Have you fallen in love with some of the European cabinets you've seen in magazine ads? If you're considering imported cabinets, have your checkbook ready. Allmilmo, Poggenpohl, SieMatic, and a few other European manufacturers offer cabinets that are truly beautiful and clearly for high-end kitchens.
Most average about $30,000 per kitchen; some far exceed that figure. Also be prepared to wait from 6 to 16 weeks, depending on the company and the products you order.
Because highly individualized kitchens may be created from imported cabinets, they're referred to as "custom." Actually, some cabinet widths can be modified and you can order some special cabinets, but, for the most part, you order within a wide range of standard sizes and finishes.
The German company Allmilmo, for example, offers about 120 different looks, with surfaces of laminates, wood veneers, lacquer finishes, or hardwoods such as maple, spruce, mahogany, and beech. All have frameless, melamine-laminated carcasses. The drawers are high-grade "Meta-Box" drawer systems with metal sides, integrated full-extension slides, and melamine bottoms.
SieMatic, with lines made in Germany and Canada and with some doors made domestically, also markets a wide range of standards in styles, from country-style hardwood cabinets to high-gloss, lacquered contemporary models. In addition, SieMatic distributes Smallbone Handmade English Cabinetry, a line of beautifully made wood cabinets, including the very popular "unfitted" cabinets
Unlike typical cabinets, which are installed in runs, these are made more like individual furniture pieces. Installed and handpainted on site by specially trained craftpersons, these cabinets push the upper limits of price, averaging from $45,000 to $60,000 and topping out well over $100,000.
With Poggenpohl cabinetry, a German line, you work with predetermined sizes and fronts to create a system with a highly custom look. Of the European-style contemporary products on the market, Poggenpohl cabinets are considered some of the highest quality and among the highest priced.
