Decora vs Kraftmaid

bobbie2010

9 years ago

I have been reading these posts for weeks, and love all the information. We had to demo our house from Sandy storm and are in the home stretch , sort of. I have had a KD in that uses Wellborn and they were OK. I love Dynasty and Omega but a bit out of the price range. We then went to Home Depot and met a wonderful KD who designed my dream kitchen with Decora Huchenson in an Irish Creme (which I now see is a specialty finish) I asked him to price the same layout in Kraftmaid and it comes in $2500 less.

I can't seem to determine the differences. Both are priced with the upgraded cabinets. Any thoughts are appreciated.

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Comments (5)

bluetea57
9 years ago
We got the Decora cabinets about 18 months ago and we love them. We were looking to match the existing wood work in the house and the Decora natural cherry with coffee glaze was the best color match. This was an upgrade finish that did add to the cost, does the Irish Creme finish account for the price difference that you are talking about? Overall I liked the quality of the Decora finishes better than the KraftMaid finishes which I found to look muddy or opaque.
bobbie2010
Original Author
9 years ago
I believe it may be. The Irish CrÃÂ¨me finish is $3000 so I am going to see what it would be just using the maple with a stain or glaze instead. We saw them at the HD and when I did a search the HD did not come up as a dealer. I called and HD is limited on door styles. I was hoping it was not like Kohler and some other brands, where you can buy it for less at HD and Lowes but the "guts" of the items are different.
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brightm
9 years ago
Just to throw one more variable into the mix...

The HDs around here seem to be phasing out Decora. A couple still have them. Mine does not. Decora is made by MasterBrand. Lowe's carries Diamond made by them. IIRC, the line that my HD carries by them is Thomasville, but it's not listed on the MasterBrand site. I have no idea if there are different quality levels between Thomasville and Decora or if it's the same thing with different labels.

(I've got InnerMost on order through HD. It's DesignCraft rebranded (limited line) for HD.)
kompy
9 years ago
I haven't had to compete with Decora in years....not even sure who carries them anymore in my area. But I do remember that Decora used to be the higher end sister to Aristokraft. 20 yrs ago we looked in to because we had Aristokraft (not anymore)....and we thought it was too expensive for what you got. But again, that was MANY years ago! I've giving away my age! But younger than you think! I started in this business when I was 20! :-)
bobbie2010
Original Author
9 years ago
I have looked at so many different types, my head is spinning. I'm sure many have gone through that. I had just put in a new kitchen before the flood and had no desire to do it again. The cabinets we went with before were not a good quality, local store selling China cabinetry. Funny thing, they did not fall apart in the flood but not really what I want for this "new" house. I like this KD at the depot best. He got what I was looking for and threw in a few good ideas of his own. Still having a hard time paying 20,000 for cabinets