Cabinet Reviews: Ratings for the top 150 cabinet brands.

393 Replies to “Cabinet Reviews: Ratings for the top 150 cabinet brands.”

1. 

   Milka

   Which one would you go with for quality, durability and finish? Surprisingly, similar quote for both. Schrock’s google reviews worry us.

   1) Fabuwood

   Island:
   Fabuwood Allure Luna Timber
   https://www.fabuwood.com/cabinets/allure/luna/

   Rest of the kitchen:
   Fabuwood Allure Luna Dove
   https://www.fabuwood.com/cabinets/allure/luna/

   2) Schrock

   Island:
   Schrock Hawkins Coastline finish (maple)
   https://www.schrock.com/products/hawkins?prod={EBE99950-2690-4428-AA35-C68FC37CA159}&user-zip-code=21015#

   Rest of the kitchen:
   Schrock Hawkins Steam paint (maple)
   https://www.schrock.com/products/hawkins?prod={EBE99950-2690-4428-AA35-C68FC37CA159}&user-zip-code=21015#

   Thank you!

1. 

   pmcalary[ Post Author ]

   Hi Milka,
   I would rate both brands as being equal in quality. Fabuwood should be 20% less expensive so I would choose Fabuwood and spend the 20% difference changing the layout to be a better design, or splurging on appliances or countertops.

2. 

   Jenny

   Hi Paul,
   Fantastic resource! I wish I would have found your article sooner. I’m in the middle of a full kitchen renovation and have had a terrible experience with both Schrock and Kemper; brands I picked after much research due to the overall positive reviews and touted quality. 85% of the cabinets (base/doors/drawers) had to be returned upon delivery due to poor quality – dovetails on drawers were not aligned, fraying, and filled in with wood putty in many places. The painted finish was rough almost as if it had been sprayed over sawdust/debris or not sanded between coats. Cabinet bases were compromised as well. I had ordered replacement door fronts for a separate built-in that I have as well, 50% of those came in with the same paint issues. I was quite surprised since my last kitchen was Kemper brand and held up incredibly well over the years. I’m wondering if MasterBrands has been experiencing wider supply chain disruption over the past few months that could be leading to this unexpected decline in quality control. Or if anyone else in this community had had a similar experience with the brand recently. Some of the replacements took over 5 weeks to arrive and are in the same condition as the ones they were meant to replace.

   I’m now looking at going with Shiloh brand cabinets instead hoping to avoid the same issues. They seem solid and offer the colors/stains that I’m looking for, but aren’t widely carried in my area; so a special order. There aren’t a ton of reviews for them online but they seem to be in the mid-upper range alongside Wapoint, Kemper, Schrock etc. Any suggestions or insights would be greatly appreciated.

1. 

   pmcalary[ Post Author ]

   Hi Jenny,
   We do the research for you on this blog. Without knowing the door style and colors you are choosing, I can’t give you advice but you are doing a lot of things here without a good designers advice. This makes me think that your design itself also needs improvement. We review designs free of charge Fridays,

3. 

   Jay

   Hello,

   This is an extremely helpful blog post! How recent is your data on Bellmont 1900? My parents are trying to finish a small kitchen renovation, and they went with the Bellmont 1900 at the recommendation of their designer in plywood construction with High-Gloss Laminate Bianco Gloss white doors. Unfortunately, we’ve experienced a lot of quality issues with the doors arriving with scratches on the faces and chips in the finish, particularly where the door fronts meet the edge banding. We’ve also experienced many issues with Bellmont shipping cabinets and doors that were the wrong sizes from what was specified in the orders. Our designer / dealer has said that they had never experienced these issues before on the 1900 line but had previously stopped offering the 1600 line to prospective clients due to similar repeated quality control issues… but now they are seeing these issues on the 1900 line as well with several clients’ projects in addition to my parents’ kitchen project. Luckily we eventually received cabinet boxes of sufficient quality that we installed them, but now it’s a struggle to get replacement doors in the correct sizes and without obvious damage to the finish right out of the box. Our local Bellmont sales rep is now implying that my parents have unrealistic expectations, but we think brand new cabinet doors shouldn’t be chipped around the edges right out of the box, especially since we’ve experienced several instances where the imperfections have grown in size and become progressively worse with the finish chipping and flaking off during the first days of very light use and cleaning with spraying approved cleaners on soft microfiber cloths. Your cabinet brand Quality ratings by my reading seem to be more for the sturdiness and construction of the cabinets themselves and the hardware used rather than the quality of the door fronts, though. Any insights?

