While on the verge of purchasing my Kraftmaid cabinets, I nearly fainted at the price and my KD suggested Fabuwood as a possibility otherwise. I thought they were rather well made, and they were also 40% less however, very few color choices and styles.

In the end I decided to suck it up and purchase what I wanted. The difference between the two was going to be about $5000 when all was said and done with bells and whistles. I just knew I wasn't going to be happy with the Fabuwood and would regret having made that choice.

Your mileage, may vary.

After looking at a display more closely today and finding out they only have 1 yr warranty I am most likely ruling them out as well. Thanks for the info.

Fabuwood is an imported cabinet that is warehoused in NJ. For import cabinets they are high end. One of the few companies that has matching wood hoods. It is a good cabinet for the money it should have been approx 50% less then Kraftmaid. I am guessing your source for kraftmaid must sell it for a little less than the box stores. I have Fabuwood in my line of products to offer as a high end alternative when price matters most. I often wonder why Ikea has such good luck with selling their cabinets which are made over seas and are ready to assemble and are praised over and over on here while the word China is like the plague. Fabuwood is a very well made Ready to Assemble cabinet with dove tail drawers soft close full extension rails and no mechanical fasteners. It is glued and stapled like most semi custom cabinets are. I understand not wanting a 1 year warranty though.

I priced a kitchen for a local customer a few months ago with 40 lineal feet of cabientry in painted white. The price ended up being about 11k and home depot with the identical materials list was 22K using kraftmaid.

The choices are limited because it is bought in mass amounts put on the shelf and then re sold as an in stock item. A more affordable alternative in the semi custom world with a life time warranty is Brandom. If you find a dealer that sells Brandom Cabinets you should be at a price in between the kraftmaid cost and Fabuwood.

Dave - yes, my DK was selling the Kraftmaid for less than the box stores - and that month was running a special. So, the differential between the two brands wound up not being so large a margin that it made me look twice. Had the Fabuwood been actually 1/2 the price of Kraftmaid i.e. $7500 as opposed to the $15,000 I paid I *might* have seriously reconsidered. I also think if I were not going for a Shaker style that would have made difference. The cabinets looked better for some reason when not as unadorned.

They were, as said, pretty well made. In that regard for a low cost alternative I was impressed.

I believe people are skiddish about Chinese products due to the very real problems with the Chinese wallboard. People's home were devastated and many homeowners developed serious health problems. Not to mention radio-active medals in the kid's toys, the tainted dogfood, etc...And, not even gonna get into slave labor!
I don't offer any RTA's or Chinese products, so I have no vested interest in them. I offer lower cost cabinet lines made either here or in Canada.
As your name indicates, you are in FL where one of the largest lawsuits against the Chinese wallboard company was settled. As of yet, I don't believe those homeowners have seen a dime of it.

Besides the 1 yr warranty what turned me off a little was that there were small gaps in the drawer assembly and that the display model drawers had so much wiggle that two adjacent doors would crash into one another. I'm sure Fabuwood is fine and at at first glance the quality is not that bad but personally I want the warranty and a little more quality then what I saw.

Also you would think that if they really did hold up then the company would offer 5 or 10 yr warranty at least but 1 year is a big red flag for me.

Thanks for the replies.

the 1 year warranty is pretty typical of import products of smaller companys. Fabuwood is Jewish family owned small business. I had no idea the Jewish faith had so many Holidays untill I call them to hear a voicemail saying they are closed for something.

I sell many american brands and regularly recommend them on this site as alternatives for individuals to research in their immediate area when posts ask for price related questions. I am not partial to chinese or american they each fit the needs of different consumers. That said, I have never seen an article in the media based on poor quality cabinets. I do not see the relevance of one company meaning another is making the same mistakes. Uneducated bias is just that regardless of the topic.

