Cranmer’s Kitchens by Design

I called the company because I needed information about refinishing my Wood Mode kitchen cabinets. I spoke with a lovely lady who was very helpful despite the fact that this is not a type of work that they do. She made my day! Great company that I would go to when I am ready to redo my kitchen!

We had had Kristin from Cranmer’s design the kitchen on our $ 150,000 addition seven years ago and were so happy with the results that we asked her for her help with we decided to downsize to our two-​bedroom condo in a 55+ community.
On the first job, we had gotten Kristin to design the kitchen, but had used our own contractor. This time, since all we were doing was the kitchen reno, we chose to use Cranmer’s contractor, Tom, too.
We worked closely with both Kristin and Tom to iron out any details and to prepare for the job so that the cost was reasonable give the size and cost of our unit. While the job was initially rather more expensive than we had wanted, we were all able to work together to come with a great plan at a reasonable cost.
We decided on the stock cabinets, rather than semi-​custom, to save money and are very happy with our choice. Even the laminate counter-​tops look great because we found a beautiful — rather than builder’s grade — drop-​in sink. We completely remodeled the kitchen — took it down to the studs and started over.
While the design and planning were well executed — the most impressive part of the job was the renovation itself. The work started on a Monday. I don’t know method of demolition was used, but I came home to a kitchen that had been completely removed and a sparkling clean space in its place. The work steadily progressed with not a single day passing without some progress being made. Incredibly enough, the job was done by the end of the 4^th week.
And, the kitchen is beautiful. Great attention to detail. The cost actually ended up to be less than estimated because less electrical work needed to be done than initially thought. Even my neighbors thought it was a wonderful experience. I’ve heard many compliments about how nice and friendly the crew was.
I’m so happy with the result that I’m just waiting to accumulate some funds before I have everyone back to remodel the bathrooms!

I have had Cranmer’s do a kitchen and bathroom for me. I worked with Tad, who had great references from others in my area for whom he had completed (much larger, bigger budget, and subsequently more beautiful) kitchens. The projects I did were in a duplex in princeton, and the size of each space is SMALL.
To stay on budget, we kept the basic layout of the spaces the same. Tad had great ideas to use the space better, but we would have had to move a door and do some other adjustments, and the house is a rental (I’m the landlord) so I wasn’t up for the increased investment. If I were living there myself, I would definitely have reconfigured based on his advice and I would have used Wood-​Mode cabinets which is what I have in my own house.
As it is, I selected Brookhaven (the lower-​cost line in Wood-​Mode) cabinets in the kitchen. It’s been 5 years and the kitchen (with tenants living there) is in great condition, so i can definitely speak to the quality of the cabinets. We used Corian on the counters — easy for tenants. The estimate was spot-​on — Tad definitely thinks ahead of time about whether changes to electrical and HVAC will be necessary (we needed to move both to accommodate the new cabinets), so you don’t need to worry about significant surprises when it comes to finishing the job. When the whole kitchen was installed, he wasn’t thrilled with the appearance of the cabinet at the end of the peninsula and ordered an extra piece of cabinet detail to add to make it look better — he has a good sense of aesthetic and detail.
Cranmer’s employees who installed the kitchen (and a year later the bathroom) were such genuinely nice people, they were pleasant to be around and were clean. Just a superlative group to work with. I would recommend Cranmer’s/Tad Troilo/​their whole crew without hesitation. The estimate may come out higher than some competitors, but you won’t be faced with change orders later. And the work will be perfect. (Another bonus for me — Tad lives in Princeton, so if you live in the area, he will stop by your project personally to check on the progress.)

HORRIBLE EXPERIENCE!
ZERO STARS.
after one year, my $ 48,000 custom kitchen cabinets started to fall part. ZERO customer service. The absolute WORST place to ever go for kitchen design.