The Kitchen Store

Anthony was great. He helped me find a medicine cabinet that the big box stores (ie: Home Depot, Lowes) couldn't even come close to providing. Real wood, 15 year warranty by a company that has been in business a long time, and if parts break, they can be replaced instead of needing a brand new unit (ie: Home Depot, Lowes). Love it. Thanks Anthony!

I’d like to recommend the Kitchen Store. In the end, I spent very little with them. I found an excellent quartz fabricator through them. I found an excellent carpenter through them. They have an extraordinary selection of cabinet hardware. The largest collection of cabinet hardware, I found there. I just recommended them to someone else.

Found The Kitchen Store on Angie's list.  They were highly rated, so I swung by one day.  I needed to upgrade the bathroom counter top, sink, and faucet at a rental unit.  These guys are great.  They work with a stone guy who has a yard up in the San Fernando Valley, so if you don't need a whole slab, they have remnants you can look at.  (I had a HUGE problem finding a place that worked with remnants so I would not have to purchase an entire slab).

I worked with Anthony.  Through him, I was able to get a top of the line "Beverly Hills" quality quartz counter top - cut and installed at an incredibly low price.  He also was able to get me near whole sale prices on the sink and plumbers grade faucet.  All in all, he saved me hundreds of dollars over the nearest competitor in Hollywood, and was willing to work with someone doing a small job.

Knowledge: A+
Price: A+
Selection: A+
Service: A+

Great job, thanks guys!

We were happy with the person consulted. They had a huge amount of samples of both kitchen cabinets and counter top materials. We visited many times. They had really the best selection in town. We ordered the cabinets from them and then they had an installer they recommended. We were really happy with him.

My experience with them was excellent.  Their service mainly stood out to me.  They were extremely reliable and they knew what they were talking about.  I will definitely use them again in the future if necessary.

The re-design was wonderful. Some small changes made all the difference to my small kitchen, making the entry seem much more roomy. The cabinets and cabinet interiors that kitchen store designer recommended are wonderful. The contractor was not local to my home so it took a long time to complete the job. The contractor recommended to do the countertops and tile floor also helped to pick out the backsplash. It all looked wonderful when put together. The cost of service above was for the cabinets only. The countertops, tile, and backsplash were billed separately and the contractor billed separately to install and do some additional work that I requested (replaced fluorescent lights, some painting, etc). I am very pleased and would recommend The Kitchen store - especially Jim Dewitt, the designer that I used.

Just an update 5/11. For those who do not usually use contractors - which was my situation at this time - be advised to not pay in full until the job is paid in full. I paid in full when the work was finished - all except for coming back to re-install some cabinet doors that Kitchen store had to replace for defects and some minor touch-up. It literally took months before he came back - when he did, the Kitchen store had made a mistake and not sent the sizes requested. So the contractor asked Kitchen store to send replacements - they did have them but the contractor has not contacted me and most likely will not come back - and Kitchen Store would not send them to me - wanted to send them to the contractor. I cannot get those defects replaced. Bottom line - don't pay the last dollar until the last item is completed!

"We should have investigated the designer as much as we researched The Kitchen Store."

That was what we wrote to Ken Bass, president of the Culver City company, to report that our finished kitchen, designed by Ana Del Valle at the Kitchen Store, was "something much different" than what she created on her computer. "The project was flawed from the very start because your designer failed to measure accurately."

Point of information: Our new kitchen looks great and is a vast improvement over our 20-year-old kitchen. The Kitchen Store is an excellent place to see and touch everything you need in a remodel. But, we as we learned to our dismay, a small 1-inch mistake causes enormous problems.

We wrote to Mr. Bass that "Ana apologized to us for her measuring error, noting her embarrassment and that she had made such mistakes before and would undoubtedly make some again. She was correct: She mis-measured repeatedly on our project. Her professional shortcomings not only inconvenienced us, our contractor, and his workers, but made the final product less satisfactory than the design. 

 "Specifically: After the second day of cabinet installation, we discovered that Ana had left a space of 23 5/8th inches instead of the 24-inch universally standard width for dishwashers. Her plans left no room to gain another 3/8 inch. Our contractor immediately alerted her to the error, then recommended the only solution that would allow work to continue: eliminate a 6-inch-wide cabinet to the left of the dishwasher, shift the sink and two large cabinets left, and fill the gap at the far right wall with a false front?.The kitchen sink is now off-center. It is nearly six inches left of center of the window above."

