kitchbath/msg1011273514661.html?63

In my area lowes has been almost double any one else's. They do none of their own work but bid as though they did on top of their subs bid...

That was my feeling. I am going to get a few custom cabinet guys to give me estimated then pull the trigger once I finalize my bids.

It depends on where you are, how many custom places you have in your area, and what exactly you are looking for.

We have Shenandoah from Lowes and it was the best value compared to the few custom places we have in the area. We also got one year with no interest to pay. All our custom places were higher. I was told there are very few left as many have gone out of business.

@chris82: I would also check out a good line from another independent cabinet dealer. You may find a firm with better pricing, better products and better service. I personally found our local "custom" quality to be a bit lacking and not to the level of what you could get, say, in Amish or Mennonite country.

i had medallion silverline cabinets installed in April which are the same as the schuler at lowes.
with the discounts, lowes was only a tiny bit higher than a local kd. i would say the price with the discount should be about what you will pay.
schuler comes with soft close standard. same construction as medallion from a kd. i will say that i was OCD on the cabinet decision and did find that Schulers soft close hardware is better than the silverline, more equivilent to the gold line in medallion.
btw if you want to trim costs, check out other door styles. some of the lowes doors are in the silverline, some of them will be the gold line and some are platinum. huge variance from door to door. ie my lancaster door's replica in the gold line was (potter hill) $1500 more and my kd said the construction was exactly the same.
my 2 cents is if you like the cabinet, have a local kd quote you the door style in medallion. i was very Leary of working with lowes vs a kd and we did have some finish flaws that my kd took care of for me. the kd at lowes is a crapshoot, could be awful, could be great.
if you go into medallion.com, you can figure out what your door is called. they are exact copies with different names. ie my silverline is lancaster but at lowes it was summer hill or something

This post was edited by ardcp on Sun, Nov 2, 14 at 16:16

I was quoted 14k for Diamond cabinets from Lowes, 19k for Medallion Silverline from the local home improvement store and ended up going custom and getting whole house (kitchen, laundry, two bathrooms and 3 built ins) for less than our initial Diamond quote from Lowes that was just for the kitchen. Our cabinet maker also came out to the house for rough-in plumbing to make sure sink pipes were properly placed. He had all the big cabinet making machinery. It was also nice to stop by his shop and see what was going on.

Reading. Jdez' post, I'm more than convinced that it matters where you live. My 13' of cabinets and 10' island were about $15000 from a mid-priced brand. There is no way you would get a fair-sized kitchen (let alone a whole house) done custom for that price around here.

sjhockey - My area has a low cost of living for sure. I am in South Louisiana. Funny thing is, my jaw hit the floor with that first quote and I was scrambling to figure out how to get good cabinets for less.

Site built and finished is the cheapest ''custom'' snowjob going. It should be avoided like the plague as it's the least durable and most problematic construction wise. It flourishes for some reason in TX where hackery and unlicensed contractors do scads of questionable builds every year---proudly proclaiming that they don't need to meet national building codes. It's a wierd scary little almost self contained world down there that sometimes bleeds over into adjacent states.

Truly beware any ''custom'' quote that is significantly cheaper. There IS a reason. Figure out that reason. And it's not that someone has such pride in workmanship that they do it as a hobby, not to make money, which is a beyond ridiculous idea I've seen thrown out around here. Cheap is cheaply made and finished. There ain't no such thing as a free lunch.