Kitchen cabinets are usually the most expensive single item you’ll buy for your kitchen remodel. If you’re looking for ways to save money on your kitchen remodel, you may be price comparing Ikea cabinets and other RTA (ready-to-assemble) options. But what about places like KT Building Supply, PIUS, Sanyuan and other Chinese import showrooms?

Since I (Rebecca) just purchased kitchen cabinets from KT Building Supply for our personal remodel, I thought I’d share a bit about what I learned, and what to watch out for if you go this route. (This isn’t sponsored, you’re getting my 100% unbiased opinion. 🙂) I suspect that my experience at KT would mirror what you’d find at PIUS or Sanyuan too, but note that I’ve only personally worked with KT.

First, the GOOD:

You. Will. Save. So. Much. Money!

Seriously. If we’d gone with our usual choice of Sollera Cabinets through a place like Phinney Ridge Cabinets (which I HIGHLY recommend for the reason listed below!) then we’d have spent $20,000 –  $25,000 on the same cabinet layout. With Ikea it would have cost about $9000 BUT we’d have had to assemble each and every cabinet. With KT Cabinets we spent about $6000 and (and this is KEY) we didn’t have to assemble the cabinets!!

So: you save money AND time!!

Now that you’re sold, let’s talk about the cons, or at least the stuff to watch out for:

#1: You will have limited style options

Places like KT Cabinets are a bit like Costco – one of the ways they keep costs low is by having limited style options. I personally like (and bought) their white shaker style cabinet, and I could see using the gray shaker in the right kitchen, but the wood options feel a bit heavy for what most of our clients are looking for.

#2: You will have limited size options

Just like at Ikea (check out this fab blog our design Shannon wrote about Ikea cabinet planning) KT Cabinets limits their costs by limiting their available cabinets sizes. In my kitchen I *thought* I’d accounted for that, but once installed I found that out that two cabinets didn’t fit as expected. I’ll add pics to this post soon, but basically, I wanted a blind upper cabinet in one spot, and I wanted to double stack my cabinets like in this example kitchen. Turns out that in one height they had the door width I wanted, but not in the other height, meaning that the stacked top and bottom aren’t the same width. BOO. 😩  As I write this we’re figuring out a work-around. It won’t be perfect, but for the cost savings, it’ll be good enough (it all comes down to your personal OCD levels – what’s “good enough for *you*?).

The point? MAKE SURE YOU DESIGN USING THEIR AVAILABLE CABINET SIZES. And don’t assume that just because something comes in one width-height combo that it’ll come in a different width-height combo!

#3: You will have limited customer service

If you get to work with Winnie, do it! She’s been at KT for as long as I remember and knows her stuff. I worked with “the new guy” and while he was consulting with Winnie, he wasn’t able to tell me to avoid that stacked-cabinet problem. Would Winnie have caught it? No idea. The point is that I’m an interior designer, and I had a fully laid out cabinet plan with me, and I *still* didn’t see that issue coming. Reflecting back, I think I may have stretched the capabilities of a place like KT Cabinets, and it’s better suited to simple layouts.

That’s not to say you can’t get clever! Just like Ikea-hacking, you can totally piece things together. In our case I wanted a 12″ deep upper and lower section like in this example. KT doesn’t offer 12″ base cabinets, so we ordered 12″ deep uppers to repurpose as base cabinets, framed our own toe kicks, and then covered them with panel material. (You just have to know to order extra panels and filler.)

#4: You will have limited quality control

The one thing I didn’t see coming was that my second layer of white upper cabinets turned out to be a slightly different (grayer) white than the lower stack of upper cabinets. SO. WEIRD. Seriously, I have no idea why. I’m still deciding if it bugs me enough to match and hand-repaint the upper-uppers. Stay tuned. But that’s partly what you get when you go with the lowest cost option… sometimes you discover hidden or unexpected costs (in time, money, or both) that wouldn’t be an issue with a higher-quality or higher-customer-service option.

#5: You don’t *have* to speak Chinese, but…

What’s the elephant in the room? It’s a *Chinese* import company. For some folks that is a non-starter. So first of all, you need to be okay with that, and you need to know that everyone I’ve met there speaks fluent Chinese and pretty fluent accented English. When New Guy was consulting with Winnie they spoke in Chinese, then switched to English when speaking with me. I had no problem understanding anyone, but if you’re the kind of person who can’t handle an accent, this isn’t the place for you.

#5: Practice patience.

Ordering cabinets is never a fast process. Whether you’re working with a semi-custom company, going to Ikea, or shopping at a place like KT, *someone* has to make sure you have all the filler pieces and other knickknacks you’ll need. With a place like Phinney Ridge Cabinets part of what you’re paying for is a professional cabinet designer taking care of all those details behind the scenes, and then making it right if Sollera (or whatever cabinet maker you choose) sends the wrong size, or it gets damaged in transit. With a place like KT or Ikea, it’s pretty much on you. Yes, the staff will help, but if you’re working with a minimum wage worker, you have to expect minimum wage help. That doesn’t mean they don’t WANT to help – they just aren’t likely to have the same level of experience. So go in when you have 3 or 4 free hours and don’t go hangry (that’s actually good advice for visiting any showroom!!)

So… should you shop there? Sure!!

You really can’t beat the prices, and the cabinet boxes are actually plywood rather than MDF. So far I’m really impressed with the paint finish, and while I’m going to have to do some extra painting, I’m happy with the budget choice for this project. But if you have a speciality layout in mind (like my double uppers), want to maximize storage (rather than use fillers to make their cabinet sizes work), or want to include a lot of specialty pullouts without having to do a LOT of work figuring out which after-market Rev-A-Shelf products will fit, then you might want to bite the bullet and work with a more standard semi-custom cabinetry option. The time (and stress) you save, along with the custom layout and extra bells and whistles, may very well be worth the extra money! It all depends on what “success” means to you!

Looking for other ways to save money on your kitchen remodel? Check out this blog on shopping for tile at Floor & Decor and other big-box stores.

Feeling overwhelmed by it all and just want to talk to a pro who isn’t trying to sell you anything? That’s what our Design Helpline is here for. We can meet with you over Zoom and answer whatever questions are on your mind as you dive into your project. 😀

Have fun remodeling!