We are in the middle of a major kitchen renovation, and will be installing a complete new custom kitchen. Our kitchen designer (Cindy Walling at Aurora Home Hardware, she's great) recommended Elmwood cabinets as she has had good results with them on previous jobs. I had a look at their web site (www.elmwoodkitchens.com) and what I saw looked good. As part of the process, Cindy recommended a site visit, so last week we drove down to St. Catherine and got a full hour-long tour of the factory.
I have done a number of renovations, and been in more than a few kitchen cabinet shops, but this really was something else. These guys are BIG. The factory is over 150000 square feet, housed in an old GM transmission plant. It's clear that they place an incredible emphasis on quality control at every step, and the finished product shows that. In fact, I would say that the quality of the finished product is AT LEAST what I would expect from the high-end custom cabinetmakers I have dealt with in the past, but the price is definitely more reasonable. I especially liked the fact that they digitally measure every single door, down to a hundredth of an inch, before it gets shipped. Also, they have a deal on right now where you get solid plywood cabinets (!) and solid maple dovetailed drawers (!!) at no extra charge.
We're expecting to install our new kitchen in the new year, we'll give you an update on how things go. In the meantime, if you need a kitchen Elmwood should be on your radar.
By the way, there is some confusion on Homestars about "Elmwood Fine Custom Cabinetry" and "Elmwood Niagara Kitchens". Apparently the same company used to both build and install kitchens, but they have split into two separate companies. This one ("Elmwood Fine Custom Cabinetry", www.elmwoodkitchens.com) is the big manufacturer I visited and sells only wholesale. The other one, ("Elmwood Niagara Kitchens", www.elmwoodniagara.ca) is a retail kitchen designer and also a dealer for Elmwood Cabinetry.
- Approximate cost of services:
- $25,000.00