Shaker money maker

February 11, 2012 10:33 AM

Have you ever ordered and installed RTA (ready to assemble) cabinets?

I'm planning to order a kitchen's worth of cabinets (10 pieces with accessories) for about $2600 from LilyAnnCabinets.com. I haven't seen much online in the way of reviews which would strongly persuade me to go this route, but there aren't any bad reviews either. It's just the cheapest, highest quality option I've seen. And I have looked at Ikea, but wasn't satisfied with the box quality.

I'm confident that I'm capable of assembly and installation, but I'm more interested in the quality of RTA cabinets at this price, or if anyone has had a bad experience with Lily Ann in particular. The cabinets in question are a white shaker style, made of birch with MDF door centers.

So, has anyone had experiences with non-Ikea RTA cabinets?

posted by hanoixan to Home & Garden (3 answers total)

Best answer: Our cabinets came this way, in that they were milled for us and arrived as cut and untrimmed pieces with all of the accessories packed and ready to assemble and install. For what it's worth, our contractor assembled and installed them for us; it took one day at his standard day rate and I am glad we did it that way. It isn't the assembling that's really the hard part; it's the mounting and hanging and squaring and levelling that makes the difference between a finished looking kitchen and a not so finished looking kitchen. YMWV depending on how handy you are and how much DIY experience you have.

I went this route after assembling, mounting and hanging and squaring and levelling a previous IKEA kitchen. It was... fine... but not perfect by any stretch.
posted by DarlingBri at 12:37 PM on February 11, 2012

Best answer: There is an article in Fine Homebuilding (pay to view)with recommendations on simple things that can be done to improve the durability of non-custom made RTA cabinets.
posted by pianomover at 2:23 PM on February 11, 2012

Best answer: In my experience, it's the hardware, not necessarily the material - used in the box & its attached components (drawers, lazy susans, etc) that is better scrutinized for quality. If the hardware (hinges, drawer slides, soft closures, e.g.) isn't made by Blum, Salice, Haefele, or other high end hardware manufacturers, that's the soft link in the chain.

Disclaimer: I'm an independent company that designs & installs Ikea kitchens routinely, & have only dealt with them and another commercial grade RTA company called CabParts out of Grand Junction CO.

Feel free to MeMail if you'd like additional info.
posted by yoga at 2:35 PM on February 11, 2012 [1 favorite]