Later, as we told Mr. Bass, we discovered Ana's other 1-inch-off calculations:

"The upper cabinets to the left and right of the window are mismatched. All the cabinets to the left of the window and along the next wall are 1-inch deeper than all the cabinets to the right of the window and along that next wall.

"Almost laughably, Ana made a final 1-inch error after the project was complete. As you may know, a 14-inch-wide cabinet door was delivered warped. Ana arranged the replacement, but ordered one that was 13 inches wide. This required us to place a second order, and our contractor had to make a second trip to our home for the repair."

To his credit, Ken Bass responded quickly to investigate the problems and offer solutions. He suggested removing the two banks of larger cabinets from the wall and cutting them to the same size as the smaller ones. He also proposed cutting back the soffit by one inch so both banks of cabinets would be set back the same half-inch. We never seriously considered more construction work.

In the course of those discussions, we asked for and received an itemized list of the cabinets and hardware then asked again for the same list with prices. In our review, we discovered that when Ana calculated our refund for the lost cabinet and for a spice rack she ordered that fit none of the cabinets or drawers, she underpriced the items.

Notably, Ana provided the name of one contractor among a dozen affiliated with The Kitchen Store to bid on the job. That contractor's estimate was nearly double the average estimate of three other bidding contractors. That contractor wanted to begin demolition TWO WEEKS before the arrival of the cabinets. The contractor we hired completed the demolition in two days.

We ultimately agreed to a 10% reimbursement on the cost of the cabinets plus the correct refund. We considered that fair and reasonable. When we originally wrote to Mr. Bass, we stated that we hoped our dealings with The Kitchen Store would end on a positive note. Thanks to him, they did.

Our kitchen remodel story is a cautionary tale with new takes on old adages:

Measure at least three times, order once. Trust but verify.

The project was fine. They had everything that I needed in the store and I am happy with the results.

It went really well. I actually just sent them an email saying that like most projects this one did have its glitches, but I thought they handled them really well. The $7500.00 was for the cabinets, without installation.

Once the everything came in and was ready my contractor installed it. The quality of their cabinetry is good. I went with the diamond cabinets they offered and they are very nice. They were very accommodating.

I had a mixed experience with The Kitchen Store. I initially decided to use them because they were located close to my house. They had been in business for many years and they seemed to have a good selection. They also promised me that they would beat Home Depot's price.
The salesman was polite and suggested a cabinet when I requested something nice, but not too expensive. I was pretty much on my own in selecting the finish. He pointed the choices out to me. I felt that he was helpful but not really enthusiastic. He didn't go the extra mile. As this was my first experience remodeling a kitchen, I could have used a more outgoing personality. 
The price wasn't all that great. It was still pretty expensive, as I had some bathroom cabinets made later on by someone else that were far more reasonable.
The same salesman took the measurements for the cabinets and here is where things started to go wrong. When the cabinets arrived, there were some problems that were very stressful as I had my team of installers ready to install and getting paid to do so. They followed the measurements and plans to the letter and prepared the kitchen exactly according to what was on the paper given to me by The Kitchen Store.
1. They did not take into consideration that the floor was not yet in when they measured, and that a floor would add less than an inch to the measurements.
For someone in business this long, that should be a normal thing. As a result, when the refrigerator arrived, it was too tall and I had to pay my installers extra to trim all of the moulding so that it would fit. 
2. The bookcase cabinet was too short and my installers had to build a platform for it. The salesman at The Kitchen Store said only that everyone has to build a platform! He never told me that when I ordered it. It was also too narrow and there was such a large gap between it and the appliance that once again, I had to have my installer come up with an idea, and he built a small wine rack to fill up the space.
Again, my salesman refused to take any responsibility for his mistake and only said that my builder made the wall too long. That was not true. We had followed the measurements exactly.
3. I asked for more mouldings as not enough were sent and I had to call back after 2 weeks to find out what happened to the order. Nobody followed up with me.
4. A drawer came defected and the track was not full extension. They ordered another one for me and the second one arrived defected in the same way! At this point, I gave up and my builder just purchased another one on his own, which cost me $100.00. When I called the salesman, he acted like he didn't know what I was talking about and did not offer to reimburse me for the mistake that was made twice.
The follow up by this company is poor. Once I paid, that was the end of it. They have very little customer service and I was left on my own to fix their many mistakes. They did not take responsibility for anything. The cabinets are very pretty and my kitchen is lovely, but that is due to some very creative and helpful installers that were working for me. I ended up paying a lot out of pocket to fix The Kitchen Store's mistakes. It also created a lot of unnecessary stress during the remodel.

