The Best Kitchen Cabinet Brands for the Money: Our Fifteen Lines, Ranked by Price

The ladder

This is our placement from what we quote, not the manufacturers' claims; the pricing guide explains the levels.

Rung 1–7: the best value is the one with the colour you want

Every line at Level I has the construction baseline — plywood boxes, dovetailed solid-wood drawers, soft-close hinges and glides — so the differences are the menu and the warehouse. Forevermark is the lowest price and the widest stocked menu; FGM is the fastest; 21st Century has the most colour in stock; J&K is the all-wood purist; WoodConcept has the slim shaker in black and maple nobody else stocks; Adornus Essential is the only stocked frameless line; Fabuwood Signature is a semi-custom cabinet with a lifetime warranty at a stocked price. The best value is whichever one already has your colour on a shelf. See affordable cabinets and in-stock cabinets.

The first value jump: stocked to semi-custom

The step from a stocked colour to a made-to-order one buys sizes to the inch, modifications, glass, panels, hoods and a palette — in Fabuwood's case the same cabinet in a Select or Designer colour; in Adornus Designer's, a heavier box with hardwood doors; in Kith's, thirty-four doors and a finish library. If your kitchen has odd widths or a colour not on a shelf, this rung is the better buy than forcing a stocked line to fit. See semi-custom cabinets.

The second value jump: Shiloh

Shiloh is the rung where the cabinet changes character: a 1½-inch solid-wood face frame, a catalyzed conversion-varnish finish, forty doors, nine species including rift and quarter-sawn white oak, any Sherwin-Williams colour, glazes and distressing — and, one level up, six inset constructions at semi-custom lead times. For the money, Shiloh overlay is the most cabinet we sell below the custom shops, which is why so much of our portfolio is Shiloh. Its frameless sister Eclipse sits at the same rung with engineered modern fronts. See Fabuwood vs Shiloh and Shiloh vs Eclipse.

The top: when custom is the only answer

Great Northern, Plain & Fancy and Crystal are custom shops: any dimension, any species, any finish, furniture pieces, millwork hoods. They are the right rung when the drawing needs something the catalogues cannot build, and the wrong one when it does not — a Shiloh inset kitchen gets most of the way there for a level less. See custom cabinets.

What is not on the ladder

Particleboard boxes, stapled drawers, non-soft-close hardware and finishes sprayed by the dealer — none of our fifteen lines sells them, which is why the ladder starts where it does. The construction behind every line is in Cabinets 101 and plywood vs particleboard.

How to use the ladder

1. Find the lowest rung that has your door, your colour and your sizes.
2. Have the designer price your layout at that rung and one above — it takes minutes and shows exactly what the step buys.
3. Spend the difference on the countertop level, the island or the backsplash if the step does not buy you anything you can see.

Bottom line

There is no best brand, only the best rung for the kitchen: a stocked line when your colour is on a shelf, Fabuwood or Adornus Designer when you need sizes and modifications, Shiloh when you want the custom look, a custom shop when the drawing demands it. Every one is in the showrooms, and a free 3D design prices your room at any two rungs the same visit. All fifteen lines.