LEGO House?

Relatively new to the market is the online “point and click” cabinet ordering business. All that’s required is you running around with a measuring tape and your cell phone to take a few pictures of your space. Send your details to the call center in Anywhere, USA and VOILA! Cabinets made to order. It’s so easy, what could possibly go wrong!

Issue #1- Houses aren’t built like Legos. Those iconic interlocking plastic bricks are perfectly shaped and reliably consistent. Your home is not.  Walls aren’t always square or perfectly level and will require some special attention during ordering and installation. Most online customers won’t be thinking about fillers, shoe molding, toe kicks and their raw/unfinished edges, scribe trim, soft close and finished ends to complete the look of the base products. And the online designer they are chatting with can’t possibly notice every detail of the space if they aren’t standing in it. The professional designer who has been to your home and measured it several times has calculated and inventoried everything needed to achieve the end result of a finished space. Their cabinetry contract included everything to get the job done right.

Issue #2- Quality and Look of Product. Your professional dealer represents quality cabinetry lines that offer a range of products in various styles, stains, finishes, wood species, high pressure laminates, acrylics, thermally fused laminates… all in various price points. You can evaluate door size samples of all these products, using them to help you select complimentary countertops, back splash materials, paint colors, etc. When cabinets arrive at the job site? The product is inspected by the professional designer upon delivery and returned if any issues are detected, relieving the homeowner of managing quality control issues. Order online? They’ll send you some chips of what they offer and the process is yours to manage remotely.

For the type of investment cabinetry requires and all the interesting little issues each house presents, it’s not surprising to read a lot of negative reviews for online suppliers. Quality of Product, Incomplete Orders and Unfinished Look being three big issues most cited. Seems like a large investment to risk your expectations on.

Looking for no risk, all reward? Come see us at AKB.