I don't think checks are normal for a finished product. Knots are normal if it is what you like. If you ordered a rustic look then knots are going to be part of the look. I ordered birch with a praline finish from Kraft Maid. I got replacements for the knots with holes through them. I didn't think I should see daylight through to the other side. I also got replacements for the pieces that were checked badly. One set of doors on the easy reach corner cabinet were checked right through to the other side. You'll find a mix of people who love Kraft Maid and those of us who don't. I kept some pieces that were lightly checked because it fit in with the rustic look. I hated the holes and I thought the doors with checks to the other side would have no integrity and probably would break.

I re-read your message and realized you said cherry "wood". I thought you might have cherry stain over another wood. What do you have? I don't know if cherry wood has knots. Folks?

good cherry does not have many knots.

Here is a quote from live wire oak (GW veteran and a Kraftmaid dealer) on fair expectations. I am sure she or Kompy (also a Kraftmaid dealer) could advise if you post pics on whether your cabinetry falls within reasonable expectations for this particular line.

"Wood door styles are made from natural wood. Yes, I know what a stupid statement that is, ;) but you'd be surprised at how many people don't understand that wood is a natural product and has pin holes, mineral streaks, knot holes (especially rustic woods like birch and hickory!) and heart wood and sap wood and all of that will end up in your kitchen. KM is a mid grade cabinet line. That means they use a select grade of wood, but not a super select.

If you want cabinets made only from cherry heartwood and to have zero mineral streaks or pin holes, then you don't want a mid grade line like KM. You want a super custom line or a super premium grade line. But, you'll pay more than double what you'll pay for KM. For the money, KM gets you far more bang for the buck than a lot of others do---if you have reasonable expectations on the front end of what you are purchasing."

We have very few (if any) visible knots on our KM cherry cabs, installed this month. I'd ask your dealer about it.
Suzi

The cabinets are Cherry wood and crap! I had old KM cabinets I replaced and am very disappointed in the new KM. Nothing but problems, you should see the $8 a foot crown molding they sent me. This must be a bad joke. I should have saved my money and gone with IKEA. Every time I buy american made I get burned. I should know better having worked in the auto industry. I would not recommend KM to anyone. I paid for Clear cherry wood not knotty cherry wood! A technician is coming on the 11th to look at the cabinets. I will try to post pictures. As for these being mid grade cabinets, are people smoking crack? How much should a cabinet cost? I could have bought a whole woodworkers shop for what I paid.

Hi vendor--If you could post pics I would greatly appreciate it. We just ordered our KM Cherry cabs last week and your post is obviously making me nervous. I went into this (KM) with my eyes open as we had done a lot of research. We ended up with the KM only because they had the stain we wanted and couldn't find it in other lines that would be considered a step up (Wellborn, Executive)--I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I won't fall in the KM nightmare category....good luck!

In our first cherry kitchen, we choose cherry cabinets but did not realize like any other wood there are grades and the cabinet maker did not ask quesion us about the grade. When the cabinets were installed, we were not happy with all the knots and holes in the wood but there was nothing we could do about it. In our second cherry kitchen we specified for select cherry wood. The cabinets are 99 percent free of any flaws...big difference in look but also price.

We did our kitchen in cherry using Schuler/Medallion. We did our den in cherry using K/M. Both were purchased from big box stores. The difference in construction, grade of the cherry, and quality of finish was appaling. IMHO K/M is not even close to Schuler/Medallion standards, yet they charged nearly as much.

When we redo the baths, we will go back to Schuler. The little extra $'s are well worth the expense.

Jsol boy I can not recommend KM. My wife opened the sponge drawer on the sink base cabinet and it fell off scratching the door on the cabinet. The screws they used are about 3/8" long. That's not going to hold. Also the finish is poor and scratches very easily. Not to great for a kitchen. KM had a fire in the finish department and I am thinking they are playing "catch-up". I hope your cabinets are better than what we got. I had them send me a new drawer front and it was 3 inches to small. Also the doors are warped and do not close flat. When they sent back ordered door fronts the stain is different. I am not a picky person but when I spend more than $5,000 for a 9' x 9' kitchen I expect some level of quality. I hope this is just us and not all KM are like this. I am putting the photos on my web site for you to check out. I do not want to panic you but I would look at other cabinets. I looked at my friends IKEA cherry cabinets and not one flaw in the wood. Now the IKEA drawers are kinda junky. For what we paid I feel like we got ripped off. KM just responded to my e-mail. Boy it took threatening them with a charge back to get there attention. Oh I could go on.... just look at the photos. I will post the link when done.