Sunco was one of the first companies to offer imported cabinets to the US again a family owned business started in 1982. That is almost 30 years without lawsuits to my knowledge. JSI started in 1997 as a break off of Sunco and a divorce from someone in the Sunco Ownership/ management. I have never read an article of a lawsuit over their cabinets. The JSI building is 125,000 sqft facility. GHI cabinets under the brand name of ESWELL have been Importing since 2001 under the current name. Before that it was G&H. Horning supply has been importing cabinets for years. Their current warehouse is 125,000 square feet also. It is so big the overhead lights turn on and off by motion sensors to follow the forklifts. If you know anything about mercury vapor lights you know that is expensive to install.

consumers should not assume that because a product comes from a country that all businesses will produce it the same way. The companies mentioned above have all decided to depened on their brand name here in the USA. In order to succede with a brand name you have to develop a reputation. All big importers are the main buyers of the cabinet making plants over seas. Most of the time they are the only buyers from those plants. The smaller companies like Fabuwood who still has a large market share of the market are still developing their products to a certain extent.

If the show room had poor constructed cabinets on display they are not smart. In my opinion I would be just as suspect of their installations of Kraftmaid or other brands based on their skill level with Fabuwood or their lack of ability to recieve proper service from their suppliers if they recieve less than adequate products. I know enough about fabuwood to understand why those drawers act the way the do. It speaks volumes of who assembled them and who keeps them on display. I would be very interested to study the eye for perfection of the management of the location on any projects they are involved in hands on work of.

I actually have cheaper in price american made products to sell then chinese when price matters most. Again each product is made to fit the needs of different people. There is room for everyone as buyers and sellers so we all can benifit if our economy allows us all to be truly free.

A local cabinet showroom just recently relocated to a new larger showroom and aren't done putting the finishing touches on the cabinet lines they sell. We went there a few weeks ago to look at cabinets. Among other brands, this showroom carries JSI and Fabuwood.

Some of the displays were still missing their countertops which gave me a good look at the constuction. The JSI didn't seem too bad, but the Fabuwood cabinets - it may have been their lowest line - appeared to be very cheaply assembled. Pretty much at the same level of HD's bottom of the line cabinets. I had never heard of Fabuwood before that visit. After seeing them I am not at all suprised at reading they only carry a one year warranty.

I have a kitchen showroom in Bronx New york,
I have multiple lines displayed on floor,
All I can tell is that showroom must have assembled those cabinets them selves,
And the same could have happen to the most expansive cabinet,
you gatta know what you are doing.

I'm selling 4 Chinese lines, which are CNC, TSG, JSI, FABUWOOD,
I can tell, fabuwood in Quality beats all others, their cabinet I sell as a semi custom line,
they offer wooden hoods that no other importer will offer, as someone had mentioned that before, and many more options to play with that others (even some american companies) won't offer.

their cabinet is put together really clean, all wood, no Particlbored, no clips,
I don't see any differentses between their finish and quality and the Kraiftmaid, or Armstrong,
which are american brands,
and then Fabuwood comes in 40-50% Less expensive.

In other words I do not see them as a typical chinese line, if you will check on their website they have there a video clip on how the cabinets are put together.

Wish you good luck, and all the best.

I'm wondering if you have had any experience with the Shakertown style of TSG as it seems a more durable or at least not as marring finish as some of the others. Thanks for the word on fabuwood...just req. info on them:)

Of course I do, I'm selling plenty of it, Shaker style in general is the most popular Door style in the kitchen market as of now, and Natural is the most popular finish, its a great product, I don't remember having any issues with it.

By the way, Fabuwood also had a similar color to that, I would suggest that one over the TSG, with a better construction, and a slab drawer head which people happen to like better, also a wider selection in items, you should give a look on that, I think you can see all doors on their website, or google it.

Anyways, wish you all the best with your new kitchen,
love your kitchen!

sorry i wasn't logged in,
but it was me..

