Eric abandoned us before the project was finished and didn't even give us the material we already paid for. Stay away

unfortunately we definitely do not recommend using this unreliable company!! so many broken promises and constant excuses resulting in delays over months. read more

I've done two projects with Chicago Custom Kitchens (CCK) and am currently reaching out to them about a third. I redid my primary bathroom and CCK did an incredible job on the design, selection and implementation of the project. I had the bathroom cabinets installed almost two years ago, and the craftsmanship remains excellent. More recently, I worked with Eric and his team on two custom bars, cabinet doors and a bookshelf. The space was tricky as we needed cooling for the home electronic system in the bookshelf cabinets and the cabinets doors next to our bar are covering a hidden under-the-stairs closet. CCK's design team came up with the perfect solution to make the space cohesive. I couldn't be happier with the results. The quality and finishes of their products are excellent. Eric, Jeff and the entire CCK team are not only very good at their jobs, they are kind and awesome people overall. Eric often went out of his way to help me with other aspects of my projects. I was having a tile issue and he connected me with his tile person who was incredibly helpful. He was always accessible when I had questions and was diligent in ensuring I was satisfied with the project results. I personally love the ability to support a local, family-owned business and this is a great one. I can't recommend them enough. read more

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Eric and his team did a fantastic job on my kitchen renovation. They were on time, willing to work with my budget, and most importantly made sure to incorporate all the details I had requested. They handled the entire project from demo, to installing the cabinet hardware, and touching up any areas before completing the project. We ran into some unexpected surprises (as most projects do) and he did a great job to get them taken care of while staying on time. If I ever need any future projects I'll be sure to reach out to them first. read more

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WOW!! That's all we can say about our dealings with Eric and Chicago Custom Kitchens. Oh, in case you couldn't tell from the 1-star review, the "wow" is not a good thing. Let's start with Eric's strong skills (AKA "the good"): * Collecting money - despite Eric taking absolutely no pride in his work, communicating timely, or finishing the project even close to the completion date he promised, Eric was extremely talented in ensuring he collected checks (and literally cashed them within hours) and sending a final invoice. If only he had been this diligent with the actual work. * Making excuses - Through a series of screw-ups by Eric and team, he had an excuse for everything (including how our floors just happened to magically crack after his team was there and then blamed an imperfect condo for his errors. He must only work on perfect condos/houses in the city of Chicago?). My guess is that he has an extensive history of making excuses so now they roll out of his mouth (reference the Google review from 3 years ago where a customer experienced issues with the manufacturer that was Eric's contact, yet Eric wouldn't take responsibility.) * Caulking to hide his errors - I'm not sure if he has an ownership interest in caulk manufacturers or if he just gets a great price when he buys in bulk, but either way, if you love caulk covering up errors - Eric's your guy! * Using the line "let me check with my guys" - man, if you have to check with your guys all the time, you clearly don't have a handle on the job they are doing, which leads to experiences being described... Eric's skills that lack (AKA" the bad"): * Honoring his commitments - Eric promised several times that the job would be completed by a certain date. Now, we are not stupid and know that these things generally don't finish on time. But this job wasn't complicated (rebuild and install lower kitchen cabinets + replace two countertops), and it finished 8 WEEKS AND 2 DAYS LATE because he didn't care enough to focus on the job. Eric also committed to delivering roll-out drawers that would match our existing roll-outs (a high-end brand), only to find that he couldn't, so he delivered something of lesser quality (which we agreed to accept), yet he felt it was right to charge the full price for lesser quality - interesting thought process. * Supporting his workers - Eric had no shame in berating his workers in front of us for something that wasn't even their fault, but again, Eric would never take personal responsibility. He would constantly send them out with no direction so they had no idea what they were supposed to be addressing so the sloppiness continued over and over and over. * Learning from past mistakes - Well, we all look at reviews and when they are over a year old we tend to assume that it was a one-off customer that was unhappy or that the negative feedback pushes for someone to change their practices. Nope, not Eric. Look at the reviews that were over 1-year old... Well, they aren't much different than today... Eric's skills that are just plain sickening (AKA "the ugly") * His lack of character - Let's face it folks, the reviews speak for themselves. All he cares about is money (I know this based on how quick he was to ask for payment and then threatened to put a lien on my home when I told him his final payment of $500 would be delayed like our project was). * Customer experience - doesn't care about it clearly since we didn't finish our remodel jobs with him and awarded them to other contractors. With an amazing miracle, the other contractors did a fantastic job, on time, and were paid in full promptly. (If anyone needs their names, we are happy to provide some excellent referrals!!!) * He has some anger issues - never met a contractor who got so upset when that he kicked a baseboard in a client's home (can't make this stuff up). Now, I find it necessary to own up to a few things where we went wrong (lesson learned!) * Eric was so nice and willing to help when we met him that we ignored the old reviews. Classic case of putting lipstick on a pig - it's still a pig (which BTW - we are huge animal lovers so nothing against pigs). * I guess we weren't clear that we expected the work he did for us to actually look good (when it didn't, his excuse is that he delivered what we contracted for). What's funny is that when we called ABT to install a TV, we didn't need to tell them that the TV needed to be hung straight, but miraculously they just knew their work had to look good too! I guess they must be real professionals. In summary - Eric and CKK cannot be trusted and it's a miracle that they are still in business. But if there are suckers (yup, we'll take one on the chin and fall into that category) there will be work for Eric. Lastly, I am sure Eric will read this and respond, but all I am saying is read the reviews and judge for yourself whether this is the type of individual you want to spend your money with. If you do, we wish you luck! read more

