Actually, it's just a clear matte finish. We had wanted some stain and/or wood treatment like a slight lyed looking finish but they didn't seem to have too many options and we were communicating from a distance so difficult to ask them to replicate. We liked Shaker style, too.

First photos are Houzz ones we liked, the last is what we got.

Queens Gate Apartment, Knightsbridge London · More Info

So...they are not going to match the parts of the cabinets that were made four months ago or all the cabs do not match the Houzz photo?

If they're not going to match the grain design on that existing lower drawer front you need to ask them to include a drawer front in the redo. Then everything will match. It has to be done that way.

rantontoo - won't match the parts of the cabinets made 4 months ago.

dan1888 - Good idea. GC just said "they won't match well." I'm not sure how bad of a mismatch it can be but obviously it's got to be a different set of veneer. There's also a dishwasher panel across the room between the sink cabinet and another cabinet.

Matching that might be harder. Would I ask them to replace all fronts on that wall?

I've noticed that when doors don't match the pen doesn't match the checkbook either.

I was just thinking the same thing!

Do not think "custom" and "won't match well" belong in the same sentence.

It's not smart as a GC to make customers aware of things they may never have noticed. In the excitement of seeing things come together, it may never have been noticed if it existed at all.

Joseph, I think it's likely to be quite noticable - GC typically doesn't alert us to minor issues - we still notice them, though.

It's not acceptable and ask him what he is going to do to rectify it ... nicely :)

I like the look you are going for...the lower drawer panel looks like water damage as opposed to a custom stain. Geez sorry that happened :( good luck!

ski4life:

I went to Corian school with a cabinet guy. His customer objected to the grain in some doors. He came over, packaged the doors, said he would order new, put them under his bench for 6 weeks, brought them back, installed them, and the customer was delighted with the "new" doors.

Joseph, hilarious!

Omg Joe I just about spit my coffee out reading that! That's terrible but funny at the same time.

The cabinets from the Houzz photo are probably not custom, but rather Leicht or Alno - high dollar, but really just beautiful. While custom doesn't always get you that level of precision in the veneer and finish, it should match...very well. That's why you paid to have custom cabinets, no? Have you had a chance to see the door fronts? If they are as disparate from the rest of the kitchen as your GC indicated, I agree with MaWizz above -- I'd ask what the GC is going to do to fix the issue because it's not acceptable. So sorry this has happened -- good luck!

2.5 months later, over 5 months after initial cabinet install, current situation.

Pics below Thoughts? Looking for validation of problems we saw.

In the planning stages when we asked what our cabinets would look like, we were sent the 2nd photo below, w/ the light blue paint, except with vertical grain.

I pointed out the state of some trim work in adjacent replaced/installed during the overall project. There is missing shoe molding (pics below) and received some push back that we should have advised them on the last site visit (though that was focused all on cabinetry and we hadn't noticed it yet) and they consider the project complete except for the plans to address the cabinets.

Would you normally expect the GC to catch these items during quality inspections and not after final invoice is issued to client (which we haven't fully paid)?

Were your bathroom cabinets ordered with vertical grain? The horizontal is atypical, but usually not the standard, although some manufacturers do horizontal on drawer fronts and vertical on door fronts by default. This detail should be specified on your contract. I doubt that you have passed any legal deadlines for warranty claims.

To clarify, the bathroom cabinets were not for our project; it's what we were shown to illustrate what our kitchen cabs would look like, except for the grain direction being vertical, not horizontal.

I was going to say that they did a beautiful job on the bathroom cabinet, if that's their work... The current sink run in your kitchen doesn't look so hot in comparison.

It's their work. We expected the same level of quality on our project but it's been a frustrating & long journey.

What part of the country are you located in?

Pac NW

That gap simply needs a filler piece. It is not normal to leave a gap like this. what is on the plan? The nice thing about cabinets is that they are pretty predictable. This gap should have been accounted for in the design.

Is it an optical illusion that tile runs behind there? If so that should be removed, and a piece of filler plus scribe molding should be applied. The filler should have been added to the cabinet before it was installed.

This has been a nightmare. I didn't even mention the splintered outlet hole in an obvious location they accidentally cut in our floor-to-ceiling pantry cabinet with pullouts that they tried to cover by gluing over a skin, which unglued almost right away and is flopping loose inside.

I know it would have cost them, but those kind of mistakes should require a rebuild of the box, no? Ugh.

It should be pleasing to the eye outside, and not falling apart on the inside. Sometimes wood gets wounded in the process, but everything that cannot be repaired should be replaced.