I would suggest taking detailed measurements and posting your current floorplan/layout on the Gardenweb kitchen forums and ask for advice. If you explain what you want and what your budget is, you will get some great very detailed suggestions about what you're looking for. You're budget is going to drive most of your decisions.

Are you looking at making any changes, like putting cabinets all the way to the ceiling? The height forced us to go semi-custom-- our older house had ceilings too low for one type of cabinet, and the other size was too short.

Sounds like you have some design questions too, so first and foremost spend time on Houzz or Pinterest deciding what you like for style.

We used the design people at Home Depot, who came out and measured and put it all into a software program. They had lots of choices of cabinets, high end to low end. And then they were made to order. It was an easy process and it turned out great.

You can't get a custom cabinet from ikea. That's why the prices are lower, in part.

What you do is you get ikea cabinets and fill in gaps with side boards.

If you want a kitchen designer we were happy with Hedy at jack Rosen kitchens. It won't be ikea price though.

Why would you need a non standard cabinet? If you're doing a pull and replace, yours are probably standard sized already. Besides if cabinets are off by a few inches, they sell filler and that's even what the pros use.

I would advise you to look at kitchen pictures and visit showrooms to get ideas of what color and style you want.

We are considering redoing out kitchen. There's really no way to rearrange the layout but I am totally overwhelmed by all of the choices for cabinets, counters and backsplashes. we are not going high-end, most likely IKEA or a step above. I know these places have set sizes for cabinets but what if I need a cabinet that is not standard size? Can I still use IKEA or Lowes? Do I need a kitchen designer?