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?

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.

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.

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!

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!!

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?

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?

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

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 bought a 1950s house that’s pretty outdated. We’re gutting the small kitchen and reworking the layout. The costs for everything are adding up so I’m hoping to save by installing RTA cabinets. Looking for recommendations on good quality options, preferably frameless, but we’re open to refacing the boxes if the price is right.

Hello all, do any of you have any experience with RTA cabinets? I’m looking to redo my kitchen but don’t want to spend a fortune doing so. The RTA cabinets seems like a great alternative but I don’t know what a decent brand is. Everyone I seem to start liking I find horror stories about. Thanks in advance!

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!

Hi! We bought a home with an older kitchen that is not our style. We got a couple of kitchen quotes and were blown away at how much it cost....$47,000 for stock cabinets plus labor, not even custom cabinetry. We are thinking of doing our own demo and putting together a kitchen.

Is it a better idea to do RTA or IKEA kitchen? Seems like there’s mixed opinions on here about ikea kitchen, it’s a great deal but some say it’s cheap material and flimsy. Those who have built ikea kitchens, have you run into issues with out of stock parts or ordering?

If you have built an RTA kitchen, what online suppliers do you recommend? Was assembly straightforward?

Would appreciate any insight on this! For context, we have a U shaped kitchen with a small island and want to get classic shaker white cabinets and quartz countertops. Something basic but functional. We would also like lower cabinets to have mostly drawers rather than doors.

Thank you!

Hi r/Homeimprovement,

I am in the beginning planning stages of a kitchen remodel, and have become interested in RTA cabinets as I am handy enough to assemble them, but not willing to bite off the task of building my own from scratch. I'm looking for the best value, not necessarily the cheapest, and RTA seems like a viable candidate.

Have any of you worked with RTA cabinets in the past? If so, could you share some of your experiences?

Some questions I'd have are:

• Who did you purchase from, and how was the quality?

• What was your total cost of the project, not including countertops?

• Were there any large "surprises" i.e. things that you assumed were included, difficulties in the project, etc...

• What all came with your cabinets? Soft-close hinges? Hardware? Fasteners?

Thanks!

Wife and I are starting to build our house soon, and I am wondering if we should look to buy RTA cabinets or custom build them to our specifications.

Any insight is welcome!

As I had a limited budget, I don't know much about the costs of higher end/custom cabinetry. These are really nice, but I have no experience since I could not afford them at all.

1. RTA vs Semicustom vs Custom

There are 3 main categories of cabinets you can purchase for your kitchen:

1. Custom cabinets are designed specifically for your kitchen. You have a huge array of options for cabinet sizes, styles, colors and so on. There's no question if you had unlimited money you could make your kitchen look the best with a design leveraging custom cabinets, but they're incredibly expensive - you could end up paying 50k-100k just on cabinets alone this way.

2. RTA cabinets are flat packed, shipped in pieces, assemble your own cabinets. These are shipped in pieces, and usually do not come with any sort of installation service. RTA cabinets in most cases have the most limited options, though there are some exceptions to this such as Barker or Conestoga. In most cases this is the cheapest variant. This is what "design your own kitchen types" tend to end up with.

3. Semi-Custom cabinets are the halfway point. They are shipped assembled and pre built like custom cabinets, but are usually preselected from a limited number of sizes, styles and colors. This is what most people who hire a kitchen designer but have a budget

One other note - RTA can typically be purchased yourself online, whereas most prefab and custom will go through a designer of some sort, and many companies are wholesale only not direct to customer (though not all of them)

One objective note about RTA is that you do need to budget for assembly. Not every contractor is willing to assemble RTA cabinets, and if they are they may charge you more for the job to do so. A prefab or custom cabinet just needs to be mounted

2. The RTA Opinion Dichotomy

The main appeal of RTA is that they tend to skew cheaper than comparable semi custom cabinets, let alone custom. RTA cabinets as a whole, particularly the cheaper ones, however, have the most polarizing reviews on the internet (this is less true of the more expensive ones like Barker, but then you aren't buying it to save money).

Many professional kitchen designers and cabinet people hate lower end RTA cabinets. Is that because they want to sell you more expensive cabinets? Very possibly, I'm not discounting that. However, it'd be very rare for a kitchen designer to recommend using RTA. Even relatively better brands like Conestoga get a lot of badmouthing.

People like to point to Mainline Kitchen Designs reviews on cabinets which are generally good for prefab if a little biased towards lines they sell. Mainline hates Conestoga and absolutely despises Ikea. YMMV whether you care, definitely remember they sell cabinets :) https://www.mainlinekitchendesign.com/general/hard-compare-kitchen-cabinet-brands/

I'm not voicing a personal opinion on RTA - just letting you know the context, so don't get mad at me. I have not the slightest idea if kitchen designers are all swindlers who want to sell you cabinets or if RTA is a bad idea in many cases.

3. MDF and Plywood, and Construction

The biggest construction issue in cabinets is whether the boxes themselves (not the doors, most brand doors are MDF) are made of plywood or MDF. In general most prefab are made of plywood boxes, and RTA seems to be split by cost - more expensive RTA tends to be plywood, cheaper stuff (such as Ikea) tends to be MDF. MDF does not respond well to moisture, and is generally less durable.

Plywood box > MDF is one of the more universally agreed upon cabinet concepts. Don't stress the doors that have some MDF, that's most of them.

The second big thing is the thickness of the cabinet boxes. You typically want plywood to be at least 1/2" thick. Most companies are 3/8, 1/2, 5/8 or 3/4. Most people would recommend you dodge 3/8, but I have not seen too many 3/8 plywood boxes out there. The thicker the better. Drawer thickness can matter, but much less

The 3rd important thing are the hardware features. These are pretty standard these days to include things like soft close except in the cheapest junk cabinets, but the quality of these may vary. Blum hardware is top of the line (used in a lot of big brands) but I hear the Chinese DTC stuff is pretty good these days.

There are other things that could matter but are more subjective. Framed cabinets are more stable then frameless but it may not matter, cabinet back thickness may be very important or less important, and so on. These are more YMMV whether you care

4. Colors, Styles, Finishes and Customization

You may wonder, why do Kraftmaid cost more than J&K which cost more than some of the simplest semi custom cabinets when the core specs are similar? The answer is usually customization options.

The cheapest place I know offers only 3 cabinet colors in one style. Excellent quality cabinets for an excellent price, but only if you want a white/grey/navy shaker. By streamlining production processes, you lower cost.

In many cases, if you are looking for white painted shaker cabinets in standard sizes and buy a higher end brand you are throwing money away. Those higher end brands have their place - if you want a specific type of wood and specific stain or rare style or weird sizes those more expensive brands are good for that - but if you're going generic don't pay for custom

(Not paint. Places like Fabuwood or Conestoga can paint almost anything)

The main subcategories of this are:

• Wood material - can be made of birch, maple, or plenty of other types of wood. The more popular the wood the more cheaper options you have.

• Paint grade vs Stain grade. Stain grade cabinets cost more than paint grade because they require better wood to look good

• Color/Stain type

• Door style - Raised? Shaker? Slim shaker? Tons of others? The more common, the more cheap options

• Size - all 30"? Need a 33" cabinet to not do filler? Some RTA companies or semicustom companies can help with this, but not all of them.

5. Supply issues, Dealers and customer service

Sometimes who you get the cabinets from and/or who makes them is more important than the quality.

There are literally dozens of places who make full plywood cabinet boxes, and while some are standouts for good or bad reasons, a lot of brands end up with similar overall quality/durability.

However, some brands have high quality lifetime warranties. Some brands have good customer service when one of your doors arrives dented. Some brands have supply issues so it can take months to replace a cabinet. Some brands will obsolete styles so fast you can never get an identical replacement for an unusual finish.

On top of that, your dealer is a big deal. You want an honest dealer with good customer service who will help you work with the manufacturer if something goes wrong.

This is the problem sometimes with the big box stores. It's not that you cannot buy quality cabinets at Lowes/HD, whether Diamond or Kraftsmaid or whatever. It's that they contract installation out to whomever and you will likely get bad customer service (see the recent post on this sub about Lowe's).

Has anyone used any of the RTA cabinet design services? Mostly looking at RTA Cabinets, The RTA Store, and Lily Ann Cabinets—all have free (hopefully actually free?) design services, but would love to hear others’ experiences with the services before starting the processes.