Form Kitchens, the San Francisco–based direct-to-consumer cabinetry brand, has halted operations. The company is no longer taking new orders online, and its showroom in the New York Design Center is unstaffed.

Signs of trouble appeared at the beginning of the month, when Form sent a note to customers informing them that it was pausing operations to renegotiate terms with the manufacturer of its product, German kitchen giant Nobilia. Further communication referred to a “significantly reduced team.” According to multiple sources with knowledge of the situation, a large number of the company’s staff was laid off abruptly en masse toward the end of March.

Though Form is not currently operational, according to communication from the company, it has worked out an agreement with Nobilia to fulfill its open orders. At press time, at least two former Form designers have changed their LinkedIn status to reflect an employer change to Nobilia.

However, the handoff between brands has left multiple customers in the lurch—a few have documented their experience on an active Reddit thread dedicated to the fallout. One, who spoke to Business of Home on condition of anonymity, said they placed roughly $50,000 worth of deposits down in March, only to find out soon after that the Form designer they had been working with had been abruptly laid off. The timing—deposit in, production not yet begun—placed the purchase in limbo. The customer says that Nobilia has not acknowledged their order, and multiple attempts to get clarity directly from Form CEO Danny Soos have been fruitless. The customer is considering legal action.

Another Form customer placed an order for roughly $25,000 worth of cabinetry toward the end of March, immediately before the company paused operations. He too has been stymied by multiple attempts to get a direct answer from Soos, and is in the dark about whether his order will be fulfilled by Nobilia. “It’s been almost a month, and I keep getting these vague assurances,” he tells BOH. “There’s a handful of us [whose orders are] in limbo.”

Nobilia declined to comment for this article. Form provided the following statement: “[We have] indeed paused taking new orders and significantly reduced staff due to operational and financial challenges. Our primary focus is on ensuring that all existing customer orders are successfully fulfilled, and we’ve transitioned existing projects directly to our manufacturer. We deeply regret any disruption this situation has caused our customers and are actively working to resolve outstanding issues as quickly as possible.”

Form was launched in 2021 by Soos and co-founder Tom Sherman, two former software engineers. The concept was simple: Bring the direct-to-consumer model to kitchen cabinetry. “You fall in love with these kitchens on social media, but what you don’t realize is that they cost half a million dollars,” he told Business of Home at the time. “We’re offering those showroom-quality kitchens at big-box prices.”

In that, Form joined a small but vibrant niche. DTC companies like Semihandmade and Reform had also identified a white space in the market for design-oriented cabinetry priced between Ikea and luxury brands. Even the high-end brands have sensed an opportunity: In 2019 Henrybuilt launched Space Theory, a simplified, more accessible version of its signature custom project. More recently, Isla Porter entered the conversation with an AI twist.

It’s not clear exactly what led to Form’s abrupt halt, but it’s no secret that the market for kitchen renovations has been impacted by the weak post-Covid housing market. Another hurdle: Companies that relied on online channels to acquire customers have also struggled, as the cost of advertising on Google and Meta has skyrocketed in recent years. A wobbly economy and unpredictable tariff policies are likely not helping matters for Form or its ilk. Whether the brand could be the proverbial canary in the coal mine or whether other niche DTC retailers can endure a challenging business landscape remains to be seen.