Chicago Custom Kitchens

Do yourself a favor and NEVER talk with these guys… they do a terrible job and when they say they’ll come to fix it, they never answer your calls or messages. Specifically Eric Emery. I’ve been led on for 15 months now after the job thinking they would come and fix their mistakes. Instead I have to pay another contractor instead. LOOK ELSEWHERE!

Chicago Kitchen Center has gone above and beyond throughout our fourteen months home building project. The home turned out spectacular in big part because of these guys. From the office staff to the guys working in the field, everybody is professional, helpful and pleasant. I would recommend them to my friends and family (already did). The quality of the work is exceptional! Thank you again!

I stopped in this store to inquire about quartz or granite for my kitchen. The customer service here is great. I was met by an enthusiastic young man (Eric?) who answered all my questions and offered some advice and general price quotes. Not sure who I’m using yet but was very impressed here with their first impression!

The short story is that we have a nice kitchen but the length of time it took for the kitchen to be done/​poor project management and overall customer experience makes this a two star experience at best. Probably should be a one star but that would be unfair to the day crew that worked on the job.
Quality — The quality of the ultra craft cabinets very good. The installation by the team was excellent as was any of the related carpentry and general work. Tile installation was below average and the painting was amateuristic at best but to be fair they did fix the original paint job to get it to an acceptable level. If you were to use them I would suggest you keep the work to carpentry and drywall and go somewhere else for painting, tiling and electrical. They try to leverage their crew to do all work and they do fall short in some these areas. That said I really liked the day crew and thought they had a strong sense of pride in what they do.
Project management — Was non-​existent. While I admit to putting the project 3 days behind due to the electrical work being more extensive than expected (I did the rough work), the rest of the project consisted of regular no-​shows, work being done incorrectly then having to be redone, and the team showing up not sure what to do next. I wound up working from home a lot to make sure they had a plan going in. This was as cookie cutter a kitchen as you could imagine. We were told we would be out of our kitchen 1 month and it was almost 4.
Customer service — Initial contact was very good and gave us a sense of being organized. We were told that order would be checked for completeness before starting. This wasn’t done and this was then used as an excuse to hold up all the other work despite me pointing out numerous times of all the things that could be done. This was particularly frustrating for me since I have done all this type of work myself and everything I said was discounted until they realized how far behind they were in the job and that I was refusing to pay until we saw some real progress. Even after the ‘come to Jesus meeting’, I still felt that I was working with a combination of relatives who were doing this in their free time and ‘professionals’ who thought I didn’t have a clue what I was talking about.
Final straw — The week before the job was finished they pointed out all the additional work they had to do and charge for. Not only were these things agreed upon up front as part of the work they also wanted to charge me for installing a door that I put in. Because of that I asked they sent over the final bill so I could review before we met. Instead they showed up on a Saturday to take pictures and hand me a bill which I said I would review and get back to them. At that point I was told in my own house that I was a liar in that I went back on my word of paying them when the job was done and it was inferred that I was going to stiff them on the bill. Thirty minutes later I got an email saying my bill was 90 days past due and that if the bill wasn’t paid by Monday they would put a lien on my house. Somehow they managed to forget that I had paid them 25K up to that point. To be honest I slowed down the payments to reflect the slowness of the work and to ensure that I wasn’t stuck having to find a contractor to finish what they started. At the end of the day they did what we agreed to at the price agreed on and were paid, but the length of time, poor customer service and being accused of being delinquent after they took an entire summer and then some to do a very basic job, guarantees that I will not be returning or recommending CKC to anyone.

We had a three kitchen and lighting updates to do in our high rise condo. Eric’s team executed all tasks and spent a lot of time brainstorming the best, most economical way to accomplish the tasks. Owner Jack even came out to us to evaluate the electrical plan. We appreciated that you had to come out several times due an error on our part in ordering a very wrong light fixture. We thought you were very reasonably priced and will call you again in the future.

Stay far, far away. Had to re-​order our cabinets twice, due to three different mistakes (two of which were their fault, one of which was the cabinet manufacturer’s). Unresponsive customer service — twice I called to check on the status of a reorder and the response was, «Oh, those are here; when would you like to have them delivered?». Maybe I’m nuts but I figure most places would call to schedule delivery, rather than rely on their customers constantly bugging them to see if something has shown up from the manufacturer.
After all the mistakes and over two months delay (costing us a significant amount of money in wasted work days for our contractor, when they showed up to discover broken and/​or incorrectly-​made cabinets), they were resistant to giving us any discount or compensation on our multiple thousands of dollars order. It took us physically going to the store and waiting for the owner himself to get them to write us a check for just $ 150 off the whole order (only refunding our delivery fee). They first tried to give us nothing, then tried to give us Lettuce Entertain You gift certificates. By far the worst customer service experience I’ve ever had in this industry.

We needed new kitchen cabinets and countertops, and as part of the remodel would be removing an exterior window as well as some minor interior work sealing a pass-​through. We visited CKC and quickly made the decision to go with them. Their showroom isn’t much to look at, which is fine by me because that helps us get to a lower price. The staff is very helpful and communicative. We quickly settled on cabinets and countertops from their selection, and they referred us to a showroom for tile, which they ordered for us so that we got a contractor price. Design was collaborative. We came up with a terrific solution, including a suggestion from Eric that addressed our not quite level ceiling (112 year old house). (Be sure to double check measurements.)
Once the cabinets were manufactured, CKC was ready to install immediately, and they worked speedily and very professionally. The crew was punctual and clean, and took good care to keep us informed. They consistently locked gates and set our alarm when they left, which has not usually been the case with other contractors. And with an older home, we’ve done a LOT of renovation and remodeling, using a lot of contractors – this team was outstanding.
Christina, our construction manager, and Eric, the designer, were superb partners. We got the ktichen that we’d dreamed about at a reasonable price.

