Great places to find Kitchen inspiration?
April 27, 2011 10:33 AM Subscribe
About to purchase my first coop apartment in NYC, and it's desperately in need of a new kitchen, among other things. Mr. Narrative and I would like to go and look at kitchen cabinets and counter-tops and tile and such in person, preferably in a nice-ish store. Where should we go?
I don't think we want to go the Ikea route, and it looks like ABC Home doesn't really do cabinets. We'll go to Home Depot or Lowes if all else fails, but I'd really like to look around a nicer showroom first if we can, to get ideas if nothing else. Neighborhoods with a high concentration of smaller home renovation stores would also be great.
If it matters, I don't care at all about designers or trendiness. I just want a well-made, nice-looking kitchen in my new home.
I don't think we want to go the Ikea route, and it looks like ABC Home doesn't really do cabinets. We'll go to Home Depot or Lowes if all else fails, but I'd really like to look around a nicer showroom first if we can, to get ideas if nothing else. Neighborhoods with a high concentration of smaller home renovation stores would also be great.
If it matters, I don't care at all about designers or trendiness. I just want a well-made, nice-looking kitchen in my new home.
I can vouch for the quality and emphasis on function of the kitchen cabinetry made by HenryBuilt. It's super well made, will last a lifetime, and can move along with you to a new location should that need ever arise. The materials are simple, and the design, while expressive of a modern aesthetic, is not stuck in fad or fashion. They have a showroom in NY as well.
posted by nickjadlowe at 10:49 AM on April 27, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by nickjadlowe at 10:49 AM on April 27, 2011 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: I'm more interested in simple and contemporary than anything too elaborate. We're probably right in the middle, price-wise, although we're happy to look at higher-end stores for inspiration, even if they're out of our range.
posted by Narrative Priorities at 10:50 AM on April 27, 2011
posted by Narrative Priorities at 10:50 AM on April 27, 2011
Best answer: Try the Gold & Reiss showroom in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. The have cabinetry for every price range and you will get personal service. Here is their website: Gold & Reiss. Mrs. digiFramph and I remodeled our kitchen last year and can't be more pleased with the cabinets!
posted by digiFramph at 11:12 AM on April 27, 2011
posted by digiFramph at 11:12 AM on April 27, 2011
I forgot to include Viola Park which is HenryBuilt's more mid-market line. Same basic materials, made in the same shop, by the same guys that make the higher-priced stuff. Same attention to detail, just a little less "detail." Good stuff.
posted by nickjadlowe at 11:18 AM on April 27, 2011
posted by nickjadlowe at 11:18 AM on April 27, 2011
Best answer: Also, for granite counter tops and a great selection of tile for your back splash try Mondial Tile on 65th Street and 14th Avenue in Brooklyn.
posted by digiFramph at 11:27 AM on April 27, 2011
posted by digiFramph at 11:27 AM on April 27, 2011
Best answer: I redid my kitchen using Lowes for the cabinets. I went with a granite supplier out of Newark after scouring the web for prices (and found that the ranges were far and wide.. I ended up paying about $900 for the granite countertop installed. quotes I got ranged as high as $6000 for the same exact granite (uba tuba green, in case you're interested)
Cabinet wise, my contractor who installed them said they were some of the best he'd seen. He has installed cabinets the week before from a 'custom' shop that cost the person over $40k. I had gone to that shop to price things out, as well, and they were one of a few in the area everyone said "Oh, you have to go *there* [to keep up with the Joneses]"
Anyway, those cabinets he said started falling apart while he was putting them in. They were constructed poorly, they didn't use glue some places, went cheap on the nails, overused glue other places and even drawers were broken.
Lowes - and, yeah, you'll have to get over the whole 'but it's a big box store' thing - but I paid about $11k. And am extremely happy. I went top of the line KraftMaid(thicker walls, soft close drawers, etc).
Custom places were quoting my average $50k. I got 3 full-height pantries, an island, and maybe 12' of regular top-bottom cabinets.
My point - higher end stores, especially if you're middle price wise, won't give you the quality. And you could always lie and say they're custom cabinets and after people rave, tell them they're Lowes.