   Also, I see elsewhere in the comments that you mention Bellmont is vague about the hardware they use, and our designer has indicated that they do in fact use different manufacturers — FYI as a data point, my parents’ cabinets arrived with Salice Silentia soft-close hinges — how do those compare to the Blum hardware that your other comments indicate as being the standard-bearer for soft-close hardware?

   My parents are starting to wonder if there are other manufacturers with better quality control that make comparable high gloss white door fronts because the replacements from Bellmont are sometimes arriving in even worse condition than the ones they were supposed to replace! Any insight would be greatly appreciated, as they just want to be done with the project and enjoy their brand new kitchen.

1. 

   pmcalary[ Post Author ]

   Hi Jay,
   It’s tough to judge here but I’ll bet there is a little bit of everything going on. First of all when you are selecting a high gloss laminate door style you are selecting a very unforgiving product prone to scratching and showing imperfections easily. So getting doors with issues is likely, and if you get more scratches and chips after they arrive – that is just the product and isn’t Belmont’s fault.

   The laminate isn’t going to damage after arriving more from one brand than another. Really the designer is partly to blame here for not setting realistic expectations. Replacement doors are arriving via UPS so I’d probably blame the selection and UPS for most of those issues.

   Helping customers know what they are buying and having realistic expectations is one of the most important jobs of a kitchen designer. And when you select an unforgiving product extra problems are likely. It doesn’t mean anyone’s at fault and if replacements are being ordered be appreciative. But don’t expect your white rug to stay pristine over time. A multicolored grey rug would look new forever while a white one has a short half-life.

   I like Blum’s hardware best, but Salice is fine. At this point your parents probably have everything under a microscope with lots of blue tape directing the designer and rep to all the imperfections.

   To be perfectly frank the people that select high gloss white laminate cabinetry are the very personalities that can be high maintenance customers. Good designers are especially careful working with customers that make this selection.

   Consider all this and as long as the dealer and Belmont are replacing what you ask of them then count yourselves well served.

1. 

   Jay

   Thank you so much for the thorough and considered reply. We actually found a Fabuwood dealer in our region and went to look at their samples as a basis for comparison — the difference was stark: Fabuwood appears to take much more care in their manufacturing and shipping practices than Bellmont does to protect their finishes. For one, Fabuwood cleans their doors and applies a protective film to the white gloss finished surfaces, while Bellmont only applies protection around the sides. As for the shipping, our dealer has received replacement shipments from both UPS as well as Bellmont’s regional delivery service, and there has been little difference in the condition of the received items. One particularly concerning pattern of consistent damage has been regular intervals of sharp perpendicular cut marks on the door fronts around perimeter edges near where the edge banding has been applied, almost as if a sharp razor blade has made slash marks along the edges — it is around these cut marks where the finish delaminates and peels off when being cleaned of the sawdust, grease, glue and other schmutz that is still on the doors straight out of the box as received from the factory. Our designers have informed us that this isn’t how Bellmont used to ship things, that up until sometime in 2023 all their items would arrive with a protective film on the gloss finish, ostensibly applied after being cleaned of manufacturing debris.

   Anyway, I understand that perhaps our expectations were not properly managed by our designers — at least to a point. Since it appears from other comments that you don’t personally deal in the Bellmont product at present, I would suggest there might be utility in reaching-out to any dealers you know of who do and perhaps “take the temperature” in terms of whether or not they have noticed a drop in manufacturing quality on their customers’ orders within the last 2 years or so only because you have clearly taken the time to compile these 150 cabinet brand ratings, and many consumers clearly find these ratings and blog posts incredibly helpful.

   Thank you again, and it sounds like your clients are very lucky to be in such knowledgeable and thoughtful hands!