I don't have any sources, tulip..
but I have some snappies!
http://www.housebeautiful.com/kitchens/kitchens-1950s-0609#slide-1
The doors
on IKEA kitchen cabinets are great-looking. The cases themselves are the most minimal that could be imagined. You could buy their doors, and have a local man make simple painted (or prefinished maple) plywood cabinet boxes -- and you'd have a far better product.
The IKEA cabinets hang on the walls via a European-style horizontal steel rail. This is a system never adopted in the US, for some reason . . .
I have installed some IKEA...
I have installed some IKEA kitchen cabinets as part of my job (the steel rail SDR mentions is quite nice), and think they are a good option. As for Mark's photos, they seem to show a lot of heavy gauge sheet metal cabinets, popular in the 50's. I have a few of these installed in my garage, and wish they were still being made.
Tulipman
I took that same walk through Home Depot about ten years ago when I had to redo a kitchen on a budget. I even went so far as to work up an estimate on cabinet costs alone: the least expensive cabinets off the shelf at HD was twice the price of the least expensive at IKEA for the same layout. And not as good quality: joints weren't tight, edges were rough. And they had frame fronts, which I loathe with all my being. Once you have frameless fronts, you never go back. SO much more room and access is much easier.
I think the cabinets hold up quite well for the price point, and it's very easy to pull one out if there is a problem down the road and just stick a new one in. They have not changed the sizes ever, to my knowledge.
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