Whether you’re looking to make a small finish repair, fully replace a cabinet or two, or create an addition to your kitchen with new cabinetry design, finding the manufacturer of your original cabinets is the key to a successful match.
Here’s some help finding who made your cabinets, and how to get help with repairs and/or matches:
How to Tell Who Made Your Existing Cabinets for Repairs and Replacements
Using the same brand of cabinets when replacing or renovating some parts of your kitchen is the easiest way to ensure the new cabinet doors are going to match the old ones in both style and materials.
If you weren’t the original purchaser of the cabinets, but you need to know the manufacturer in order to replace or repair the cabinets, there are a few ways you can identify the who made your cabinets. Here’s a quick list to run through:
1. Check if it’s IKEA
IKEA cabinets are everywhere nowadays but thankfully they’re also easily identifiable and not like any traditional cabinets.
IKEA cabinets are easy to spot by their adjustable assembly method and their steel suspension rail hanging method.
IKEA also brands some of their hinges, so you may be able to spot them inside the doors.
2. Check for Brand Marks or Stickers
Look inside the cabinets for identification marks, such as carvings or branding on the drawer boxes, and/ or stickers on the doors. These markings can be anywhere, but some of the most common spots are:
- The sides of the drawer boxes. High-end manufacturers will brand the inside, or outside of the drawer boxes with their logo.
- Behind the drawer boxes. If you don’t find a logo on the side of the drawer, remove it from the cabinet base and look on the back for a label identifying the manufacturer and order information. Some companies may hand write this information and others may use stickers so also check the back of the drawer cabinet for any stickers that may have fallen off with age.
- Check underneath wall cabinets and under the sink. Some manufacturers will print the label on the inside panel of the sink base cabinet or the bottom of the wall cabinets.
3. Look for KMCA Seal Stickers
Whether or not your cabinet manufacturer marked the cabinets, you may find a KCMA (Kitchen Cabinet Manufacturers Association) sticker, which is not an identifying mark for a cabinet manufacturer but rather a quality certification.
According to KMCA, “Cabinets bearing the KCMA A161.1 Quality Certification Seal have been extensively tested with over a dozen different processes according to rigorous standards developed, and periodically revised, by a committee operating under rules set by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and developed by the Kitchen Cabinet Manufacturers Association (KCMA).”
However, if you find a KCMA sticker like the one below, it can be possible to use it to find your cabinet manufacturer using the information from it.
As you can see in the image, the seal can have the cabinet manufacturer’s company name or code listed on the bottom of the sticker. Using this information you can use the KCMA “Find a Manufacturer” look-up tool to search for the company who manufactured your cabinets.
4. Contact your Home’s Builder
If your home is less than ten or fifteen years old, and you know the company who built it, you may be able to call them up and find out either who the cabinet manufacturer was or who the contractor who installed them was (who can then tell you the manufacturer, and/or even do the match for you).
Builders tend to use the same contractors over and over and remember large housing projects, so unless your home is a custom home, very old, or built by the original owner, it’s worth the call or email.
What to Do if You Can’t Find Any Information on the Manufacturer
If there is zero indication of a manufacturer on your cabinets and there’s no builder to help you, there is a chance your cabinets were custom built by a local cabinet maker or builder.
If this is the case, replacements can still be made and parts can be found but it can be a little trickier and potentially a bit costly.
Search your area for custom cabinet makers or even boutique carpenters and ask for guidance.
With any project, 80 percent of the work is done in the planning stage. We have simple checklists to help you get organized and make sure you’re prepared for every step along the way. Download them now for FREE:
Next Steps
If you identify the manufacturer brand of your cabinets, your next step is to check their website to find your local dealer(s) and then contacting them for prices and help.
I recommend that once you find a local retailer that sells your manufacturer’s brand of cabinets, or find a custom cabinet maker who can match your mystery cabinets, bring them a cabinet door in person to let them see it and keep it for as long as necessary to make the match.
This will ensure any replacements will match the finish and style of your existing cabinets before it’s time to install them.
thewriteDuffy
At home, April is a mom, wife, and DIY darling. Among other home projects, she helped her husband Dan renovate their 1986 bungalow and is currently designing and decorating the 2023 custom home they are building themselves. Professionally, April is a writer, author, and online marketer with 15 years of experience writing for newspapers and magazines, building online authority websites, and publishing books.
With any project, 80 percent of the work is done in the planning stage. We have simple checklists to help you get organized and make sure you’re prepared for every step along the way. Download them now for FREE: