Leo Claudio Cabinets

My experience with Leo Claudio was beyond terrible!!!
I visited a store in San Francisco named Fergusons Plumbing on Valencia Street that has some of his work on display and it looked good.
I called Leo and scheduled an appointment for him to come to my place and give me a quote for building some cabinets for my small kitchen. He showed up and spoke with a thick Italian accent. He seemed nice and helpful.
He gave me a quote of around $ 9,000 + tax. He then asked me to furnish him with measurements of my fixtures, which I did. I schedule an appointment to visit his workshop to go over the details and I met his daughter Astrid, who was very nice.
I called to ask him for an itemized quote. I ended up speaking with his wife Brenda, who was very rude, arrogant, inconsiderate and bossy. They changed the quote to $ 13,000. I called back surprised and spoke with his wife and asked why the price went up so much? She again was extremely rude, and said she would have to investigate further and get back to me. Days later she sent me an updated quote for close to $ 30,000!!! For the exact same thing!!! She told me they were really busy, and basically to take it or leave it.
I was completely stunned!!! I had invested time in working with him and originally planned to move forward, but after their bizzaro shell game tactics, I would NEVER ever work with them. These people are beyond unethical. I normally would not write something like this, but all I can say is that I had one of the worst business experiences with these extremely rude, pompous, unscrupulous, arrogant, shady, impolite, inconsiderate and highly unethical people.
Just to be clear, I tried to speak with Leo about this weird price discrepancy, and was told he was too busy to talk to me. I find Leo Claudio and his wife to be completely unprofessional, flaky, super-​rude and despicably terrible!!!
I would recommend staying far, far away from these prima-​donna idiots, who are «too sexy for your cat!»
And for the record, they basically make Ikea quality cabinets, just in custom sizes. In other words, they laminate everything and don’t use solid stock wood, yet they act and charge as if they are cabinet makers who are by appointment to the Queen…

This is my 100^th Unilocal Review. I waited until I had someone very special to Unilocal about. Leo Claudio Costa is that guy.
Leo, a true master craftsman, is an absolute pleasure to work with. He communicated thoroughly and well, provided superb customer service and produced a stunning set of high quality kitchen cabinets ahead of schedule for a reasonable price — a remarkable price when you consider every aspect was customized to our taste and our needs.
The Details
Our house is an open floor-​plan Eichler. You can see the kitchen from the living room, dining room and many of the exterior spaces. So style and elegance in our kitchen cabinetry was important. We looked for months for a cabinetmaker with a modern sensibility — minimalist, really — with an eye for exquisite details, while making a cabinet so functional you would feel joyful every time you opened it. Mission impossible? No! We found Leo.
The Process
Our project was not standard. Leo usually designs the cabinets himself, but we had specific ideas in mind. Leo was flexible enough to work with our design, and tactfully make technical improvements (such as an easier way to mount the cabinets) without revising the essential design. We collaborated and came up with the perfect design!
From an engineering standpoint, Leo really knows his stuff. Leo was the only craftsman we met who was thoroughly familiar with a specific German hinge we wanted to use in the cabinets. Knowing he had successfully installed dozens of these complex hinges removed a lot of the stress.
Leo and his very pleasant and capable associate Astrid sent drawings with exact measurements. We exchanged a few emails until we were both nodding our heads on even the smallest details. We approved the drawings and work began.
We were surprised and delighted to be invited to come see the progress after a week to make sure everything was on track. It was.
While at the studio, we saw a few other projects Leo was working on — a macassar ebony vanity with stunning grain, a gracefully curved rosewood vanity and a very large set of kitchen cabinets. We realized ours must be the smallest commission Leo is working on. But he always made us feel like it was the most important. He has a European courtliness, yet a mischievous sense of humor.
We were told the cabinets would be ready in 4 – 6 weeks. Surprise! They were completed earlier than expected!
The Final Result
The cabinets were delivered and oh my! Leo surprised us with custom touches that only a skilled master craftsman would dream up and know how to execute. The finish he applied to the sapele wood brought out the beautiful ribbon grain and natural iridescent lustre. The cabinets are what we had hoped for and much more. They are a classic that will never go out of style.
Leo really brought our ideas to life with stunning cabinets that we love to use every day. It was a stress-​free experience because from our first meeting we could see that Leo is a man of integrity who stands behind his work. Bravo Leo!

Contemporary Italian design, meticulous craftsmanship, local company owned by great guy, surprisingly affordable.
When we started planning our bathroom remodel, we knew we wanted something special for our vanity and sink that would tie the rest of the room together. We were on a limited budget, so we assumed that a custom cabinet would simply be out of the question. So we started looking at what was available readymade in the bath supply showrooms in San Francisco’s design district, but we didn’t see anything we particularly liked. Then, while ordering plumbing fixtures at Ferguson’s on Valencia, we saw a vanity on display there that was exactly the kind of thing we were looking for. The salesman told us that it, along with many of the other cabinets displayed in the showroom there, had been custom-​built by a local designer named Leo Costa. There were kitchen cabinets as well as bathroom cabinets, and all the designs were superb and the workmanship seemed so much better than what we were seeing in other showrooms. The salesman gave us Leo’s card and assured us that Leo’s prices were reasonable given the quality of the work. Boy, was he right!
We actually wound up ordering two cabinets from Leo, and absolutely love both of them. The vanity is everything we expected it to be and more. It is similar to the one from the Ferguson showroom, but customized to meet our particular needs and the space it fits into. The second cabinet is a tall, narrow, mirrored storage unit that fits partly into a wall, and then comes out four inches into the room. This allows for shelving 7 inches deep, which provides an ample amount of storage while using up almost no space in the room. Leo’s design was an ingenious solution to a storage problem that had bedeviled us for years in this small bathroom.
We also have to add that Leo was a complete delight to work with. For him, our job was a small one, but he treated us with the upmost courtesy and consideration. Always responsive, and available, he came out to our house four or five times to measure and go over designs until everything had been worked out both to his and our satisfaction. He always went the extra mile with us. He often pointed out important details that we hadn’t even thought of. Leo is a great cabinetmaker, with an outstanding design sensibility, fanatic attention to detail, and terrific service delivery. We couldn’t recommend him more highly.

Leo designed and fabricated custom cabinets for a new home that we built in Sonoma. We wanted to use reclaimed wood and we had a number of unusual design requests, including incorporating metal trim onto a ledge on the island. There were many design decisions that needed to be made jointly and Leo cooperated with us on everything. Ultimately, we wound up with a remarkable (and quite unusual) kitchen. Everyone who visits our home tells us that they love the design and implementation. I could not have asked for more.

My initial impression of Leo Claudio was very positve. His samples were very high quality. Leo Claudio is not native English speaker. This proved to be a problem, as the production process continued. He would appear to understand things, whether it be design related or other, but it would be revealed later that he did not understand our communications. Mind you, these were in-​person conversations. At a certain point, I stopped communicating with him, and began communications with his other office staff (family). I spent a total of about $ 4,500 to have a custom bathroom vanity cabinet made and, a small shelf, and a towel cabinet. Although we had an in-​person conversation about how the towel cabinet and shelf were to be made (including drawings), they were not made correctly. The shelf was supposed to have a 3″ lip on the edge going around it, and the towel cabinet was supposed to have a glass front. The shelf had no lip, and the cabinet was made with an all wood front. These errors were not discovered until the day of install. I forgave the shelf error, but asked Leo to fix the towel cabinet front.
During one visit, I asked Leo Claudio if he could make some small pieces out of cherry wood to replace missing toe-​kicks under my kitchen cabinet (3 pieces totaling 8 feet). I asked how much they would cost. He said, «They’re on me.» This appeared to be a gesture of good-​will to make up for the mix-​ups. He also never wrote an invoice for the toe-​kicks, gave a quote, or asked for a deposit. He had made invoices and asked for deposits for the vanity and shelf/​towel cabinet.
Most of the installation of the vanity and door pulls was not done by Leo, but by his assistants. I have now found that some of the screws are crooked and/​or stripped. I also found a part on a front door that was delaminating after only 5 weeks.
My final invoice arrived in the mail for the installation of the drawer pulls. This invoice also had a charge for the toe-​kicks that Leo told me were free. I emailed the office to ask if this was a mistake. I also sent a photo of the delaminating door and of a bad screw install. I received another email back stating that I was mistaking their generosity for stupidity. It went on to say that the toe kicks were never free, and that the delamination I was showing in the photo was clearly not delamination, but that the cabinet has been damaged by someone.
I was infuriated and insulted. I called Leo directly. He insisted the toe kicks were never free. During that conversation, he called me stupid. I was so offended that I had been called a liar by Leo and his family that I took the delaminated door off the vanity and drove it to their San Bruno shop. I showed it to the staff, in person, to have them confirm that it was delaminating and was never damaged.
Bottom line, construction requires exactness and good customer service. Mine was an example where the customer was right and was not only called a liar, but was further insulted. Leo Claudio’s quality was mediocre and his rates are for high-​end work. Their customer service and communication were a failure. They have no friend in me, and I have advised some friends of mine that were planning to use his services, to look elsewhere. I will say that his staff offered for me to leave my cabinet door there to be fixed. I would rather pay someone else to do it, than have to deal with Leo Claudio Cabinets any further.

Beautiful work, excellent detailing, on time and on budget. How much better can it get? As an interior designer I need to be able to rely on the craftsmen I choose for my clients projects and you certainly hit the mark. Love working with you Leo.
Ursula Kloeters
Square One Interiors