Scot,

I recently purchased a fabuwood kitchen.I am a carpenter but have been on the disabled list for over ten years. With that out of the way I have a comment on the fabuwood Shaker Natural. I would classify these cabinets as the upper end of what i used to call apartment grade. I normally buy from a outfit called A&C, located in Chester PA. fOR THE same money one can by a much better cabinet. Allow me to explain the things I discovered about these cabinets.
1 By the time I realized it, two of the cabinets had been installed,this meant that I owned them. What I discovered was the finish I received was not the finish on the sample board. The uppers do not match the lowers (color)
2 I ordered a 3" end panel to finish off the end of a run. As I cut it down to the needed size 12", which I thought it would have been out of the box, it literally fell apart in my hands. There was not one iota of glue anywhere.
3 Upon further investigation I was able to determine that those nice dovetail joints that the saleswoman said where a good sign of quality, also had no glue in them. They were merely pinned together at each tooth (corner)
4The new soft close hinges that were now a free item were missing on 3 of the doors. Why, because they still had the old hinges on which did not have a receiver for the soft close mechanism.
4 Some of these issues are my fault,when I had my son unpack all the cabinets to inspect them,he gave them his seal of approval. I too went and looked,however I did fail to notice that one of the base cabinets was a completely different color from the rest, the firm I purchased this kitchen from is only willing to color match the one base cabinet, stating that the sample is three years old and it is natural for some discoloration to take effect. In my book which is thirty some years old,a natural finish is a natural finish and it does not change from clear to slightly orange (uppers) to a color that is so dark that one cannot see the grain of the wood. Again this is my fault for not noticing this from the get go.
Anyway to make a long story short. I will say that even though the parts are made in china, the assembly and finish are done in the states.All of my issues relate to the work that is done here. I for one will never purchase this brand again.
I only wish that I could remember the brand that A&C carries, (they are on the Highland Ave. exit off I95 about ten miles south of Phila and five minutes north of Delaware.

s

Regarding the comment posted by spencera; I have been selling Fabuwood for quite a while now and not once have I experienced any of these problems. I find their construction to be the absolute best of all imported lines and even better than some domestic lines. I have sold and installed Fabuwood cabinets into many upscale homes. In this economy I've been getting lots of customers which in the past I would have sold them one of my better lines but now have been opting to go with Fabuwood. I won't go as far as comparing them and putting them in the same level of these better lines but they sure offer a very good alternative for those who can't afford that at this time. They are well constructed, and have a great finish. I have not yet seen any other cabinet line at this price level to be of this quality.

The only thing I can conclude is that you bought your cabinets from some cheap place that buys Fabuwood cabinets on the cheap by purchasing them in flat packed and unassembled and then assembles themselves, and do a very poor job of doing so. I buy my Fabuwood cabinets directly from their plant in NJ and take it only assembled. When you buy it with their construction like I do you will not find any of the quality issues that you mentioned. Their construction is perfect, there is glue everywhere there needs to be and you will never get a discolored door from them since when they build it they go through a quality check before they are packaged. I recently was invited by my rep to take a tour of their facilities and I was overly impressed with their assembly line and quality control.
On the other hand, I guess when a dealer buys them on the low and assembles them on his own if he is not a very professional shop I guess they can try to take some shortcuts in assembling the cabinets and skip some glue and some other things as well. I also imagine since he gets it flat packed this cabinets never were inspected either and an off color cabinet can slip through the initial production once in a while,
So if you're planning on buying a Fabuwood kitchen make sure to ask your dealer if they were constructed by Fabuwood or at least if he follows Fabuwood's construction system.

I am not knocking all dealers who assemble themselves, I am sure there may be some very good ones out there. But I have chosen only to sell cabinets that are manufacturer assembled for the same reasons that you saw on your cabinets.

Give me a week, then ask me! I had the the rep from Fabuwood take a tour of my house on Monday (1-15-14). Waiting to hear from them and the cabinet place that sold them to me! Waiting to see if they make good on:
(3) Warped Door's over 3/4"
(1) 3" fancy Rev-A-Shelf Spice Rack with a filler that measures 2.5" (1/4" each side gap)
(7) soft close hinges hardware on doors that don't work!
(By the way sent me two different types) 10 I call large 7 I call small. Not interchangeable!)
(1) other door with a 2" black spot eye level! (Replaced)
(9) 8' pieces Crown Molding not Square 1/4" gap in spots
(16) Cabinets Total (5 of them way out of square) what could i do, had to install them!
(2) Big corner cabinets opening not close to being level.

I would be happy if they make good on doors,Hinges & a true 3" spice rack filler!
At this point I'm not happy! Could have done my kitchen for $3,000 if i wanted to go cheap, But i paid $7,755.00 + the extras just keep coming! What i enjoy the most, now that you own it, try buying the trim pieces!
Photos to come!
Any Questions feel free to contact me or reply to post, which i do not check often. Ask me if I would use them again? ha ha ha If they fix what i got, I just won't keep writing bad things about them!