I honestly went through the wringer on this one.. my wife was insisting we had to get custom cabinets from one of the shops, and pay for it. Since these went in, and she's compared her cabinets with her friends who did the custom route, she's very happy we went with Lowes. Her friends all have some sort of problems, and payed 3-4 times as much.
posted by rich at 11:29 AM on April 27, 2011
Cabinet wise, my contractor who installed them said they were some of the best he'd seen. He has installed cabinets the week before from a 'custom' shop that cost the person over $40k. I had gone to that shop to price things out, as well, and they were one of a few in the area everyone said "Oh, you have to go *there* [to keep up with the Joneses]"
Anyway, those cabinets he said started falling apart while he was putting them in. They were constructed poorly, they didn't use glue some places, went cheap on the nails, overused glue other places and even drawers were broken.
Lowes - and, yeah, you'll have to get over the whole 'but it's a big box store' thing - but I paid about $11k. And am extremely happy. I went top of the line KraftMaid(thicker walls, soft close drawers, etc).
Custom places were quoting my average $50k. I got 3 full-height pantries, an island, and maybe 12' of regular top-bottom cabinets.
My point - higher end stores, especially if you're middle price wise, won't give you the quality. And you could always lie and say they're custom cabinets and after people rave, tell them they're Lowes.
I honestly went through the wringer on this one.. my wife was insisting we had to get custom cabinets from one of the shops, and pay for it. Since these went in, and she's compared her cabinets with her friends who did the custom route, she's very happy we went with Lowes. Her friends all have some sort of problems, and payed 3-4 times as much.
posted by rich at 11:29 AM on April 27, 2011
Best answer: The tricky thing with simple and contemporary is that its mostly high-end in that style. I ended up going with Ikea cabinets, and then using the money on high end appliances. Go check out Poggenpohl, HenryBuilt, Boffi and any other high-end European (mostly Italian) cabinetry places for inspiration. Kraftmaid had a Euro-line called Venicia (sp?) last time I looked, not sure if they are still available though. That would be mid-range and modern I think. I have also heard about Ultracraft Destiny and KitchenCraft cabinets, but haven't looked into them personally.
posted by Joh at 11:41 AM on April 27, 2011
posted by Joh at 11:41 AM on April 27, 2011
Best answer: We went with Ikea for cabinets. Found a local guy for granite and knew someone who installed tile. We picked out tiles we liked at Lowes. The higher end/higher cost solid wood cabinets at Ikea are quite nice, contemporary and well made.
posted by jerseygirl at 12:19 PM on April 27, 2011
posted by jerseygirl at 12:19 PM on April 27, 2011
Best answer: FYI, i've heard several interior designers say that ikea cabinets are just as good, if not better, than a lot of products that cost much much more. You might want to consider them after you've looked at more design-y places and see if ikea stuff can recreate the vision you saw elsewhere.
(In addition to seeing some designer on tv say it, my mother - who is gutting her entire first floor, and is spending a couple hundred thousand dollars doing it - was told that by her contractor and her designer, who otherwise are setting her up with pretty high-end stuff)
posted by Kololo at 1:05 PM on April 27, 2011
(In addition to seeing some designer on tv say it, my mother - who is gutting her entire first floor, and is spending a couple hundred thousand dollars doing it - was told that by her contractor and her designer, who otherwise are setting her up with pretty high-end stuff)
posted by Kololo at 1:05 PM on April 27, 2011
Best answer: How much counter space does your kitchen have? If in NYC, I will assume not much & therefore recommend looking at remnants if you are going the granite/natural stone route. Look to the outer boroughs.
posted by Empyrean_72 at 2:03 PM on April 27, 2011
posted by Empyrean_72 at 2:03 PM on April 27, 2011
Not sure about showrooms but we're extremely satisfied with our Conestoga cabinets (thru Pete at Northern Granite and Cabinetry), our John Boos butcher block counter tops, and the Miele dishwasher, Liebherr fridge, and Fisher Paykel range, all scaled down to fit a NYC kitchen.
a kitchen planner or an architect will also help
posted by ranunculus at 5:20 PM on April 27, 2011
a kitchen planner or an architect will also help
posted by ranunculus at 5:20 PM on April 27, 2011
Response by poster: All of this has been very helpful so far! We went to Ikea and Lowes yesterday, and just like several of you said, we were surprised by the quality and tempted by the convenience.
That said, any personal experience with either of those outlets would be appreciated!
Next: looking into remainders as well as visiting that tile store down in Sunset Park.
posted by Narrative Priorities at 7:39 AM on April 28, 2011
That said, any personal experience with either of those outlets would be appreciated!
Next: looking into remainders as well as visiting that tile store down in Sunset Park.
posted by Narrative Priorities at 7:39 AM on April 28, 2011
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by dfriedman at 10:44 AM on April 27, 2011