We have thoroughly enjoyed our new kitchen! The Chicago Kitchen Center team was extremely professional and punctual, and executed quality work start to finish. In just a few weeks, I got exactly what I was looking for, a gorgeous new semi-​custom kitchen with beautiful details. Not a day goes by without a compliment to my new kitchen. Hands down I would recommend this team! Best wishes, Sara

Horrible customer service. HORRIBLE. I just finished a gut rehab on my home and have only my kitchen cabinets to complete. I started by visiting the Armitage location and found that they were closed with instructions that their Clybourn location was opened. Upon arrival no one greeted us. We approached a salesmen at his desk and inquired about Kitchen Cabinets. Erick quickly ushered us to go downstairs while taking little time to even greet us or inquiry as to what we were looking for. Please keep in mind we have several different quotes & layouts from Menard’s, HOBO, Home Depot, IKEA and T2 Cabinets. He then met us downstairs where we provided him with a layout and a detailed quote of cabinets from one of the lowest quotes received. We were «PROMISED» a call back.
We never received a call back. I finally called almost a week later to be told by him that the number he called was disconnected. That is a TOTAL LIE. I wrote down my name — number & my husband’s name — number. He then repeated the number he dialed, which I feel was pretty funny since it he quoted the beginning 3 digits of my number and last four digits of my husband’s number. Sorry Buddy but I didn’t write those numbers wrong or mixed them up.
He goes on and said well, you mentioned you wanted to stay below 3K and we by far couldn’t match T2 Cabinet price. Ummm hello I know that. I mean I was blown away by T2 Cabinet’s price, but a call back would have been nice. I wanted to see what quality and price your establishment can offer. I have major flexibility in price. If he had called he would have known that.
Never was provided an opportunity to view what they can offer. In the end I’m not doing business with them at all. I’m going to LOVE going elsewhere and providing my dollars to a business who actually calls back when promised.

CKC is in the process of completing my home right now. We’ve been building a single family home in Old Town right from scratch, all the way from demolition to finishing and trim. They really do do everything and they do it extremely well!
So I have to respectfully completely disagree with the previous post about «cookie-​cutter» builders, not fixing things to your liking, and not being trustworthy. Our finishes and the style of home are completely different from what we’ve seen across the board, from terra cotta floors in the kitchen to a full limestone façade to a European cave wine cellar and more. Jack and his team of professional subcontractors have it all covered and thus far have been an absolute joy to work with. As a matter of fact, you could tell Jack takes a lot of pride in his work and wants things to always been done the right way, not the easy way.
And a quick buck? I’ve never seen a builder go out of his way to try to keep the costs down, working almost feverishly on the phone with different subs and bidding out different things to expert craftsmen who will complete the job on time and well. We’ve dealt with many builders before hiring these guys, and trust me… their work is absolutely impeccable down to the last detail!

I was really excited to move forward with my kitchen renovation through CKC. The sales process to reel me in was a great experience. Although the woman in the Armitage location didn’t give me the time of day, Jeff on Clybourn was patient and helpful. He seemed to understand my needs and really spent time to work with me on the design and to help me to keep it as eco-​friendly of a process as possible even though they normally don’t care about their carbon footprint as a company. He recognized it was important to me and didn’t roll his eyes, instead investigating ways to make it work.
We found an eco-​friendly cabinet line that was really pretty and a definite fit for my design.
When the guys showed up to do the work I felt safe and secure. Really nice and also talented construction workers and I was in good hands.
However, the owner, Jack is all about the quick buck. He seemed to want to do nice work but then when push came to shove if I found something to be not perfect he seemed bent out of shape to have to fix it. From my asking to put plastic over the doorway to keep some of the dust out of the living space, to asking for the cabinets to be level, at some point in our pleasant process there was a shift and suddenly the guys couldn’t look me in the eye, Jack was hard to reach and Jeff who’d been so patient was suddenly feeling the need to be short with me. I was surprised that I had to point out something being not level, cables they had offered to move and hide were not hidden, and when I asked about it they scoffed.
In the end I have an almost done and very lovely kitchen. It stayed on budget much due to my putting my foot down when they wanted to charge for fixing what wasn’t done right in the first place. I’m glad to have had these guys do the work because with pushing and prodding they did do a very nice job and I felt I could trust them in my home alone.
My advice to you:
–buy plastic or coverings for doors and floors if you don’t want them tracking plaster all over your house, they don’t own any.
–Have every little thing they promise in writing and with their signature, including a calendar and down to the doorknobs.
–Hire a contractor to oversee the work daily if you can’t be there. If you wait too long to check in they will have moved forward with things not being perfect in hopes you won’t notice.
But overall it’s a nice job if overseen properly. Be prepared for Jack to roll his eyes, for him to talk about you to his clients and describe what a pain in the arse you are.
His expertise is in cookie-​cutter kitchens that all have the same layout and materials. If you aim to do something different be prepared for a push and shove match if you want to stick with your designs.

I went to this place to look for some kitchen cabinets and ended up not only buying cabinets but having the better portion of my condo renovated. These guys can do everything, they even have a custom millworking shop in the back of their showroom… who knew? I got a great deal on cabinets and also had built-​in shelves, a mantle, a closet addition and some electrical wiring and upgrades. Highly recommended.
Update:
Re-​hired to finish my 900 square foot outdoor deck. They did an outstanding job and built a beautiful outdoor kitchen, wrapped my entire perimeter in cedar with built in tiki stands, built a huge cedar pergola, a custom firepit table and tiled my lower deck. They do really quality work and don’t skimp. As I said before, they really can do anything so just ask and they will get it done.