BUMMER! I was entertaining the idea of using Kitchenmaid myself, but now I am veering away from them. I am SO SORRY for your misery!! It takes so much time, effort and $$ to get your kitchen redone that you have every right to expect others to do as they promissed. Hope all turns out o.k. and would love to see photos of your finished product!! Hang in there!

That is such a drag - I'm sorry you've had this trouble and hope KM makes it right. My GC tells me the quality of KM at HD is lesser than you would get somewhere else... Why that would be, I don't know - KM obviously does a huge business through HD and the prices aren't any different!

That's too bad! I got my KM cabinets (maple w/toffee finish) last month, too, and for the most part, they were wonderful! The only problems I had were: 1) some of the drawer bumpers were missing and 2) the trash pullout cabinet was not manufactured properly, to KM's own specs. The first was taken care of immediately. The second has been a bit of a saga that has yet to be resolved. I ordered a full height trash pullout that, according to KM's specs, is supposed to have a 50 quart trash bin. They sent me one with the full height door, but the glides were placed low and a 35 quart wastebin was included. I immediately notified KM, who sent me a replacement cab. This one had the exact same issues (glides too low and 35 quart bin). KM is sending out a 3rd cabinet next wednesday. I told them I would not hold up my install, and would use the cabinet box I have now, replacing with the new door, glides and bin to be delivered next week. My rep from BuyCabinets dot com didn't flinch.

So, I've gotten great customer service and great cabs for the most part. Just one glitch.

As for KM at HD being lesser quality -- I know for sure the basic drawer glides there are lesser quality than what they sell at places other than big box stores. Don't know if there are any other differences.

Good luck and I hope KM will resolve these issues satisfactorily for you. How frustrating!

What finish are your cabinets? We experienced similar problems with our order from KM. Our initial plan was to install bisque finish cabinets. Unfortunately the finish was unacceptable, and there was damage to many of the doors/boxes. Kraftmaid sent out a rep, who determined that all of our cabinets should be replaced. On advice from the rep, who claims bisque is more often like our experience than not, we reordered wood stained cabinets instead of going for the 'creamy' look. These cabinets, too, have problems. But the rep was right, it is less noticeable with the wood look. They aren't that bad, but of course I notice the issues. However, we couldn't delay another 3+ months to reorder.

FWIW the Kraftmaid Rep assigned to us said the quality of their products is the same,regardless of where you order from. According to him some of the smaller businesses tell their customer that to justify the price difference, but their products are the same regardless of where you order from.

I have KM cabinets - maple with chestnut stain on the lowers and honey spice on the uppers. No problems at all with stain, pull-outs, etc.

The side panel for the refrigerator arrived damaged, as well as the microwave shelf. The carpenters ordered replacements as soon as they saw the damaged pieces and I'm currently waiting for those to be delivered.

I worked with a kitchen design place, however, not Home Depot. (this particular KD place has its own carpenters on staff, which is why the carpenters took care of the re-order).

Well, thank you all for your comments. I guess I am not completely alone.

My finish is honey spice and the door is HD's Somersworth. The groove in the door panel has stain residue that was not wiped off. It was on every door. The rep said it should not be that way and ALL the doors would be replaced, however as replacement cabinets came in (for the damamged boxes), the doors had the same "problem" with the stain.

My microwave shelf was originally delivered with these zigzag markings where the wood trim ended and a new one started. It looked bad and there was a chipped edge on one side. The replacement arrived in worse shape.

I'm trying to set up an appointment with the Kraftmaid rep and HD's mgr. I just need this resolved. I like the cabinets and the doors. I just think they have a serious issue in quality control at the moment. Right now I have a garage FULL of cabinets and no kitchen for meals. I think I should charge them storage and get paid back for each meal I have to eat out until they resolve this issue!

I do hope this is resolved shortly. I'll keep you posted so future shoppers can be advised as to how Kraftmaid handles problem issues.

My father ordered KraftMaid for his kitchen and his friend ordered them for her kitchen, both from a kitchen place, not HD. My father had numerous cracked doors and cabinets, holes in the exposed wood (like a really bad knot fell out), etc. Every replacement door was the wrong size and all had to be redone. The dishwasher panel was wrong. I don't know about the doors on his friend's kitchen, but I've seen the finished kitchen and the glazing job is horrible. The cabinets and trim pieces don't match at all. Some pieces have heavy glaze, some almost none.