"The average kitchen costs about $175 to have professionally assembled."

This is just not believable, even at minimum wage which no "professional" earns.

In response to All3Wieners as posted on Jan 15,2014. I have installed over 20 Fabuwood kitchens now and have personally not seen any of the problems which leads me to believe that you don't know what you are doing.
First thing is that I don't doubt that you have warped doors and that they could be warped 3/4". I have installed many brands of cabinets, some way more expensive than Fabuwood that have had warped doors. I just personally have not seen a Fabuwood door warped so much that I couldn't adjust it.
The second issue is the spice pull out. It comes with out any fillers at all. Sounds to me like you received an overlay filler which would measure 2 1/2" and you were not experienced enough to know better.
Since I have not seen a Fabuwood factory built cabinet out of square I must assume that the dealer you bought from did a poor job of putting them together. Which goes along with hinge placement and adjustment. If the hinge snaps shup when not installed on the cabinet there is probably nothing wrong with it. It has been installed and adjusted improperly.
As for the 2" black spot I have no comment. I just haven't seen anything close to the problem.
Crown not square? 1/4" gaps? Sounds like Harry Homeowner installed crown.
Cabinets not square or level sounds like improper manufacture and installation. I buy all my cabinets factory assembled and have been impressed with how well they fit together. Try to install Wolf Classic without some serious clamps!
To end, no factory built cabinet made can offer perfection. My impression of Fabuwood has been positive.

Could someone recommend a reputable kitchen cabinet dealer in the NOVA/DC area? We need to completely gut and renovate a 1960s kitchen on a budget (not super low), but without sacrificing quality. I am not adverse to using a quality RTA, if anyone has a particular recommendation. Thanks!

They have very wise ownership. Thumbs up to their responsiveness. They care about their image, and that makes customers confident.

Any recent experience with Fabuwood?

Also looking for recent experience with Fabuwood , specifically Ivory Wellington ..?

The house I bought a little over 2 years ago had Fabuwood cabinets installed. In fact it was one of the reasons I bought the house. It had the merlot Classic Elite and they look amazing. 2 years later I still can't believe how nice they look. I'm actually looking to expand the kitchen with a peninsula to add more counter space. Hopefully it isn't too expensive.

Fabuwood is" Mystery Meat" in a can. Be careful and inspect closely before eating what they are offering. Sometimes good. Sometimes bad. Never returnable.

Fabuwood has customer service that is similar to a cable company. They transfer calls and then drop them. They transfer phone calls to voicemail and then don't return them, ever! They say that the manager is in a meeting and will call you back, never happens. Ok on he initial sale, but if any piece is damaged or needs to be exchanged they prolong the process and make you wish you paid more money for cabinets so you wouldn't have to deal with their terrible customer service. I ordered my cabinets in July, asked for a few doors that were cracked during shipping to be exchanged. On November 12th I am still waiting for these parts. Any company who sells these Fabuwood cabinets should think twice about carrying this line, their poor customer service will become a reflection of your business.

Did you hear from Fabuwood yet? How was your experience?

I am considering Nexus Frost. The reviews that I have read about Fabuwood are definitely from both ends of the spectrum. Certainly the price is good, but I have NO knowledge about cabinets and how they should be made, other than what I have read on Houzz. However, the reviews about their customer service make me nervous, so I am wondering how it turned out, in the long run.

Never heard from them, would only deal with the vendor who sold us the cabinets. The vendor did not like dealing with them, found them to be difficult to deal with. Unanswered emails, phone calls not returned, just not responsive. As the customer who bought them, it was a frustrating process. Still can't believe they wouldn't reach out to customers like me to try and rectify problems. Your vendor is your customer service, fabuwood doesn't want to deal with the people that buy their products.

Thank you for responding, jeffniedergerger. That really frightens me!

mtavani-did you have any issues that required customer service?

zargunn: Have you looked into Conestoga? Made in the US in North carolina. Fully custom RTA. Easy to assemble (to me at least) however unlike the chinese/ikea ones, you do need wood glue and a nail gun (there's no cheapo cam locks/brackets).