Since I'm being quoted, I thought I'd show up and confirm what Caryscot posted from me above.

No, I'm not smoking anything funny to say that wood cabinets are made of wood. :) I'd really like to see your pictures, but as I said, some knots, mineral streaks, and other signs that you've received wood cabinets is totally normal. If your expectations were that you would receive only heartwood with no knots or mineral streaks or other small character features, then you would have had to move to a much more expensive line and pay more than double to triple what you paid. Average kitchen cabinet purchases in the US are around 15K. KM is a budget to middle of the road line. A 9x9 kitchen is on the smaller side, but 5K for cabinets is in the lower budget range of cabinet purchases for that size kitchen. I'd expect cabinets for your size kitchen to run from $3600-$18,000.

But even someone who spent only $3600 on their cabinets expects them to be functional and look good. I'm sorry that your expectations weren't met. Did you purchase them from a dealer or a big box store? A lot of the frustration you are feeling could have been avoided if your KD had shown you the store displays and explained what to expect from the beginning using those displays as an example. Many minor items arrive dislocated or shifted in shipping and should be tweaked at install. Some aren't a big issue at all, and others are ones that should be addressed promptly by your KD. I'd like to address some of your individual issues, and hope you can get a sense of what is or shouldn't be in your cabinets.

The responsivenes of your KD is also one issue I can address. I work a 40-60 hour week, and I have days off like anyone else. So, I'm not always here to answer a client's question. I spend the first hour on the job returning messages, but sometimes there will be a 48 hour or so delay from me responding. If my installer is on a job checking in the cabinets before an install, and a part is missing or damaged, anyone else here can call KM to expedite getting a replacement part, but I have a few installers that will only deal with me. Sometimes that's the way it is. They prefer a single channel of communication. A lot of the replacement parts issue is a combinaton of communication between the installer and the KD, so if you have issues with either, then perhaps it's time to talk to the company owner---always making sure that you have a reasonable expecation as to the communication issues as well! :)

The interior sink storage drawer falling off, if we are talking about the drawer inside the flip down, then it's made to be removable for cleaning purposes. If you're talking the drawer front itself, then no the hardware shouldn't be loose enough that the drawer front itself comes off just by use. The replacement drawer front being 3" too small has more to do with the company you ordered the cabinets from than KM themselves. If a replacement part is needed by a customer, I'm the one who orderes it, and KM only sends what I order. Your KD ordered the wrong part here.

If your doors are warped and are not flat, then that is not acceptible and those will be replaced. KM stands by their product and offers replacement parts in an expedited manner second to none. All you need to do is have your KD order them and put aside the old ones for inspection. Your KD is involved in this, isn't she?

BTW, replacement doors or other parts in cherry will always be a different color than what you have that has darkened. Cherry is one of the woods that darkens with exposure to light. That's completely normal and natural, and you should have been led to expect that with your cabinets. The replacement parts will catch up in a month or so, or you can accelerate the process by laying them out in the sun for a bit.

Ikea doesn't offer cherry cabinets, so I'm unsure as to what you're thinking of here. They do offer the Blum drawers though, which are considered the top of the line when it comes to drawer construction and hardware. Just because they aren't wood doesn't make them inferior. :)

I'm sorry you aren't happy with you cabinets, and I look forward to seeing your pictures.

I'm with live wire oak on this. I think maybe your expectations were a bit unrealistic. I chose a mid-grade cabinet line partly because of budget(I certainly couldn't afford Woodmode or Crown Point,) but also partly because I wasn't looking for select grade wood. I chose wood cabs over painted ones because I like a natural look. That natural look would include sapwood(it makes my heart sing,) some pinholes, some variation with mineral streaks, etc. I don't like a super rustic look with knots and checks, so I chose cherry over more rustic woods like hickory.

Our Kraftmaid cherry cabs(Lynchburg mission - they have walnut pegs in the corners,) are exactly what I was expecting. They show all the beautiful variation one would expect from cherry. More prominent graining than maple, less than oak. lwo's suggestion to leave the replacements in sunlight to speed up the darkening process is a good one. Cherry can take up to a year to darken all the way, but most of the darkening happens in the first few months. Give it a little time and it should all blend in. I feel like our cabs are very well constructed, also. All of the drawer and pullout hardware is solid and operates smoothly.

