Box: Face Frame, Fronts: Overlay, Style: Raised Panel

Box: Face Frame, Fronts:Inset, Style:Flat Panel

“It’s all about the cabinets,” principal Architect Stewart Davis recently mused while busily drawing, perhaps half joking. But the more one goes into this basic element of the home, the more one finds this to be true. Cabinets keep our lives uncluttered and organized, presenting an attractive, ordered face to the chaos they keep behind them, and they are usually one of the largest shares of the budget for renovation work or new construction. Cabinet type strongly influences the interior feel of a home—especially in the case of kitchens and bathrooms—setting the tone of the overall interior design. Is a given project modern or traditional? The answer is most immediately given by looking at the cabinets. Learning more about them and their characteristics will be useful when thinking of upgrading an existing kitchen or creating a new one.

Box: Frameless, Fronts: Overlay, Style: Slab

Cabinets come in two flavors: frameless and face-frame. Cabinets are essentially constructed as boxes with an open front upon which a door or drawer is attached. In the case of a frameless cabinet, this front is simply left as the edge of the box. But in the case of the face frame cabinet, the front edge of the box is fit with a frame that provides a border around the opening. This frame provides extra sturdiness to the construction of the box but limits the amount of useable space behind it because the frame edge sticks out into the volume. Face frame cabinetry is currently thought of as traditional style, while frameless cabinets are more contemporary and increasingly the new standard.

With the advent of plywood and other man-made panels and advanced hardware, frameless cabinets can do away with the structural support of the face-frame. Concealed hinges allow doors to open from a fulcrum within the cabinet, so that there is no trace of the hinge on the outside. This allows frameless cabinets to look immaculately clean. Frameless cabinets can use the entire volume of the box, and being unencumbered by a frame can utilize a wide range of accessories such as pull out glide drawers. Yet all these cutting edge improvements do not necessarily suggest that frameless cabinets need be modern or contemporary in look; the front panel of the door can be made to reflect any traditional style while being functionally contemporary.

We use custom-made cabinetry in almost every project we do. By using a local cabinet maker, we can design our cabinets in any style, size, and shape to fit each space exactly. Alternately, manufactured cabinets are widely available. The factory finishes are very durable and clients can see the final product in a showroom, but the luxury of full customization is lacking. Manufactured cabinets can also vary greatly in quality.

Most folks underestimate the importance of cabinet hardware–drawer glides that smoothly open and close themselves, concealed, fully adjustable hinges, pullouts, trash drawers, lazy susans in corners, pantry racks–all crucial to a well-designed kitchen or bath. The smart use of finish hardware (pulls and knobs) contributes greatly to the final appearance of the cabinets.

Finally, design decisions such as using stained wood vs. painted, clear glass fronts vs. opaque, the use of open shelves, the use of applied moldings for affect, all are important to a well appointed home. Cabinets should also be designed to coordinate with other important design elements like lighting, countertops, backsplashes, and adjacent wood trim to ensure an integrated and beautiful interior.

Skillfully done, cabinets realize that perfect blend of beauty & utility.

Stained wood brings warmth to balance cooler finishes.

Sustainable panels such as bamboo plywood are available.

Deep spaces can be made more efficient with thoughtful outfitting.