Kraftmaid

Fifteen years ago, we purchased Kraftmaid cabinets in Quartersawn oak with plywood boxes. We've been happy with our cabinets and decided to order Kraftmaid again when building a new home. Unfortunately, we are not happy with our latest purchase. I was going to order plywood boxes and the Kitchen Designer told me no one orders plywood boxes, the new fiberboard was much better than it used to be. WRONG. The stuff crumbles just the same as it always did and you are better off upgrading to plywood.

Also, if you live in the West you are automatically disadvantaged. All cabinets shipped West start their journey on a very slow moving train. It took 3 weeks for them to travel from Ohio to Phoenix. As we live in Santa Fe, NM, the cabinets were next delivered to a trucking company who only delivers to NM one day a week. Needless, to say by the time the cabinets arrived - after having been moved & jostled all over the place - there was damage. BUT, the nightmare doesn't end there. You can reorder, but you are looking at 3 weeks in production and then another month to travel via train to the final destination. This shipping method Kraftmaid uses is about as close as you can get to a "slow boat to China."

Now lets talk about the wood. I know it's a bit unusual these days, but I like quartersawn oak. I like the linearity of it BUT don't order Kraftmaid's quartersawn oak. The doors will look great, but the finished sides will look like you are on an LSD trip. VERY wavy and grainy which totally defeats the purpose of your lovely doors. I WISH I HAD ORDERED CHERRY. Our first kitchen did come with quartersawn toe kicks, but no more. The latest toe kicks are the same LSD ugly as the finished sides. You will not be happy.

I have used Kraft Maid cabinets for 5 projects. While I have had misc issues, four of those have been okay. The fifth, a kitchen done in the 1990s has been a constant problem with the interiors peeling away. Kraft Maid’s excuse back then was a change in the glue that act to bind that interior film to the wood. Reference was to esquires changes due to environmental rules, but I have no idea if that was true. They replaced a few doors that had bad finish and replaced two cabinets, but the problem persisted and was reported to the regularly. Nothing was done. I recently reminded them that this continued and was only getting worse and happening on most all of the cabinets. Despite the reports of the problems throughout the years and their current lifetime warranty, they denied all requests to address these clear product failures as the warranty at the time of purchase was five years. I think that this is an example of a company that is not standing behind their product that was reported to them well within the period of time and as I now have to order cabinets for two new homes I am having built, I would never again consider using Kraft Maid as I view their approach as less than honorable. I wish that I could add photos here as any buyer of cabinets would look at this and have the same reaction. This is just not the quality that I always experienced with a Kraft Maid product and certainly not the kind of customer service that gives me the feeling of an honorable company. Maybe this is the impact of the company now being owned by private equity firms more concerned with current profits than their legacy and the trust that customers can have in their products. I guess it is a sign of the times. Character counts in my decisions about the companies I choose to deal with.

As I read the reviews on this site I realize that leadership just seems not to care. That is a bad sign of a company and getting to people in leadership is almost impossible.

Caveat emptor

When my contractor screwed up my cabinet installation and used what was supposed to be trim for the cabinets to frame a window, the company quickly sent replacements at no charge. This month, when I noticed that the front of the cabinet that houses the trash can, which we open at least 20 times a day, was showing some wear, I called the company to ask the price of a new door. They sent it to me at no charge! My cherry cabinets have held up beautifully after 10 years of use and the customer service is so fabulous that I can't think of a single reason to buy anything other than Kraftmaid.

So, I wish I would have found these reviews before we purchased our Kraftmaid cabinets. We had quite a larger order of cabinets and received everything in March. Not only was I missing cabinets in my order some were damanged. I re-ordered and waited almost two months. Had to track one missing cabinet down myself at a local warehouse, they thought they sent the right one but sent the WRONG Cabinet 2x. Virtually every door and cabinet has some sort of mark on it from their terrible packaging. We ordered white shaker style so it shows everything. Fortunately I am able to get re-orders of most of the cabinets we bought but doing double the install work AND waiting months for our kitchen to get completed is a major hassle. We would have been done two months ago if we had the right cabinets in the quality we thought we were paying for. They tease you at the big box stores that its a great sale or these are quality for the price but dont kid yourself. These are middle to the low end cabinets in terms of quality, especially if you get particle board ends and construction. We paid a little extra for plywood construction which helped some. I would spend a little more and avoid this company.