10 Best Kitchen Cabinet Makers and Retailers

In a full kitchen remodel, choosing new cabinets is a dominate part of the planning process, and an even bigger part of the budget. While the urge to save money is enormous when it comes to the kitchen cabinets, it pays to remember that the cabinets will be among the most heavily used of all kitchen elements, and thus you need to choose cabinets that are both attractive as well as durable and hardworking.

While the very best way to get exactly what you want is to hire a high-end custom cabinet maker to build and install your cabinetry, this can be astronomically expensive. Most of us will instead be purchasing cabinets from a manufacturer of preassembled or RTA (ready to assemble) cabinets. But this is no easy choice, either. Because this is such a competitive market with a potential for great reward, kitchen cabinet makers and retailers often flourish for a moment, then disappear just as quickly.

Kitchen cabinet manufacturers are often categorized according to how the cabinets are ordered and manufactured:

Pre-assembled cabinets are purchased as preassembled cabinet boxes with the drawers, doors, and hardware preattached. They are shipped in large crates, and the cabinets are simply pulled from the box and installed. These cabinets are manufactured in a large number of stock sizes and configurations, but it’s usually impossible to get specialty cabinets made to fit unique spaces, as you can with true custom cabinets.

Ready-to-assemble cabinets are exactly like preassembled cabinets, but they are shipped with parts broken down and packed in flat crates. The buyer must assemble these on-site. While this sounds like a lot of work, RTA cabinets are quite a bit less expensive and shipping costs are much less.

Semi-custom cabinets are essentially pre-assembled cabinets, but they are offered with many, many different style options. You may have a choice of dozens of different wood species, stain colors, and door styles to choose from. These are more expensive, but you have many more options than with standard pre-assembled cabinets.

Custom cabinet manufacturers build each and every cabinet to the exact size and style you specify. Custom cabinetry is usually constructed by local craftspeople, but there are some national companies that specialize in building and shipping these cabinets.

Here are 10 cabinet manufacturers and suppliers who have been solidly present in the business for at least a decade and are well-regarded both for the quality of their products and for long-term customer satisfaction.