Kitchen Mavins: Tell me about Kith (brand) kitchen cabinets

Amarante

Sat, Dec 18 2021, 11:10 pm

I don't know anything about Kith brands but kitchens are not priced by the "running foot".

That is generally a bait and switch tactic used to get people into a cabinet sales place. Not all cabinets are created equal - e.g. drawers are more expensive than doors but are infinitely preferable for lower cabinets. All of the interior configurations that make cabinets more functional are more expensive. Soft closing Blum hardware - more expensive and highly desirable. Dowel constructed drawers instead of staples.

In order to get an apples to apples idea of pricing you need to get a price for the specific configuration of cabinets in the specific door style and wood species or painted finish.

Also a talented experienced kitchen designer is absolutely critical for achieving the best result. A bad designer will create a bad kitchen with even the most expensive cabinets and a talented designer can create a fabulous kitchen with semi-custom moderately priced cabinets.

You would be well served by reading a few articles on the indicia of quality so that you can evaluate cabinets in terms of their construction and visit a few places and look over the actual product. Study the literature to get a sense of what is offered.

Slow down because any decent cabinets aren't going to be available for many months and all of the good GC, installers and trades people are booked for months. You probably don't want someone who can start work next week. :-)

Amarante

Sat, Dec 18 2021, 11:21 pm

amother [ OP ] wrote:

Thanks for the helpful advice, but a dealer Im considering using is offering me Kith cabinets and the ratings are miserable.

So go to other dealers and see what is available as there are numerous reliable cabinet brands.

It has been a while since I spent time looking at cabinet lines but in the relatively moderate semi-custom there is Kraftmaid, Omega, Dynasty, Shiloh. I am sure there are others but these spring to my mind as having a lot of people on houzz.com using them and liking the quality and the choice.

Again - if the cabinet seller is quoting you a price by "running feet" I would be suspicious because it is not a valid pricing method.

Amarante

Sat, Dec 18 2021, 11:33 pm

He is a bit controversial on houzz because he hates IKEA and the quality of IKEA cabinets (not their furniture) is very good. The problem with IKEA is that they have limited options and also the savings are based on DIY so that if you aren't assembling the boxes but paying someone to do it for you, then you are better off with a line that has more options.

But since you know about houzz and their forums, I would suggest going over there and getting input based on your cabinet budget.

Personally based on a designer who is pushing an obscure line (KITH) which seems to have poor reviews, I would look else for my cabinet salesperson.

Spend a few Sundays visiting kitchen stores that sell different cabinets. When I was doing this I got a very preliminary configuration for my kitchen based on measurements I brought in and then I could get rough estimates for the different lines from different designers.

The kitchen I wound up with doesn't resemble the one I was "pricing" but my travels gave me a good sense of comparison between different lines.

amother

Steelblue

Mon, Dec 20 2021, 11:27 pm

I am a kitchen designer and and have years of experience in designing mid/low range through custom cabinetry. Kitchen cabinetry in regards to quality is a fairly simple topic but almost universally misunderstood even by the typical kitchen designer unless they are the the type that were actually involved in the manufacturing and install of cabinets. There are so many factors that are touted as a virtue but in reality do not have much implication to the end user, but will make a difference to the installer.
I had a look at the link at the rating from maine line kitchens, while it was somewhat informative I disagree with a lot of what he says, especially what he says in regards to frameless cabinets that it is inherently inferior, while from an engineering standpoint that is true the fact of the matter is I have never seen a cabinet fall off the wall or box collapse from any brand, so who cares. The maine line kitchen ranking in his comments does point out something that is very true, almost all negative rankings about cabinetry online are coming from the end user and most of the time the problem is with the kitchen designer either making a poor design decisions, or not informing the customer of the potential negatives with that type of material such as paint wood type etc. or the dealer not being responsive about a warranty claim. I have only dealt with limited companies but I would say every company has their ups and downs, paint failures, and bad batches and ultimately you are relying on the company to fix their mistakes if there are and that the designer will stand by you and take care of the problem.
In regards to kith, although I do not sell them I did talk with their rep once and they are supposed to be a quality brand, as long as you have a designer that you feel will take care of you the brand does not concern me.
14" deep cabinets in my opinion are unnecessarily deep but 13" is nice, most companies can do 14" deep cabinets but will generally cost too much unless it is a true true custom line.
I don't price by the foot but I do know that a lot of the higher end places do price by the foot, the idea is that it averages out assuming you stick with typical materials. Hope this helps