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Eric was hired to fix what other professionals could not. We had several mishaps from the original design, execution and later install of our new kitchen cabinets by another contractor. He came up with a creative solution to retrofit a poorly fitting cabinet to accommodate the dishwasher allowing for a sleek and high end aesthetic. Also, he modified a tall cabinet to support two Miele ovens, one on top of another. This was something that seemed to baffle multiple other professionals hired to complete this job. In addition, he quickly understood the reason why one of my soft close drawers was not functioning as anticipated and resolved the problem. I found Eric and his assistant, Carlos, to be easy to work with, efficient, and delivered on the proposed work. There were no surprises, hidden charges, or drama. Just good work. Both men were polite and cleaned up at the end of the day. I couldn't be happier with my results. Would definitely hire again. read more

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. read more

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. read more

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 facade 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! read more

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. read more

Do not walk away from the Emery brothers, Eric and Jeff, RUN. Their work at our condo was over-priced, over budget, low quality, and way beyond the deadline. Work was not according to code. They also damaged our new hardwood floor and some furniture. Jeff's communication was non-existent and his brother had to attempt to cover for him when he literally disappeared from our project. We heard excuse after excuse regarding almost every aspect of the project. Contract with them at you own risk! read more

After a plumbing problem in our master bathroom, we contacted Chicago Custom Kitchen, Inc for help. We had used them previously to replace our kitchen cabinets and were happy with Eric and his crew. His recommendations for replacing wall tile, floor tile and our outdated vanity gave us a beautiful new bathroom. We were so pleased with the results that we decided to have them replace our bedroom flooring read more

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. read more

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. read more

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 read more

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! read more

Awesome work! Eric sent Carlos to do some work in one of my condos near Chicago downtown area. Carlos was very clean and trustworthy he made sure that all our expectations were met! I would highly recommend this company for any kitchen renovation or painting work! read more

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! read more

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. read more

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! read more

It was great working with Eric and Jeff Emery on our single family home gut renovation in Lincoln Park. The kitchen cabinets turned out great, amazing price and our custom order was handled flawlessly. Fantastic crew, a pleasure to work with. Bathrooms, fireplaces, crown molding - they did it all. I highly recommend Chicago Custom Kitchens. read more

Initial and main contact Eric Emery who assisted with design concepts and choices in collaboration with interior designer. End product - new kitchen and front room came out beautifully but process was very challenging with considerable amount of miscommunications including no shows and necessity of close inspection of work in order to maintain high quality. Company seems to lack sufficient staff/workers to cover and complete work in the time promised and will pull workers off job site in order to complete another work site or will send one worker to complete a task that requires two. Some faulty supplies (cracked stone) not their faulty but served as an excuse to disappear instead of completing other tasks. Eric apologetic and the most professional but family team which includes him and owns and operates is unorganized and does not communicate goals and dates with each other as promised to customers. Cabinetry and electrical is their strength but I would NOT not hire them for all inclusive projects particularly painting and intricate tile work without clarifying expectations. read more