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kitchendreaming_gw

Dilemma about cabinets...Please help me...Lots of questions

14 years ago

hi,

My dilemma is between Kraftmaid for ~ $7000 OR custom made for $10,000. This would be a non-brainer (in favor of the custom made) if we knew more about the brand of the custom made and if they had a better warranty. But, my main doubt arises because I have not found any reviews on the brand of the custom made (National Forest Products, made by Premio, sold by Leggett Kitchens in Pittsburgh), and they offer only a 5 years warranty on the box and shelves, and lifetime on the hardware (Blummotion slides). Kraftmaid's warranty is for as long as we own the cabinets. This morning I called the KD at Leggett and he said the lifetime of the custom cabinets is 10-15 years, I certainly hope they will last much longer... Does the fact that the warranty is only 5 years signal something to you?

We will go with solid wood painted doors. The customs' box and shelves would be 3/4" furniture board. Krafmaid's would be 1/2" furniture board, except for the exposed sides, which are upgraded to 3/4" plywood. The custom guys told me that the upgrade on the sides to plywood is not necessary because I will go with painted cabinets, and therefore will not be noticeable. Customs are frameless, I love that style, I do not know if they are more/less durable than framed. Is this 6 of one, 1/2 of the other? Which one is better in terms of box and shelves????????

Here are all the details: We are building a galley kitchen. Overall kitchen dimensions are 9 1/2 by 12 ft 4".

We are doing 30" countertops; wall cabinets: 39" tall, 15" deep. My kitchen drawing is:



We have considered two options for cabinet manufacturers:

1) Kraftmaid:

CONS: The KD at HD told us that the sink cabinet will have to be 36" in order to accomodate a double bowl sink of 33". Otherwise we have to go to single bowl. Is this true?

The lower cabinets will be 24" deep and the contractor will put a frame behind so that the counters will be 30".

The wall cabinets on the sides of the window will have to be 21" because the dimension from the corner to the sink is barely below 24".

The Kraftmaid warranty reads: "Any wall cabinet over 30" height and 12" deep needs to be installed between 2 cabinets, a cabinet and a wall or supported from below". Otherwise it will void the warranty. This includes all our wall cabinets. I do not know if this is true for any brand. We still need to ask the contractor if the 15" deep, 39" tall wall cabinets can be supported from below and how this will look.

CUSTOM:

Says we can go with a 33" sink cabinet and still have a double bowl sink. This will allow me to make the cabinet between the sink and refrigerator 30" instead of 27", and also provide 3 more inches of counterspace between sink and refrigerator.

The lower cabinets (all drawers) will be 28 1/2" deep, is this worth it? Do you really use these large drawers efficiently? They seem huge... and fabulous!

The upper...

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