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They are easy to work with and very responsive. 
Happy with results.  I would recommend them to anyone.

They came up with great ideas that were very helpful and made my new kitchen amazing.

The design staff and the management were exceptionally cooperative, friendly and knowledgeable. The owner personally came out to correct any problems that we had. They had a problem with their cabinet stainer and they had to re-stain the cabinets, and when they did that, there was a mark on all the doors, and they had to replace the doors. The owner was very cooperative but there were a few incidences where there were problems with the actual work itself due to the contractors. I feel that they could improve upon their selection of contractors. Everything eventually turned out very nicely.

Everything went very well. I'm impressed by the quality of the cabinets. The installer was extremely good. He took a lot of time lining up the cabinets and making things look good. We're quite happy with the work. They are very easy people to deal with. We got a fair price. They were responsive. We had to order additional cabinets toward the end of the project. Even over the Christmas holiday, they were able to deliver the cabinets in a short amount of time.

They were excellent. They measured everything and I got the contractor to install it who went into some problems and they were wonderful about helping him out and ensured that they were installed properly. They could have said that they wouldn't help him. They had a choice of earning those extra dollars, but they worked together. They really worked together with my contractor. I highly recommend them and I think they are the best. They were very helpful. They had a wide range of prices and styles. I can't judge the price, but it was reasonable.

Our house had cabinets circa 1952. They were in need of a serious upgrade. The work went very smoothly. Plastic was taped over the doorways that led to the rest of the house. The old, wooden cabinets were sanded down and the new facing was put on. The cabinets got new doors of solid maple. New drawers on rollers replaced the old-style drawers. A new cabinet was built in on the floor and another on the wall above it. Everything blended beautifully. A few things needed to be touched up after the job was finished. There was no problem getting someone up to add the final touches. The crews were very professional and took pride in their work. We couldn't be more pleased with the final result.

The Kitchen Store did a very good job for us. Almost 2 years after installation, their cabinets and drawers still look new and work perfectly.

The designer was great. She was very friendly and very patient as we had changed our minds on certain things. She worked through the process. She recommended a contractor that we used, but we weren?t that happy with the contractor. I did find The Kitchen Store to be expensive.

This is an update to my previous submission due to new information. The Kitchen Store referred Kevin Lynch Construction to perform the work. Never during the entire construction period, did The Kitchen Store contact me to check progress. Never when the work was completed did The Kitchen Store contact me until my first Angie's List posting, though I had send correspondence to the Owner Dan Cohen. Cohen attempted to rectify the problems with the cabinets that Lynch installed. I do appreciate that. When I asked about Kevin Lynch Construction, Mr. Cohen stated that "I FIRED HIM!" Since I felt that was punitive enough, I did not pursue any legal action against Kevin Lynch Construction. HOWEVER, due to another posting on Angie's List, I found that Mr. Cohen has continued to refer Kevin Lynch Construction to clients. My correspondence to Mr. Cohen asking for an explanation has yielded no response. Therefore, due to Mr. Cohen's lack of response, which confirms that he is still referring Kevin Lynch Construction, I am forced to change my report due to his lack of truth.

It went very well and finished right on target. They were very responsive to me. They had to come back to fix the faucet placement and regrout the sink, but they were very responsive to my request. If you want one stop shopping, (cabinets, sinks, countertops) they are the one.

They have a wide variety of cabinets and countertops. They take the burden off the customer s shoulders and get everything done on time. I have zero complaints on the work that they did and am very satisfied.

It seemed that our job (kitchen remodel) was too small to bother. The plumber they used was great. The counter/granite guy was difficult to reach and often did not return phone calls. The workmanship was just o.k., some of it was just plain shoddy. One of the owners came out to try and do some damage control. I appreciated that, but was overall slightly disappointed with the job.

Efficient and polite.