From their specs, they have some concerns. First off, it's admirable that they admit right off that they don't make any of the doors. But, that gives rise to the concern that the doors and face frames may have matching issues. And all of their accessories look to come straight out of the Enkeboll catalog. Another potential matching issue. The only thing that they actually physically create is the cabinet box. Which is the least important part of the cabinet. And that's not not what most people want from a "custom" line.

Second, although they brag about the robustness of their drawer construction, that construction is totally useless without the good quality glides to match up to that. And they seem to be intentionally not telling you about those glides by over emphasizing the drawer construction. Same with the hinges. And all of the actually important parts of the cabinet. Making over engineered boxes without great hardware that works with that engineering is a silly business model.

They also skip right over the finishing process. Which is very important, considering that they are outsourcing products to assemble together and look right. They need to have some expert finishers on staff, along with using top notch products. And they mention nothing about that issue.

Overall, they would have to answer those questions, and come in at a significantly cheaper price to an actual custom line for them to be under consideration for me.

GreenDesigns,

I can't thank you enough for your feedback. I really feel unqualified to be evaluating cabinet construction, but I'm trying to learn.

I was referred to a kitchen designer who is recommending these cabinets to me (I think because I expressed an interest in Ultracraft which he no longer sells apparently because it got too expensive). I remember reading last night that they used Blum slides. I searched the website today and couldn't find it until I did a google search (to prove to myself that I wasn't going crazy). The website is terrible but there is info on drawer slides, though very little about finishing, which is still a concern.

http://www.moderncabinetco.com/finishes.html
http://www.moderncabinetco.com/drawers.html

I know the finish can be the difference between good and great when it comes to the look of a kitchen. Are you suggesting, in terms of concerns about matching, that they would use, for example, a finished Conestoga door and try to match their box to it? Or are you just concerned about wood grains matching? Is this a concern in a painted finish? What kind of processes/products am I looking for in a good finish?

Would you expect this type of cabinet to be comparable in price and quality to Conestoga RTA (rather than true custom, which I wasn't really expecting, though it would have been a nice surprise)?

I'm sorry for all the questions. I don't have a price yet on these and I don't want to rule something out just because it's not a name-brand. But I do want to ensure I get the best quality I can afford.

Thanks.

I'm in the area and while I have not had personal dealings with Modern they have a good local reputation.

As to using Conestoga doors- I handle a brand that also uses them. Twice there were issues with frames matching doors on inset cabinets and the company notified me about it prior to sending them out and went ahead and corrected it. For light colored and natural inset jobs there is an option to have the maker get the frames from Conestoga as well but it costs more. For painted projects it simply does not matter. Point is there are options.

Jakuvall