I spent three years designing and selling kitchen cabinets.
Not in a showroom — behind it. I drew the plans, checked the counts, and worked directly with the American companies that manufactured and shipped the boxes. My husband handled the customers. Between us, we saw the whole process: what people ask, what they don’t know to ask, and what goes wrong.
I don’t sell cabinets anymore. That’s exactly why I can write this.
This site is what I’d tell a friend before they walked into a showroom — how to read a quote, what’s missing from it, what your walls are going to do to your budget, and which questions actually change the outcome.
What’s on this site
Four kinds of posts.
Cabinet Buying Guide is the money. How to read a quote line by line. Why two dealers price the same cabinets differently. What a lifetime warranty actually covers, and what it quietly doesn’t.
Cabinet Industry Insider is what the showroom doesn’t say out loud. What’s missing from your quote. What happens when your delivery arrives damaged. What the fine print is doing there — including the fine print I wrote myself.
Cabinet Types & Materials is the product. What your boxes are made of. Which cabinets survive a house with kids. Why your ceiling height decides more than you think.
Kitchen Design is layout and taste. The kitchen you approve versus the kitchen that gets ordered. Which upgrades earn their price and which ones nobody uses.
Who this is for
Mostly people who already have a quote in front of them. You’ve been to a showroom, you have a number, and something about it doesn’t sit right. Start with the Buying Guide.
If you haven’t gone yet, read whatever looks relevant. Most of what goes wrong in a kitchen goes wrong before anything is ordered.
I can’t tell you what to buy. I don’t know your room, your budget, or your contractor. What I can tell you is what the paperwork means, what the salesperson assumes you already know, and where the money goes when nobody is watching it.
Some of what I write here is unflattering to the business I used to be part of. Some of it is unflattering to me. Both seemed worth including.
Nobody pays me to recommend anything. No sponsored posts, no paid placements. Some product links earn a small commission if you buy through them — that never changes what I recommend or what I say about it. Just what I learned on the other side of the counter.
— Kitchen Crayon