Does anyone here have an RTA kitchen? I’d love to hear honest reviews of the product and any pitfalls or tips. Many thanks!

Hi all. I am hoping to replace my cabinets with RTA cabinets and I wanted to check for recommendations on who has the best ones. Any suggestions?

I need to put a kitchen in my house that is being renovated and the demand is such that even if I was willing to pay 30k for custom cabinets, none would be available until summer. Some of the cabinet guys also sell a small line of what seem to be more or less RTA cabinets that they will assemble and install for around 20k, but they are so busy they can’t even make that guarantee.

I’ve looked at a few different internet sites and the main difference I can see in the RTAs I can find is that the recessed panel on my shaker doors would be made from MDF instead of wood. I would still get soft close doors and drawers, and dovetailed drawers and .5 inch plywood, lazy susans in the corners and slide out boxes in the base cabinets, 42 inch uppers and a few glass doors if I want them. My final cost would be around 10k (plus my time) and the various sizes available allow me to fit my dimensions perfectly, so I also wouldn’t need filler strips and would still get a “custom” look. Not to mention, they would ship out to me in a week. I’m perfectly capable of putting them together, hanging them and even making some minor modifications (like turning an 18 inch one drawer/one door base into an under sink cabinet for a small prep sink.

I’ll probably pull the trigger this weekend to get the benefit of the MLK day sales, but I’m nervous to even be spending 10k on something sight unseen and I was wondering if anyone had used them and would recommend any particular brand or vendor.

Thanks!

I was a cabinet installer back in the day so I'm comfortable doing it, but have no interest in making them. We will only be in the house for 5 years so don't want to go full fancy custom. Who are some USA based, quality (plywood build, not MDF) "ready to assemble" (RTA) suppliers other than IKEA?

Have you had any experience with RTA cabinets, good or bad? I am considering buying all hardwood flat ship cabinets for a kitchen remodel, and could use help narrowing down vendors before I get quotes.

There are a few local showrooms I plan on visiting to check out the quality - The Cabinet Spot in Burbank, Cabinet City in San Gabriel, HomeCo in Alhambra. I'm also open to online only vendors, though a little hesitant to make such a big purchase without seeing how they look assembled. We are leaning towards a painted cabinet finish.

I am comfortable with assembly and installation, mostly looking for insights into quality, customer service, and value. Thanks!

We have a straight up 80's kitchen we are looking to give a face-lift. We have new appliances, so not factoring in that cost. Our budget is only about $10-12k (we will do the work ourselves as hubby us very handy and has contractors in family).

We are looking at HD Avondale cabinets, Ikea, and Diamond Express Jamestown from Lowes. We aren't looking to move any time soon since we have a 9 year old and a 6 month old.

Any suggestions? I was trying to stick to plywood for longevity, but I keep hearing Ikea kitchens are amazing... I'm hoping to swing Quartzite counters if we have enough $. Thanks.

I’m looking for solid wood, ideally!

I found this site… but not a ton of info or reviews. https://buywholesalecabinets.com/kitchen-cabinets/

Thank you!!

Planning on redoing my kitchen as it’s still the original 1960’s gallery kitchen and I hate it. I’ve used the kitchen design from Lowe’s to get an idea of what I want it to look like, and have my list of cabinets needed. I added them all in a shopping list from cabinets.com because I saw the website recommended a few times on this subreddit. Total comes to ~$7,100 which I guess isn’t terrible but is a big chunk of change, considering I need at least a new range plus countertops and floor with this remodel.

I had researched kitchen remodels when I first bought the house as it was one of the first projects I was going to do, but instead I did just about everything else. I had found a website that I believe was recommend on this subreddit as well, and they were ready to assemble cabinets. I can’t remember which site it was from, and there seems to be dozens when I Google “RTA” cabinets.

So are there any highly recommended RTA cabinet companies or are they all similar in the end? I’m not looking for anything fancy, just the typical white shaker style cabinets with all plywood constructed boxes. I’m not 100% certain on going with RTA but just want to see the price difference, if it’s substantial I’ll probably go with it as my FIL has built cabinets before and would probably be willing to help me out with constructing them.

Here are pics of my kitchen currently and what I designed: https://imgur.com/a/OpiOw70/

Note: I know there’s no oven in my design, the Lowe’s design softwares wouldn’t let me out a slide in range where I wanted it, so I just put a stove top for visualization.

I am a pretty capable DIY home-owner. I built a basement bar and scratch built inset cabinets for it. I'm looking at doing a full kitchen remodel in a similar aesthetic and doing all of it myself, but time is a factor. Obviously building cabinetry is very time consuming and I want to minimize kitchen downtime. So... I'm debating RTA cabs. I have no experience with them, but the following are considerations/questions for me:

-must be plywood, not MDF

-not positive I'll do inset, but strongly considering it.

-would prefer to order pre-painted, but want to be able to build any custom bits and match the paint.

-I'm planning to go to the ceiling with uppers containing a second (glass door) cab at the top for display

-would like depth, height options (see my link above, which has examples of both)

-how do RTA installations deal with things like island design (ie decorative bits like corner columns and such?

-how do RTA installations deal with things like refrigerator surrounds?

-do any RTA companies deal with special hardware (like corner cabinet pop-outs) or are all of these things really limited to custom cabinetry companies?

