I used them for the kitchen, mud room, laundry room and will order again for the new bath addition. I compared them to every cabinet line (except Ikea - I never looked at those) and I actually preferred the Barker. Once I saw their walnut with clearcoat, I could not find another that I liked as much. Assembly was easy. They are solid. The ones in the kitchen have been installed for 1.5 years and I have -0- complaints or concerns.

You might want to type in Barker cabinets in the Houzz search. There's quite a few dilemmas on this.

Look into Ikea more. Drawers are more affordable than in most other cabinet lines and extremely well made. As you know for reading all the threads here. drawers (not pull-outs) are strongly recommended in kitchen design.

Right on, Cooks Kitchen!! Perfectly said.

Thanks for the input, everyone! So much to learn!!

We used them for our kitchen and are quite happy. We got solid cherry and were able to afford more using RTA and installing them ourselves. The cabinets are of good quality and seem to be holding up well. Hubby says the only drawback was that getting the drawer fronts to line up was a little fussy. No missing parts. All packaging was well protected.

I communicated a few times with Chad Barker (back in 2013) when I was considering them and having trouble using their planner. He answered promptly every time and was very helpful.

I ended up finding a local cabinetmaker who made frameless cabinets for nearly the same cost and went in that direction.

You might want to try a web search. You will find a variety of good and bad experiences with Barker.

The people, usually artists or architects, who wanted to make and design their own highly customized kitchens got some beautiful results with Barker. There is a blog called "Half Classic Six" that shows a really nice kitchen done with Barker. The homeowner had design experience and wanted to replicate the look of old British kitchens and designed, painted and customized the cabinets to suit his unique vision. And he wanted an old fashioned, hand-painted look not a slick, modern factory finish.

The customizable nature of the product lends itself to things like that.

But customers who just want a standard kitchen, and are mostly attracted to the low cost, tend to be more frustrated with Barker. They get frustrated trying to do their own design, get upset when they can't cancel mistakes and are annoyed by the long wait time and occasional missing or incorrect parts. They would likely be happier with a standardized, ready-made product. I remember someone did a price comparison on here between Barker and Omega Full Access ( a frameless cabinet line sold by cabinet distributors) and they ended up costing about the same.

And it seems like Barker customer service has declined a bit in recent years as their product has become more popular.

It really depends on what you are looking for and what your skill set and vision for your home are.

In fairness some of the bad reviews Barker tends to get are based on user error. Like I remember one reviewer ordered a 46" wide cabinet and then got mad that the doors were really big and said he would have been better off with two small cabinets. He got mad at Barker for not stopping him from from ordering such a wide cabinet.

They just make whatever the customer asks for.

That doesn't mean what people ask for will always be a good idea.

Using Barker has enough possibilities to mess it up, that you really need a Kitchen Designer to do the layout and order to save you from yourself. The fee will be less than one mistake, a reorder, and shipping. Especially if you’ve never worked with frameless cabinets. They are a different animal than framed.

Or just go buy already assembled factory made good quality mid grade locally, where you will work with and pay for a Kitchen Designer in the cost of the cabinets. Not taking places like Surplus Warehouse or Cabinet’s to Go either. None of that kind of junk. Something like Kraftmaid or Showplace or Dynasty.

live_wire_oak I had considered using Barker, then considered using Barker boxes and Ikea doors, then Ikea boxes and Barker doors, but have come to the conclusion that it would be tricky in terms of precision sizing of doors with boxes. So, at this juncture, we are planning to go Ikea all the way. Thanks everyone, for your input!

If you decide to use Ikea wait for one of their cabinet sales ( usually 15% off). They usually have them 4 times a year in each season.

True, not everyone has design experience. Your kitchen will only be as good as the design it springs from. But not everyone is seeking to make huge layout changes in their kitchens, and honestly, not all “designers” are very good. If you think you have the design in hand - absolutely post it on this forum for feedback - then Barker is a reasonable option. If you don’t want to be out there all alone, consider Conestoga (Cabinet Joint) which is where some of the more beautiful Houzz/GW reveals have come from. My kitchen will be IKEA (Akurum - that’s how long ago I bought them) with three cabinets from Barker (sink cab, oven cab, cooktop cab, so one semi custom cabinet size per run) and doors from Semihandmade

I looked at Barker and was especially hopeful as it's local to me. I went into the showroom and was impressed with the quality of construction. However, they did not have all of the options I was looking for, specifically inset, and I decided to do RTA with Conestoga and The Cabinet Joint. Another reason I didn't go with Barker was because I did not want to be responsible for ordering all of the correct fits and finish pieces. Cabinet Joint did all of that for me.

The construction phase of the cabinets was super easy- I imagine Barker would be similar. The install has given us some long days:( But, there is light at the end of the tunnel and it is looking great!

I'm a RTA believer!

HI Heather, could you up date on your cabinets? I am in oregon too, we are building and I am leaning towards barker or Conestoga. thanks

Hi Cherry. We are happy with our cabinets. Here’s a photo I snapped the other day... kitchen not perfect,y clean but the light was so pretty. Happy to answer any questions you have!

They are beautiful!!!! I can't make my mind up about Barker or conastoga. Is that white oak you used with natural finish?

Thank you! It is the white oak that we ordered unfinished and then finished them ourselves. Def recommend getting a sample from conastoga if you go that route.

Barker is local to me, so I was able to go into their showroom. They offer a very nice product. Ultimately we went with conestoga because of the professional design help (refunded off the cabinet price), the ability to do the inset doors and drawers, and the flexibility with cabinets depths and widths no extra to get deeper cabs and you can adjust down to 1/16”... no fillers necessary.

What type of cabinet are you thinking about? Overlay, frameless, inset?

I know this thread is old but wanted to post for newer people who are considering Cabinet Joint:

PLEASE DO NOT GO WITH THIS COMPANY unless you want damaged cabinets and no support!

My cabinets came cracked and damaged. They just left my damaged cabinets on the streets of Manhattan without calling me beforehand. Some of the items are not sized correctly and they do not tell you that.

Cabinet Joint is very badly run and will not offer support if things go wrong. Over half of my cabinets came with damage (See pictures of examples - there are more than 25 cracks on the cabinets) and the customer has to figure this out themselves.

Cabinet Joint is extremely unwilling to help and want to place all the blame on their shipping company. See other reviews who have said the same thing.

My cabinets coach was dismissive, condescending and passive aggressive in handling my situation when the majority of my cabinets arrived damaged. The owners want me to edit my reviews so they can hide my bad experience. Instead of helping me, the owner just said that I had "heightened emotions" and told me to edit my review.

These are how my cabinets were delivered on the street:

OMG! That is pretty bad. You're doing the right thing by not changing your review.

I hope that you get some satisfaction and be able to complete your kitchen.

That kind of damage is surely the shipping company's fault - but, IMO, the Cabinet Joint should be taking your side and replacing, then going after the shipper to reimburse them (shouldn't they be insured?). Unless TCJ owns the shipper?

The homeowner has to file the shipping damage claim, to start the long road to reimbursement.