How awful! I recall a post from mariposa.... (can't remember her whole username) about her Kraftmaid cabinets from HD being a "nightmare" - she even posted pictures. They were really bad. Her saga went on and on and finally, she got HD to let her return the entire order and, I think she got a full refund. She ended up going with a custom cabinet maker.
On the other hand, I got Kraftmaid honey spice on birch June 06 and they are very nice and we had no problems. I did buy them through a local cabinet shop not a big box (because I live in a rural area where there are no big box stores). Honestly, from reading all the posts over the last year or so on Kraftmaid, it does seem to me people have more problems with quality from them when they order through HD. That's only anecdotal, but that's what I observe. Keep your chin up and keep insisting on what will make you happy. You will end up with a great kitchen.

Maybe I just got lucky, but I ordered my Kraftmaid cabinets through Home Depot and am very happy with
them. We had to have a couple minor things replaced, along with a "Z" cabinet in the island. The replacements
were sent quickly, and with no hassle.

How about through Loew's? Anyone have Pacific Crest cabinets?
Thanks for looking.

We also had the same problem with our Kraftsmaid cabinets, ordered from Lowe's. About half of the cabinets for our 14x15 kitchen had to be replaced. We're in the middle of remodel right now. The replacements were all good.

I agree, there must be no quality control going out of the factory - no way someone could have missed the issues with the cabs we were sent.

On the bright side, my husband is doing all the installation, so it didn't set us back much. And, Kraftsmaid didn't take back the old cabinets, so we are going to intall them in our laundry room, adjacent to the kitchen, which was in need of storage space anyway. Most of the damaged cabinets can be slavaged with some touch-up paint and a little TLC. Good enough for the laundry room!

I have new Kraftmaid from a small design company - Putnam/Praline/Maple. Some problems but not too bad:

--Trash pullout had no drawer hardware - it was replaced.
--2 doors had stain issues - they were replaced
--Veneer on bottom of one of the cabinets (interior)was damaged - it was fixed by the design company
--Glass shelf was too big - that's being dealt with right now.

I don't consider these to be major and they were all dealt with. Not sure if box stores would give same service as I got. The cabinets seem fine in general.

Now I'm getting nervous, ordered Kraftmaid - Huntington/Praline/Maple thru a local store the end of July and am waiting for delivery in about 2 weeks.

We're doing the work ourselves and plan to demo the kitchen about a week before the cabinets are expected to arrive.

bklyn2pok:
I might be a little extra cautious, myself, but FWIW, it might not be a good idea to demo before you actually get your cabs, whoever the manufacturer. We didn't, and I'm glad. Demo took a day, tops. I feel my Kraftmaid cabinet experience was a really good one, and I love my cabs, but I think with any cabinet maker, you might want to plan for something not being exactly right. And, speaking from experience, Kraftmaid does take a few weeks to construct and then ship out replacement cabinets. It would be a total bummer to have to sit around for a couple weeks with no kitchen and nothing to do but wait!

A very good friend of mine manages very high end buildings in NYC and he once told me that products bought at HD aren't as good quality as if you were to buy them somewhere else. I looked at him like he was nuts. . but obviously it's true. . I've read it a lot when researching my kitchen!

Okay - we bought cabinets through HD - but Thomasville, not Kraftmaid. SO far everything is checking out FINE.

HD specifically tells you - do not demo your kitchen, or allow your GC to do so, until the GC has gone through the cabinets and ensured that they are beautiful and perfect. Our GC followed that advice. He has only found a little bitty glitch here and there, but nothing that he cannot deal with.

We almost ordered Kraftmaid, or maybe it was the American Woodmark, thru HD. A friend steered me away from KM and AW, towards the Thomasville cabinets.

Stay tuned - the lower ones are all in and fine. The upper ones are just now in installation. I'll have pictures up on the photo album a little later this evening.

DonnaR/CA

Here is a link that might be useful: Donna's Kitchen Project

We were very lucky with ours - we asked for a few doors to be reordered but it was us being really picky but no major issues. We have what I think is the Somersworth (called different things at different places) in Cherry Ginger Glaze and have had no issues with the stain/glaze. If you are flexable, maybe try switching. Someone else on here also had the Cherry Ginger Glaze and theirs were lovely too but of course I'm bias.

We LOVE our cabinets and they look especially good as the door style is simple in our tiny kitchen and 7 months post install no issues except me doing a huge knick with a flying knife (oops) but I used the touch up kit and it worked well (better the cabinet than me).

