Kraftmaid

OK first of all I am an experienced wood worker and have built custom face frame cabinets and am quite particular about my work. That being said we wanted to get some semi-custom made cabinets as my work schedule would not give me the time to build out my own for this part of our house and we wanted something different. We chose Kraftmaid and overall I am happy but wanted to point out some things to consider if you are planning to order or have an order in production.

First of all they are way behind their normal schedule as are many manufacturers. Covid is part of the problem and the fact that everyone has decided to remodel with being kept at home! Luckily our project was not a kitchen but an area in our family room that had an old wet bar area and book shelves above lower cabinets. So we were ok when our Lowes salesmen told us not to expect our cabinets for at least 3 months. In the end it took just under 4 months. Also Kraftmaid contracts with logistics companies to deliver your product and they can range from good to horrible. I felt the packaging for our cabinets (38 cartons so far) was pretty good as far as how KM made the boxes and used materials like styrofoam to cushion them. Out of our entire order no boxes appeared damaged when delivered but one cabinet upon inspection was broken as if it had been dropped in shipping. We had one other cabinet that had a manufacturer defect, one of the rails in the face frame was bowed out and for what we paid that was not acceptable. Overall I was happy with our delivery company as far as the service but they were horrible for communication; they cancelled once and it was hard to find out when we would be rescheduled only to get an automated call telling us they were being delivered the next morning! But the guys with the truck were nice and careful with our boxes.

Overall the finish, that is the stain and top finish (varnish, etc) is really quite good. But it's the little things like excess glue I had to remove, poor fittings on some of the joinery and dove tail joints. But these are "semi custom" and not "custom" cabinets.

So what is the difference? A custom made cabinet is made from scratch, your project measurements are taken each piece is cut and dry fitted, then glued and screwed or whatever and then sanded and the stain and finish are applied. Companies like KM are more of an assembly line process much like a car is built. A computer takes all you measurements and figures out what parts are needed. The parts are usually already stained and finished, they are cut to size for each cabinet by computer run tools and only get to be touched by a human in the assembly process. But the guy building the box is not the one building the face frame or the drawers or doors, different people do that as it moves down the line. And part of the problem with prefinished pieces is the fit. It can be very good or off a bit and if it's off no one takes the time to add filler and sand the joint smooth, that would require re-staining and refinishing it. The KM cabinet face frames on my order all have slight imperfections, the dove tail joint son my drawer boxes are all the type that might come out of a high school wood shop class, they had small gaps or the fitting was rough to the touch. Even my wife remarked that my dove tail joints are far superior; that's because I build them carefully and sand them before applying a finish. Another thing that makes no sense is that they supply only one type of hardware for attaching the cabinets to the walls, bright shiny zinc plated screws. My cabinets are stained black and I have glass front doors so those would really show. But KM does not offer black screws so I will have to get some from one of the big box stores or on line. Silly! For $18,000 I should get screws that match the finish.

One other issue was that one of my cabinets and it's glass shelves was back ordered (as I said they use stock parts to build with) and they won't arrive for another 2 weeks at best. And it would be the second piece I would install so I can't work around it, I have to wait for it to arrive before I can start installing. KM customer service was great when I called to report the 2 damaged cabinets and they set up an order for replacements but the customer service person had no idea when I will get those, maybe in August or September? I just hope they come by Christmas, we will still need to order custom counter tops after that!

So make sure you plan for delays. Have a place you can unbox everything and totally inspect it and store it, really needs to be temperature controlled especially if you get hot humid weather. Hope my review is helpful. And realize that your semi custom cabinets will not be perfect.

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.