I have had my Crystal Cabinets installed for about 3 months. They are amazing. I went with cherry, but mine are stained and lightly distressed.
I looked at Plato, Crystal, Woodharbor, Dura Supreme, Woodshop of Avon, Woodmode, and I gave the local guys a chance to bid on my kitchen.
I really liked the fact that I was able to visit the Crystal Factory as I live in MN. I was really impressed with the finishing and the quality of the cabines that I saw coming off the lines.
My cabinets came and everything was perfect. I didn't have one thing that needed to be redone. Also, my cabinets were exactly like the sample door I had Crystal make up. Also, I added some items after the fact and the finishing matched perfectly.
In addition to my kitchen, I also have laundry room cabinets on my first floor from Crystal(not photographed yet), and vanities for 2 bathrooms(also not photographed. So far I am really happy with all of the cabinets made by Crystal.

Here is a link that might be useful: my kitchen and other parts of addition

Thanks for the advice and photos of your beautiful kitchen. It sounds like Crystal is a very good company. The quote from Crystal was a bit higher than Columbia for the whole kitchen, but not much, so I was surprised today when I got quotes on a 39" bathroom vanity and Crystal cost $300 more than Columbia for that one cabinet. Again, natural cherry, shaker style doors/drawers. I'm stymied whether Crystal is worth the extra $$$.

I don't know anything about Columbia, but I used Crystal for my kitchen and 2 bathrooms in 2006. The company was fantastic about customer service, and the quality of the cabinets exceeded what I expected. The cabinets still look brand new and it's 4 years later. They have a lifetime warranty. The finish looks like a furniture finish. Yes, they are expensive, but the company delivers a product that reflects the price.

Good luck with your decision.

Saz1--If I were you I would ask your dealer to match the price. There is a huge markup on cabinets and they should be willing to accomodate you. I am also going to second the opinion by copperqueen. The finish is amazing.
Maybe you should get sample doors from each manufacturer. Call Crystal direct and ask to talk to someone in customer service. Tell them you are trying to decide between lines and see if they would be willing to make you a sample door. I suggest getting a door from each manufacturer before making your decision. Good Luck.

Saz1,

I had the weirdest experience with Crystal not that long ago. I had existing cabinetry by Crystal and we were trying to add a couple of cabinets to the layout.

The cabinets were a current style etc. I contacted Crystal via email to get the name of the local reps. Brian, the person on the other end of the email, wanted to try and locate the original dealer. I explained that we just wanted a few matching cabinets so it really wasn't worth that level of trouble. I told him we just wanted to go with the closest supplier and gave him my zip code.

Several emails later he still wouldn't give me basic contact information for a local dealer. He was insistant that he know the location of the house so he could try and connect me with the original dealer.

So I by passed him entirely and found two crystal dealers on the internet in my location. The first was very nice and simply never actually called me back with a quote. The second one refused to even talk to me because the amount wasn't high enough. I eventually spoke to the supervisor there and basically bludgeoned him into taking my needs to give me a quote. I told him that I expected them to provide some level of customer support and that the cabinets were only a few years old. How could they sell to people if the response when they needed a new piece or a replacement piece after a few years was to go screw themselves? He finally had someone call me back and take down the cabinets I needed. I did recieve a response weeks later that basically was scribbleing on the back of a napkin as far as I'm concerned. Also, it didn't contain any amounts at all! Apparently they had questions but if you can't quote ANY of the 3 cabinets I need I think it's pretty sad.

So. My experience was really poor and I would never order from them on a customer service side.

What I ended up doing was having a cabinet guy make me a few matching cabinets. He was very frustrated because each of the cabinets was slightly different than the others so trying to match them was a real bear. He showed me how all the drawer fronts were actually slightly different sizes, heights, etc.

YMMV.

Well it seems that censorship has arrived with the change of ownership (of Gardenweb) as my bad experience with Crystal is no longer showing up on search engines. If you want some recent discussions on Crystal see:

http://ths.gardenweb.com/discussions/3236981/crystal-cabinetdisastrous-remodel

I googled it and it came up.

yes but if you google crystal cabinet reviews or simply crystal cabinets it does not show. If you google crystal cabinet 2015 you'll get it. Odd that old threads with zero recent activity shows up but not this discussion which is the most recent and has over 60 comments does not. I hope Houzz does not make the mistake of censorship otherwise, there will be a new gardenweb brewing to provide honest open discussions without censorship or deliberate search engine manipulation.

I have worked with Columbia for over 10 years. They have a super line. The custom service folks are helpful and kind. There is extensive choices in finishes, shapes and sizes and ability to tailor all the cabinets to suit your personal needs as they are all fabricated to order. The finishing department is known for their artistic finishes. They are all hand done.

they work very hard to meet deadlines & expectations. When there is shipping damage or legitimate warranty issues, they promptly respond.

As a designer, such customer service & reliability is important to me and my clients.

Hi there, We have Crystal in our main house and Columbia in our granny unit. I see no difference in quality and am very happy with the less expensive Columbia. Both are white painted cabinets.

Can anyone give me ballpark per linear ft cost for Crystal Cabinets?

Do not waste your hard earned money with Crystal Cabinets - terrible service and quality!

I have Crystal Cabinets. Quality of the cabinets is good, Paint quality is very poor. Customer service is horrendous to non-existent. My remodel was delayed over four months dealing with shipping damage, incorrect sizes, serious paint flaws, and cracks in the doors. I am not the only one. Just search it here on Houzz...

I'm a dealer for both lines. We lean more toward Sollera which is actually another name for Columbia. The product is wonderful the customer service is great the ordering process is great.

Crystal has been a great cabinet line as well. We did a very large project with them a few years ago and were very disappointed in the outcome and customer service follow through so we haven't used them very often since. They are more expensive and I can't say its really worth it.

The reason no one wanted to help the person with the cabinet add ons for crystal is because their ordering process is a nightmare!!!