Here's my kitchen…

I designed the kitchen myself down to a 1/16" of an inch- every square inch was used. I still have two 102" pantries to do.

Do you known if the Fabuwood cabinet met the Green Seal standard ? Anyway to test their VOC levels? Thanks. Being a new home buyer, quite worry about this issue.

Does anyone know if and how you can order just the doors and not the cabinets? Galaxy Frost

I imagine you could order just doors through a Fabuwood dealer. Call Fabuwood and they can give you contact info for a dealer near you.

They are a Chinese stock line, not semi custom. To find a line that sells doors only, you would need a stock line sold by individual parts, not whole cabinets as most are. Otherwise, you would need semi custom cabinets. Doors are the most costly part of any cabinet though. 60-80% of the cost of a cabinet is the doors.

Forever mark is a good quality Chinese made cabinet. they are carb certified and they have something for everyone's price point. dovetail construction and soft close feature. at s fraction of the price

Hi mtavani. Thinking about Fabuwood, Shaker style. Did you use one of the large stores ( Lowe's, Home D ) or a local retailer for your purchase / installation ? There seems to be considerable cost differential between the two. All things being equal, wouldn't the customer service and possibly even the quality of workers be better at the local retailer ? Thanks.

Hi, anybody installed Fabuwood prima Bianca series (high gloss white finish)? We are looking at this one.

Box stores do not sell cheepchinesecrapola like fabuwood. Even Lowes off the shelf crapola is American made. High gloss anything is easily damaged, much less by traveling continents on a boat.

Wanted to add that Fabuwood has a 5-year warranty, according to their site. https://www.fabuwood.com/warranty

NOT EVEN WORTH 1 STAR. Fabuwood cabinets are terrible! After only 3 years, many of our cabinet doors and drawers are horribly discolored. The discoloration is completely random, and now it looks like we have multicolor cabinets. My husband owns a Kitchen and Bathroom remodeling company and has never seen this before. We reached out to Fabuwood and our cabinet supplier, and Fabuwood refused to do anything about it. We planned on just replacing the discolored doors/drawers and our cabinet supplier told us that in order to replace just the door/drawer, Fabuwood charges 80% of the whole cabinet itself! We have 55 cabinets and half of them are discolored. At this point, we will be replacing all of our cabinets and NOT USING FABUWOOD. My husband will also be notifying all of my future customers just how bad Fabuwood cabinets are.

NOT EVEN WORTH 1 STAR. Fabuwood cabinets are terrible! After only 3 years, many of our cabinet doors and drawers are horribly discolored. The discoloration is completely random, and now it looks like we have multicolor cabinets. My husband owns a Kitchen and Bathroom remodeling company and has never seen this before. We reached out to Fabuwood and our cabinet supplier, and Fabuwood refused to do anything about it. We planned on just replacing the discolored doors/drawers and our cabinet supplier told us that in order to replace just the door/drawer, Fabuwood charges 80% of the whole cabinet itself! We have 55 cabinets and half of them are discolored. At this point, we will be replacing all of our cabinets and NOT USING FABUWOOD. My husband will also be notifying all of my future customers just how bad Fabuwood cabinets are.

its really to bad that most of the info supplied in these blogs is worthless becuase they come from novices that do not know much about cabinetry. Import cabinets regardless of their construction are assembled in warehouses and do not use kitchen cabinet manufacturers association standards , do not maintain atmospheric conditions throughout the process, are not governed by the EPA, OSHA or other national regulators. the wood comes from wherever is cheapest, the chemicals are not regulated to consistency the conditions during application are not controlled and they sit in cardboard boxes in containers as they travel half way around the world in damp environments only to go back into another warehouse until someone slaps them together. If you want to save some money send your kids to a state college for their first two years instead. Buy American, we need to protect our industries and the jobs they provide.

"its really to bad that most of the info supplied in these blogs is worthless becuase they come from novices that do not know much about cabinetry."

ronacsd:

Your's is the logical fallacy of relevance, ad hominem circumstantial. You must address the arguments of the novices, not their circumstances. I don't need to have any children of my own to know if yours are brats.