-some of the RTA assembly vids I've watched just nailed cabs together. I would have assumed these would need clamps or require some sort of special internal fasteners (like cams or other IKEA furniture type stuff). Am I wrong, or is this a brand specific thing.

-obviously you get what you pay for. For equivalent finished cabinets what percent discount is RTA compared to custom cabinetry, typically.

-any big companies to avoid, or any companies you'd recommend I check out?

So I recently got a few quotes and design layouts from local cabinet shops and have wanted to explore the option of DIY cabinet replacement.

If you search RTA cabinets on Google it seems there are dozens of options that all look reputable and many of them appear at least on the surface to be high quality. I know IKEA seems to be the popular recommendation here but there are companies out there that seem to be better build quality with added bonus of being local cabinet makers just shipping out their product.

The issue I'm having a bit of choice paralysis, I can't seem to find a site where I can get unbiased reviews on these places, so I'd like some feedback from people that have went with a specific company and what they thought.

Interested in opinions on the build quality, ease of installation, and functionality of features like soft close or other cabinet options.

Is there such thing as a high quality RTA cabinet? If so, who makes them?

Planning on redoing our kitchen this summer. We have 7 base cabinets, 5 wall cabinets, and a pantry cabinet.

I'm going back and forth between IKEA cabinets and RTA cabinets. When redoing our bathrooms 2 years back, we went the RTA route and they turned out great. Kitchen is obviously a much larger project.

IKEA Pros:

• 25 year warranty

• Lots of options for drawers and such

• Easy to get replacement doors, etc.

• 15" depth upper cabinets

IKEA Cons:

• Particleboard

• Limited size selection - IE: no 33" wide sinks, only 30 and 36

• $3400 all in

RTA Pros:

• Plywood construction

• Tons of size options

• $2800 all in

RTA Cons:

• Limited drawer selection (such as no roll out drawers for the pantry)

• Replacements up in the air if manufacturer is still making style

• 2 year warranty

• 12" depth upper cabinets

So IKEA is about $600 more, but the biggest issue I'm having is that their size selection is limited and we'll end up with either smaller cabinets (like a 36" instead of a 39") and I'm not sold on the particleboard construction in comparison to real wood. Meanwhile, the RTA has significantly more size options, but we get smaller upper cabinets.

Any thoughts?

OK, so awesome redditors as a casual mention turned me onto RTA cabinets. (ready to assemble). Never heard of these before, but I have since gotten 2 quotes, and the option would literally save me over $4K over a home depot brand store cabinets, and a staggering $10K for a "mid tier" cabinet store brand. I have not even quoted out high end cabinets, so this difference is phenomenal.

So regardless of what "RTA" cabinet websites claim, does anyone have actual experience with the quality on these, and if they were to do it over, would they go the same route?

Note: 1) I have no issue building them myself, and 2) i would have a contractor actually do the install.

Thoughts and experiences of the reddit team would be really awesome.

Hey all, I'm hoping someone here can give me a good starting point. I'm helping my mom update her 1979 house. She needs to get some kind of home equity loan to do the updates, but that requires having an idea of how much to borrow.

We walked into a custom cabinet place and the lady was helpful, but it's clearly way more than my mom wants to spend (like above twenty grand for a 10 foot galley kitchen. She wants more of a midrange, durable set of cabinets that won't break the bank.

I guess I really have two questions... does anyone have any RTA cabinet brands that aren't Ikea that they recommend? Also, what's the best way to find someone to install the cabinets? Thanks!

Thinking about using The Cabinet joint RTA cabinets, and working with one of their designers. Does anyone here have experience ? If so, how did it go?

Basically the title. I have read numerous posts about RTA cabinets in this sub but haven't seen too many references to RTA Cabinet Store. I have checked out a lot of RTA sites for cabinet size and price and this site is a good intersection of those for what I am doing.

Their labor day sale ends tomorrow and I am getting ready to order and suddenly got cold feet. Not really sure why I am all the sudden concerned of quality, but I am.

https://www.rtacabinetstore.com/RTA-Kitchen-Cabinets/florence-grey-shaker/

I have been told several times by their rep that there is no MDF in this line, it's all wood.

So, am I just overthinking this because it's a lot of money or is there reason to be concerned about them?

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Looking for recommendations on quality RTA cabinet manufacturers and suppliers.

Has anyone had any experiences of their own? Who to use, who not to use etc.. I’ll be starting construction on a new home this spring and am starting to get items priced out now. I received a quote from the local Home Depot store for 13,000 on Kraft maid line pre- assembled cabinets for my kitchen and bathrooms.

Pricing out the cabinets with a few online Ready-To-Assemble retailers the price seems to be around half of that depending on which finishes are selected.

As for the reviews I’ve found very limited personal reviews on YouTube and other platforms for each cabinet maker.

Any information would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks for reading. Have a wonderful and safe Thanksgiving!

I'm prepping for my kitchen remodel and planning to do inset cabinets. Anyone used RTA Wholesalers before? They seem to be one of the few who do RTA insets. I know RTA is typically cheaper, but they came in under a third of Cabinets to go.

Can anyone speak to quality? Labeling/instructions/ease of assembly? Durability? Aesthetics? Paint Matching? (They claim to be able to do any Sherwin Williams paint, so it should be easy to match the custom bits I plan to add, but want to be sure...)