The Kitchen Verdict

Now, some of you may think we're a bit crazy, but this is the story of how we chose our kitchen (or how our kitchen chose us!)

One day, shortly after we took possession of the house, we arrived at the house to find a CD on our doorstep. On it was a name and phone number. We took it home to check it out on our computer and discovered that it was filled with pictures of kitchens. Since we were just in the early days of our renovation, we didn't really pay much attention to it.

A couple of weeks later, a guy named Robin stopped by the house and introduced himself to Dave. He is a kitchen designer and was the person who had dropped off the CD.

Then we hit July and it was time to look more seriously at kitchens. After looking at a number of kitchen options, including Ikea, Lowes and custom, we decided to call Robin to get a quote.

Robin produced very detailed drawings and measurements. He came up with great ideas and suggestions and delivered a very reasonable quote for a fully custom kitchen. The difference between his quote and other fully custom kitchens was significant and seemed to be too good to be true.

We were a little skeptical at this point and asked a lot of questions. Robin was very upfront and explained that all the cabinets are custom built in China and shipped here, which is how he keeps his costs low. We realized that many of the other large manufacturers also produce their kitchens in China. Robin showed us pictures of the factory and he had lots of samples of the products. We checked his references and he had really good recommendations.

So, we decided to go for it.

Here's the breakdown:

• The layout will be similar to what we designed through the Ikea planner, but the cabinet sizes are customized to fit our space.


• The island will house the sink and dishwasher, as well as a pull out drawer with built-in bins for garbage and recycling.


• The back and side of the island will have decorative paneling that will match the cabinet doors.


• A wall cabinet above the island will have glass doors so we can display our glassware.


• The doors will be painted MDF in an antique white colour.


• The drawers will be solid wood with dovetailed joints.


• The cupboards will have Blum hinges and the drawers will be soft-close.

Here's the door style we selected:

We realize that we may be taking a bit of risk by not selecting one of the large, well-known kitchen companies, but after a lot of contemplation, we decided that the potential reward outweighs the risks.

Our new kitchen should arrive and be ready for installation in late October!