If St. Charles could really compete with the upper-end European cabinet manufacturers it would be great as shipping from Europe is a real pain. A couple of years ago I did a major remodel of a nice mid-century house and the owner chose Italian cabinets. They weren't cheap, I think about 75K for 22 lineal feet of cabinets plus a 7'-6" x 4' island, but this did include countertops and Bosch and Thermador appliances. The owner originally wanted Viking appliances and German cabinets but that was pushing things too close to 100K. The Italian cabinets were very nice, but of course it took forever to get them and then somehow the upper cabinet flipper doors arrived in the wrong finish, plus something else got damaged during installation. These items had to be reshipped which took about 6 weeks, and then installed after the owner had moved into the house which meant more coordination between the kitchen contractor, general contractor, and the owner. This also meant working in an otherwise finished kitchen and the new wood floor got scratched. The general contractor blamed the kitchen contractor, the kitchen contractor said the scratch was there first but nobody had noticed (most likely untrue), and the owner refused to pay either until the scratch was fixed. Thankfully the general contractor's flooring guy was able to fix it but I don't recall if the kitchen contractor ever reimbursed the general contractor for the repair. What a PITA!
For most projects I much prefer to design the cabinets which can then be built and installed by a local cabinetmaker. That way he's responsible for both manufacturing and installation, and if a non-standard cabinet size is needed (this is very common with a remodel) it is no problem at all, and any mistakes get rectified in a week or so rather than a month or two.
For most projects I much prefer to design the cabinets which can then be built and installed by a local cabinetmaker. That way he's responsible for both manufacturing and installation, and if a non-standard cabinet size is needed (this is very common with a remodel) it is no problem at all, and any mistakes get rectified in a week or so rather than a month or two.