Kraftmaid was very quick and responsive with the few problems that we did have. We only had 1 cab(out of a 10'x24' kitchen) out of square and a couple of doors with stain issues. These were all promptly replaced.

You have got to be kidding. These are new cabinets. The drawer front actually fell off. Am I to understand that just because you can rip (stupid) people off by charging insane prices for a cabinet, that makes it normal? Its a cabinet. Wood. This is whats wrong with America! Everything is acceptable. I have driven cars that cost less than what you are saying. That is insane. Insane! What moron is spending over $1000+ for one cabinet? You must be in California or New York. Its wood. You are wrong to charge people that much for a piece of wood. Are you joking with me saying my expectations are high? If what you are saying is not a joke, I am done buying American made crap. American made used to mean something, pride quality. Now it means you didn't spend enough. America! Man I sound like an old man.

vender, I'm sorry to have offended you. I tried to choose my words judiciously in my previous post, but perhaps I missed my mark. I don't at all mean to poohpooh your expenditure. My own DH clutched his chest like I'd need to slip him an aspirin and look around for a defibrillator when our KD gave us the first quote.

I was not shocked to hear the first quote, but did work with DH and our KD to pull that number down by several thousand by giving up a planned wine & liquor hutch(that we ended up building ourselves) and a few other niceties. The reason I was comfortable with the first number was that I had done so much research into cabinetry before settling on a few mid-grade lines to look at. Like I said before - KM is mid-grade, not top of the line. They are not Plain & Fancy or Crown Point. A used Poggenpohl kitchen can easily sell for $15,000+. Not display, but 10yr old used. But while KM is not top of the line, neither are they entry level, falling apart, builder grade either.

I agree that a drawer front should not fall off a new cabinet. I, however, disagree that it's indicative of a systemic problem with the manufacturer. Your KD and/or GC need to address the problem. Perhaps if you dialed back the anger and took a moment to breathe you'd find your KD more responsive to your missives.

In response to live-wire-oak:

In our entire Schuler kitchen, we have only two very small pin knots, tight with no pits or gaps. We have only a minimum of mineral streaks, etc., but do have a very nice grain, not overly pronounced and very characteristic of fine cherry furniture. It appears that Schuler culls out most of the lower grade of cherry and uses it inside the drawers, etc., not on the outside cabinet face or doors where it will show. This was not the case with K/M which had several pieces made from an obviously lower grade of cherry. To get this quality we did not pay "more than double to triple," but rather almost the same price.

K/M may expedite replacement parts, but so does Schuler. We had to order a replacement door and a large veneered panel, both had small defects, and an extra length of crown, my mistake, from Schuler. It came within two weeks, no questions asked. They did not look or even take back the defective parts.

The darker the stain, the less cherry will change over time. If parts were made within a few weeks of each other there shouldn't be a noticeable difference. Schuler's had a light pecan stain and the replacements matched perfectly. The original order from K/M was a dark cabernet stain that came blotchy and uneven, sometimes on the same face frame.

K/M was a small order, less than ten boxes, yet I found staples protruding from the back onto the face, excessive glue both inside and outside, even on finished parts. Boxes that were so out of square that I had to fudge the install to get them to fit. Warped doors that no amount of adjustment would make close properly.

I know I could have rejected them, and I thought seriously about just sending the entire order back. But, I had already started the remodel, had several expensive custom pieces made to fit exactly with these cabinets, and did not want to redesign the project. So I did the best I could with what I was sent. In the end I made it look acceptable, but I'll never use K/M again for anything.

We bought KM in Cherry with a honey spice finish. It is very pretty but I didn't realize cherry is soft wood, and it doesn't take much to scratch it gouge it. Also, as the installer put them up he would say this door is unacceptable. It looked okay to me but he said the grain did not match enough the door next to it so he turned 4 doors in and they replaced them, and then one door was returned too short and one was damaged and they replaced them. I am stil waiting for them to install. KM sent replacement doors quickly and Lowe's has been right on top of things. Worst part of my kitchen was when they installed, don't know whose fault it was, countertop people or cupboard people, but they left a bulge in the front of the cabinets. Yes, that is correct a bulge. Everything had to come back out, sink and all. Not fun. But it was a good thing because the plumber installed the sink incorrectly according to Blanco instructions and their warranty would not have been valid had it been left that way, plus it was leaking. What a nightmare we have had, but KM has been easy to work with, as has Lowe's. I knew the wood would not match, and I like it that way.