Actually, you could make some pretty good cabinets out of melamine. The stuff is pretty strong (when used right), easy to use and pretty tough on the finished sidee. If you seal the bare edges with glued on plastic strips, then parts like door will last quite a while. It's when the melamine (particle board) gets wet and falls apart that people think of how cheap it is.
They make it lots of colors...including the gray you have seen in some garages.....take that gray and edge it with black edging and it looks good. To hang to doors correctly it would help to have the right tool to drill the cups for the Blum hindges....a very strong setup for melamine.
Another important point is to not overload it. You want limit the max width of a shelf to about 2' without middle support. Say you are makeing a 4' wide cabinet....with 12" deep shelves....as long as you support the shelves in the middle as well as the ends....its plenty strong.
Another option...make cabinets out of plywood...then order custom doors. There is a place I use and depending on size, design and wood, price per door ranges from about $40 to $100 per door. I just did about 14 doors for our bathroom and hall linen closet...two of the doors were about 2' x 4'.....all of it was about $800....for the quality, there is no way I can make that myself for that price.
