Lowes vs. Home Depot for kitchen cabinets (not labor)

We're starting to officially look to redo our kitchen tomorrow. We have the labor already and need everything else.

Can anyone recommend or not recommend the brand of cabinet they got at HD or Lowes? Pros or cons?

We don't have the money to go to an outside place. We also will be opening a credit card so we can finance it for a year which is a plus.

Thanks so much!

Re: Lowes vs. Home Depot for kitchen cabinets (not labor)

We got American Woodmark cabinets. I didn't care about the brand. I wanted 3/4" all plywood construction with soft close doors and drawers, raised panel, full overlay. AW was the least expensive and money drove the bus. AW happened to be the least expensive for the type of cabinet we wanted. I love them.

My price for the cabinets was under $7500 - but my kitchen seems much smaller than the other folks here.

Included:
3 single door upper 46" high upper cabinets 12 depth.
2 double door 46" upper cabinets 12" depth
1 corner super susan cabinet (L shaped door)
2 small upper cabinets (over fridge, over microwave)
1 lower full chest of drawers full depth
1 double door full depth for sink mount
1 lower full depth spice rack pull out
1 lower full depth L door with super susan
2 single door/drawer combo full depth lower cabinets
2 double door/double drawer full depth extra wide cabinets.

Price included the cream cabinets with hazelnut glaze, all plywood 3/4" plywood construction, solid maple doors, soft close drawers and doors, full overlay, raised panels, All trim (I think it's a 3 piece crown moulding trim with bead for the top, kick plates and skins for the bottom).

What drove my price up was the fact that I would not compromise on a few things. I absolutely wanted raised panels rather than flat or recessed panels on my doors. I wanted solid wood rather than compromised doors. I also do not like the look of partial overlay.. the full overlay was much pricier. And the cream with hazelnut glaze.. it would have been cheaper if I'd gone with plain wood.

I did comparison shop at Consumers.. but I was not a fan of how pushy the salespeople were. AND the kitchen designer actually put my dishwasher in a spot where the door would not have been able to open - so I was disappointed by the lack of expertise in planning. And apples to apples.. the price was higher.

I would have really liked to have gone custom and checked out a couple of places - they actually came in lower.. until I started wanting things like full overlay or glazes and stuff like that.. apples to apples the price always came out lower with HD so that's where we went.

ETA: Exact price with all above included plus tax was $6407 and change.

Message edited 11/7/2011 2:22:46 PM.

Re: Lowes vs. Home Depot for kitchen cabinets (not labor)

I didn't buy my cabinets at HD or Lowes but went to a wholesaler and got much better price for semi-custom cherry cabinets. I've know of people overpaying 50-100% more for big box store cabinets and inexperienced designers there botching up orders...

However, if you want to go with the big box stores, Thomasville, Kraftmaid or Schuler are the better brands there. Diamond is ok... I was not too impressed with the door styles available from any of these manufacturers or the big box store prices so didn't go with them.

The cabinets I went with are semi-custom Starmark cabinets which I got at $9300 for 18 cabinets - 3/4 plywood, undermount drawers, soft close, cherry wood, free hardware.

Standard stuff is ok with the big box stuff brands, but if you go abit semi-custom, or want some extras like plywood upgrade, 3/4 boxes, cherry wood, or sometimes even soft close, you will likely pay extra.

I researched ALOT before buying my cabinets so feel free to FM me if you need more info.

Message edited 11/5/2011 11:08:31 PM.

Re: Lowes vs. Home Depot for kitchen cabinets (not labor)

This is what I wrote in a previous post-but it is 23 cabinets not 21 (missed two)

Cabinets came to $9127 (includes tax and delivery) -AW Creme Glaze all Plywood-21 cabinets (plus panel, etc) all hardware included and a few other things.-from home depot

I went to 3 private places and had a quote from custom but they could not come close to my price. My budget was $8000 but went over a little.

Re: Lowes vs. Home Depot for kitchen cabinets (not labor)

home depot, cherry wood Thomasville Cabinets.

21 cabinets with double crown and light moulding, lazy susan, pull outs for pantrys, extra end caps panels to finish the end cabinets. around 9500. we waited for the buy more save more offer at HD. No problems at all.

Re: Lowes vs. Home Depot for kitchen cabinets (not labor)

If you haven't tried Consumer Kitchens it may be worth a shot, they have a big showroom where you can get ideas even if you don't end up buying cabinets from them.

The designers are more experienced there than at Lowes or HD.

Some people have here have used them so you can post for their experiences...

Good luck!

Consumer Kitchen

Re: Lowes vs. Home Depot for kitchen cabinets (not labor)

I priced my cabinets at HD and Lowes and Consumers was cheaper with more extras. We were able to finance them through Consumers.

I would price them other places not just HD & Lowes.

I bought Kraftmaid and love them.

Also Consumers was always running some special when we were in there and the price actually kept going down over the 3 months we were deciding.

Re: Lowes vs. Home Depot for kitchen cabinets (not labor)

We priced at both when we did our kitchen in '08. We went with HD since we liked the designer we were working with better and we also had a 10% off coupon there and I think it was another 5% off if you opened a card. Great deal! We installed ourselves so didn't have to worry about labor.

We got American Woodmark gettysburg white, quality is awesome, love everything about them.

Re: Lowes vs. Home Depot for kitchen cabinets (not labor)

Hi Dulcinea. I've just recieved a quote of $12,500 for semi custom Starmark cabinetry from a local wholesaler. My kitchen is small.16 cabinets including 1 27" pantry plus an appliance garage. I saw your post and though it was over a year ago I'm wondering if I could get a better price.
I did choose the highest level of door ...inset in maple. But no upgrade on finish. 4 lower cabinets are drawer cabinets, all upgraded to 5 piece. Otherwise nothing too fancy.
I'm in suffolk county.
Would you recommend your wholesaler?
Do you know what % of the list price you were charged?
Thanks.

Lowes vs. Home Depot for kitchen cabinets (not labor)

Go to the Post Office and ask for the change of address envelope- make sure they give you an envelope, not a post card. Inside is 10% any Lowes purchase coupon, which you can use in either store.

No advice about cabinets here- we rent.

Lowes vs. Home Depot for kitchen cabinets (not labor)

We looked at both and went with Thomasville at HD. It is their high end cabinets so much more money.