Tariffs could be coming for your kitchen.
Homeowners who were planning to swap out cabinets, replace stone countertops or upgrade their dishwasher may be reconsidering renovation projects, as kitchen fixtures and finishes, which overwhelmingly hail from overseas, face tariff-induced price increases of 15%, industry analysts say.
Meanwhile, developers, who include dozens of kitchens in their apartment building projects, have it worse. Costs for custom-designed creations could hit 30% over the next few months, according to contractors, manufacturers and vendors.
“We’re trying to make do in a crazy landscape,” said Eli Moyal, co-founder and COO of Chapter, a four-year-old, high-end construction firm based in the city that tackles about 100 co-op and condo projects a year.
The pain may be experienced unevenly, said Moyal, whose firm serves as both designer and general contractor for its clients. Indeed, the companies that supply his kitchen finishes seem to still have months of inventory on hand.
But Moyal is worried about the steep 145% levies President Donald Trump has slapped on imports from China, a major source of glass, quartz and composite wood, some of which is used to create products identified as being made in America or other nations. The price of Chinese glass, for instance, which can be found in all sorts of lighting fixtures, is up 20% since March, vendors say.
But for other local firms, the pinch has begun. One three-decades-old stone countertop business in Queens says it has had customers cancel orders since April 2, when Trump introduced his long list of “Liberation Day” tariffs. The family-owned firm, which counts developers, architects and designers among its clients, says it imports 90% of its materials from other countries, including Italy, Turkey and Canada, which are on the hook for 10% tariffs at a minimum.
Some of those customers have instead decided to repair existing counters rather than order new slabs, according to a manager at the store, who asked to remain anonymous so as not to offend Trump-supportive clientele.
“I am not happy to buy ‘Made in China’ products. I want to buy ‘Made in the USA’ products. But we all know that we will not have an American factory producing our products here overnight,” she told Crain’s. “If we’re having a hard time, everyone is having a hard time.”
An American brand
A handful of American manufacturers could pick up the slack, some vendors say. Chapter sought out Alabama-based Wellborn Cabinet, for example, after international supply lines became crimped during the pandemic
With tariffs essentially raising the prices of foreign goods, Wellborn’s cabinets, which are made from U.S. lumber, have become more competitive, Moyal said.
Still, as is the case in the automobile industry, it can be hard to find a purely American-made product. American Standard, for instance, makes its faucets in Mexico. Canadian forests often provide the maple, birch and walnut for local cabinet companies. And trendy Sub-Zero refrigerators are assembled in Wisconsin and other states but often contain some foreign-made parts, as do similar appliance brands.
If there’s any consolation, it may be that appliance costs haven’t significantly shifted yet, according to a sales associate at Manhattan mainstay Gringer & Sons, which imports dishwashers, stoves, and washers and dryers from other countries. In fact, the associate, who asked not to be identified, said he expects that in the short term manufacturers will likely trim costs by dramatically reducing the numbers of dishwasher options they offer, say, rather than by jacking up prices.
“But if things keep going the way they are now,” he said, “that could quickly change.”