I had the chills run thru me when I read your post. I ordered km cabinets from hd and it took 8 months to get the order straight. I had the rep and he did whatever I wanted in regard to reordering cabinets. I think I have 75 doors because they could not get it right. at least 16 cabinets were replaced. In the end I was compensated $2500 and they gave me for free panels for my dishdrawers and fridge. Below is a photo of the cabinets being installed.

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That is why we avoided Home Depot and Lowes - we had Lowes out to measure twice for windows and we can't figure out where they got their measurements from. We measured ourselves, went to Marvin and got the perfect fit (so perfect my husband had a mini-breakdown lifting them in thinking they wouldn't fit). We went through Just Cabinets - with our measurements and got lucky. A co-worker didn't listen to me and went to Home Depot with lots of problems.

Maybe a solution is to return them through Home Depot and go through another company?? That's where a lot of the issues seem to be.

I'm sorry you're going through this, tc2006. I know how terribly discouraging it is because I had a lot of issues with my cabinets ordered through HD too (but they were Thomasville, not KM). When I got my initial shipment, it was a shock to discover what could make it to the shipping dock. One drawer even had a reject tag taped to the inside of the front panel. When you see something like that, you can't help but surmise the thing had been shipped previously to someone else who rejected it and sent it back, then they (Thomasville) turn around and try to fob it off on somebody else, apparently hoping they'll run into a chump this time or just someone who doesn't notice things like that or isn't at all particular. (Of course, I can't imagine who, after spending thousands and thousands, is going to be like that but, who knows, maybe they find they can get away with it every now and then?) We went through several replacement shipments too. It was a great incovenience and held up our whole project. I finally got most everything straightened out but there are still a couple of cabinets with very small finish defects that I'm just going to live with because (1) I wanted to move on and (2) because I got sick and tired of making a pest of myself. And Thomasville was not going to send me one single freebie to make up for all the trouble either, nosiree. Another thing I marveled at was how all the cabinets (except for the drawer with the reject tag and the broken lazy susan) had little stickers stuck inside, saying, "Inspected by Dave" or "Inspected by Kyle."

Hmm, I thought I had moved on, but now that this subject has come up again, looks like I'm still mad about it! LOL. I've often wondered what could explain this quality control problem. I too have wondered if it's a big-box-store problem, i.e., maybe the thinking goes "the big box is where the masses shop so if you are buying cabinets there you must be one of the great unwashed so we can send CR** to you and it won't matter." Or maybe it's a growing-too-fast problem - product is manufactured and distributed so far and wide that quality can't keep pace. Or maybe it's a management problem - maybe Kyle and Dave put those stickers on fully expecting to see the stuff come back, but maybe they felt like they had to, maybe they have to meet some kind of unreasonable quotas or something. Or maybe it's more of a generalized problem, the kind you run into these days because standards aren't what they used to be, maybe "quality" has been defined down; afer all, we buy all that stuff made in China so we should be used to accepting inferior products, right?

Whatever the explanation, I can fully understand your feeling that you've lost hope for your beautiful kitchen. All I can say is, try to hang in there and accept that it's going to take quite a bit longer to get to where you want to be. At least it sounds like your KM rep is genuinely interested in making things right, coming to your home, and looking at everything and agreeing with you that it's not right. At least you have that. I never saw or even spoke with any Thomasville rep (though HD staff did make several visits to my house to address my problems). You're going through the tough part now but eventually everything will smooth out. Even if these discouraging experiences do take a lot away from the happy anticipation of a beautiful new kitchen, you'll still love it in the end. Or at least you'll love it a lot more than your old kitchen.

I think a lot of the difference between Lowes/HD and an independent shop is that the independent shop probably has more at stake- if they screw up your job, that could hit them hard in the wallet. If the big box designer makes a mistake, oh well, they can still sell the rest of your neighborhood caulk and paint and lighting and plants and....

Independants? Ours turned out to be more hindrance than help. I can't believe that KraftMaid sells to them. Cabinets in the wrong place, the wrong height, doors that would not open, the wrong size cabinets. In our entire build this was easily our worst experience. I would NEVER use KraftMaid again. Someone else might have a better experinece with them but it appears to me that they do not care who fronts for them. We did not want to use KM at first and the KD talked us into them; our mistake.

Bottom line, this is our house and we want it right. We will get it but we are wasting about $4K, and 6 weeks and probably more time and money in court before we recover damages according to our attorney

I just received a quote for kitchen cabinets from HD (Kraftmaid), and one from Direct Buy (Brookwood). From what I have read above, the HD/Kraftmaid seems to be a nightmare. Has anyone had experiences - good or bad - with buy Brookwood cabinets from Direct Buy? Please help!!

My Kraftmaids from Lowe's are just beautiful!

Our Kraftmaid cabinets from Lowes are also beautiful. We got Maple Honey Spice Shaker Style. We had a defect in the broom closet. They had the replacement here in about 10 days. Can't beat that. Actually they delivered a large pantry cabinet like our other one. They said if it fits in our plan just to keep it!! That's a $1200. cabinet and looks much better than the smaller broom closet in our original plan. Now I have to find a place for the broom/mop.

Just to follow up my earlier post from this summer - cabinets came in a week early, demo'd the kitchen Labor Day weekend. I have no major complaints about our cabinets, they arrived in the correct color, undamaged with all the necessary installation screws...we bought more screws....can never have too many screws.

I ordered my kitchen cabinets through Lowe's in August due to a grand opening sale, with lowest pricing I'd seen plus free sink base and $750.00 gift card. My Mandolay (Somersworth) maple in ginger glaze arrived earlier than I expected, and they agreed to hold off a few weeks until I was ready. Upon delivery of the 30+ pieces, each one checked out well with almost no imperfections that I could see. I installed them myself and they really look stunning. Yes, some of the frame edges are a little rough, and the drawer glides ( full extension and self-closing) aren't as smooth as I'd hoped but at this price point I'd say that the quality control was excellent. Believe me I am picky! I must have been lucky, but I should add that a year ago I ordered similar cabinets for my bathroom at HD and they arrived perfect as well...maybe the maple/ ginger glaze door is a reliable choice for their manufacturing...

I started with a custom designer's rough plan for my space by paying for a two hour consult to pick her brain. I then shopped KDs at Home Depots in my area to find a KD who not only sold cabinet layouts but had worked in construction, preferably cabinet building and installation. I asked the other KDs, "who is your best KD?" I found Bill O'Connor, CKD at Lane Ave. HD, Jacksonville, Fl. who was terrific. He tweaked the plans and I ordered Piermont painted ("canvas") maple on 1/20/08 and they were installed 2/20/08. I have a 1924 home and wanted that classic, raised panel look. I have not yet found any problems. The installation crew will be back in mid-March after granite is done to install some tambours and do all the "touch up" work. The HD expediter came to house the day the cabs were delivered to inspect, then returned the next day to talk to installers about the plans. There are often "unadvertised specials" that pop up at HD, so get your kitchen planned then ask your HD KD to find you a deal. I got one that was good for only 3 days, ten percent off entire order and you had to have been measured already. I also got a $450. gift card. If you buy HD's install package, there is no tax charged on the WHOLE order. I can see that the quality is not as high end as my neighbor's all-custom kitchen but I did not have her high end budget, and my kitchen is turning out quite well. I think Kraftmaid can be a very good deal for a moderate budget. Make friends with the HD expediter in case you need them to fix glitches.

lifelister: How do you like the Canvas finish? We are considering it for our kitchen. Do you have pictures out there anywhere? How "white" does it look?

Thanks, Victor

We just received our Home Depot Kraftmaid cabinets and they are absolutely beautiful!! We were a bit worried when we saw all of the comments posted here but decided to go ahead anyway. I am very glad we did! The finish is silky smooth, every cabinet is professionally finished and we did not see any problems with them. I don't know why the Kraftmaid cabinets from Home Depot would be inferior than those ordered from a Kitchen Shop. They both come from the Kraftmaid Co. The order just originates from a different place. I think if everyone had a problem with Home Depot's cabinets, HD would discontinue selling them. It's just like anything else - sometimes you have problems and sometimes you don't.

I'm so glad you are happy with your cabinets. What stain/finish did you choose? I have Kraftmaid on order and like you, was a bit nervous because of the negative comments on this thread.

Avoid Kraftmaid! Installers came today to reinstall replacement pieces and almost all were damaged. Some pieces are on the 3rd replacements due to damage or poor construction/painting. We have been dealing with this kitchen remodel cabinet issues for a year in November. A few photos from the damaged pieces today. I am at a loss.

A few more pictures of my damaged cabinets