Review Detail

Kraftmaid offered the options we needed to make our kitchen the way we wanted it to be. The Lowes designer was excellent and knew the Kraftmaid product very well, so our expectations were well-managed.

The cabinets arrived right when they said they would, and the delivery matched every item on the order. There were many line items (over 50) and it all added up. So far so good.

The installers were very good, they made sure the kitchen floors and walls were as level, square and plumb as possible in our crooked 100 year old house. Their careful prep work made the cabinet installation go very smoothly.

The cabinets and drawers are well made from good materials. Everything was solid. Where there were door collisions, we installed invisible hinge restrictors that kept the door opening to 89 degrees, eliminating the interference. All the hardware is good quality and works well.

Where things fell apart somewhat is on the finishes.

1. Our doors are mitered and many arrived improperly joined, with large gaps in the seam. We understand that wood is a natural product that expands and shrinks over time, but this was brand new stuff. The starting point should be as close to perfection as possible. During our remodel, the carpenters cut numerous miter joints for woodwork to trim the doors and windows, and these were perfectly done on portable saws in our driveway. I expect the Kraftmaid doors, built in a climate-controlled factory on CNC machines, to be as good. They were not. The Kraftmaid factory rep visited our house and reviewed our complaints. He mentioned that the standard for a miter joint is "a gap smaller than a credit card." Credit cards are pretty thick. He did replace 9 doors and while we are not 100% satisfied with some others, we are satisfied enough not to pursue it further other than to mention it here.

2. We got one 4 drawer bottom cabinet. The door faces were not aligned with each other nor with the adjacent pieces. There are adjustment brackets, but several of these were screwed in such a way that no adjustment was possible. We ended up redrilling many holes to get these in line.

3. There were several painting flaws: bubbles that didn't burst when they were still wet, and one door had a very thin coat of paint, you could see the wood. Kraftmaid replaced these.

Overall, we are happy with our cabinets and love our new kitchen. But we spent way too much time managing quality issues that could have been avoided with a closer eye back at the factory.