My parents just ordered from CliqStudios recently and were very impressed. The cabinets are high quality and look nice - thicker than standard builder grade. Paint job looks great on theirs, they went with a white/cream color.

Anonymous wrote:I've been looking at this company - http://www.cliqstudios.com/ - I haven't ordered from them or seen them in person, but might be an option.

Those are Chinese unfortunately. Gardenweb's kitchens forum has had a few thread on this brand. There was at least one very happy new kitchen owner, but a lot of complaints. I ordered samples and the doors were really cheap - badly stained and splotchy.

I'm the first PP who recommended Diamond. Glad to see I'm not alone on that. We got ours through a kitchen shop but Lowes has the same stuff. I think there are two grades, and ideally you want the higher one. But it doesn't have to cost a billion dollars.

get shaker cabinets as seen on hgtv cheap and great!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ikea kitchens are just tacky in some settings. I just looked at a $900k house this past weekend that boasted a "high-end gourmet kitchen" and it turned out to be a gray ikea kitchen. The cabinets were all white laminate inside. Not a speck of wood grain to be found. It may have looked great elsewhere, but it didn't fit the setting.

No, the gray painted cabinets don't work anywhere. It's a short-lived fad that needs to go away. I went with Lowe's because I was unhappy with Ikea's very limited style choices.

I have seen gray cabinets that look amazing, but they're stained rather than painted and retain a lot of the woodgrain. Flat painted cabinets never look good, even in white.

I've been looking at this company - http://www.cliqstudios.com/ - I haven't ordered from them or seen them in person, but might be an option.

I have no doubt that IKEA is great quality, but if you want real wood and not wood finishes, that's not the way to go.

Anonymous wrote:Ikea kitchens are just tacky in some settings. I just looked at a $900k house this past weekend that boasted a "high-end gourmet kitchen" and it turned out to be a gray ikea kitchen. The cabinets were all white laminate inside. Not a speck of wood grain to be found. It may have looked great elsewhere, but it didn't fit the setting.

No, the gray painted cabinets don't work anywhere. It's a short-lived fad that needs to go away. I went with Lowe's because I was unhappy with Ikea's very limited style choices.

Ikea kitchens are just tacky in some settings. I just looked at a $900k house this past weekend that boasted a "high-end gourmet kitchen" and it turned out to be a gray ikea kitchen. The cabinets were all white laminate inside. Not a speck of wood grain to be found. It may have looked great elsewhere, but it didn't fit the setting.

Anonymous wrote:Don't get crap from China. Do Ikea or another RTA option (Barker Cabinets; Conestoga.) Or go to Lowes and get Diamond cabinets when they are on sale; a decent middle-of-the road option that you don't have to assemble yourself.

Love the Diamond cabinets!

If you go to Lowe's or Home Depot, you will find that there is a very wide price difference. When I originally went into Lowe's, the lady priced me up with the prettiest cabinets and counters and, sure enough, the price came to $30,000. I told her my price limit was $15,000 including appliances and she just shook her head. However, once I took a lot of time to look around at the options, there were a few cabinet styles I really liked that were very reasonably priced. In the end, I bought the Diamond brand cabinets and granite counters.

They won't want to work within your budget but if you take the time to look at the prices on the back of each cabinet door model, you'll find there are some great options for a good price.

Here is my bottom line for a fairly standard 10'x10' kitchen with island.
maple cabinets: $7,000
granite counters: $3,000
dishwasher: $600
gas range: $600
installation (provided by Lowe's): $4,000

To preserve the budget, I decided to keep the old refrigerator (even though it's white and the new stuff is stainless) and to keep the old flooring vinyl which is neutral colored and in decent condition. The kitchen looks great and it does not look like a budget kitchen at all.

Don't get crap from China. Do Ikea or another RTA option (Barker Cabinets; Conestoga.) Or go to Lowes and get Diamond cabinets when they are on sale; a decent middle-of-the road option that you don't have to assemble yourself.

Look at RTA cabinet store in PA. We just did our entire kitchen with them and it looks amazing. We looked at Ikea but I didn't like the finishes and wanted real wood. It was about a 2.5 hour drive to their showroom, but I think it was worth it. We have a 12x16 kitchen and a 6 ft island and we spent $4k cabinets.

We've done two Ikea kitchens and are very happy (we used ikea doors and some non-ikea doors). My friends who were adamant to not use Ikea but went with something equally priced -- their kitchens feel much cheaper than my ikea kitchen and are quicker to damage. That said, my contractor did suggest Panda Kitchens as a similarly priced alternative to ikea, but comes preassembled from China, which is how they keep prices down. He has done both and said he thought both were good.

i know you said "besides Ikea", but keep in mind there are companies that make doors to fit Ikea cabinets. You buy the Ikea box, but then the doors and fronts from another company and it can be better quality and a totally different look than Ikea. Semihandmade is one company and i know there are others.

Other than that maybe Home Depot? I don't know which brands though. Some of their stuff looks so cheap and dated.

I'm hoping someone else will chime in because I would like to know also!

My current kitchen is a disaster, I need to replace the cabinets but can't afford $30,000 renovation.

Besides Ikea, what other cabinet sources I should consider?