Cabinet Options

Cabinet Design Checklist:

  • Door Style

  • Door Overlay vs Inset

  • Double Door (if any) separator: Stile or no Stile

  • Paint color and sheen

  • If uppers: Crown Molding or air gap

  • Special features

Door Styles - There are many different styles to choose from. The following link is a good place to start to compare various styles:

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Hampton-Bay-Custom-Unfinished-Cabinet-Door/315488256

Face Frame vs Inset

  • Face Frame doors are the more common type of door in America. The cabinet doors and drawer faces sit flush on the frame of the cabinet. This results in no visible gap between the door and the frame.

  • Inset doors are more common in European builds, but gaining popularity in America. As the name suggests, Inset doors are set into the frame, resulting in the door and frame flush with each other. As result in a small gap visible around all edges of the door.

  • Inset doors are generally more expensive to build and install due to tighter tolerances.

Double Door Options; Anytime there is a larger cabinet, it usually has a left and right door. There are 2 ways to deal with this:

  1. Going down the middle of the opening a single vertical stile can be installed.

    • Pros: When the doors are closed, there is a uniform gap between ALL doors and Drawers. This gives the closed face of the cabinets a much more uniform and geometric design

    • Cons: With the vertical stile installed, there is restricted access to the inside. If planning on storing large items inside the cabinet, the stile can be in the way and be a nuisance or even limit the size of items able to be stored.

  2. The opening can remain unobstructed with no vertical stile installed.

    • Pros: When open, complete unobstructed access to storage

    • Cons: While doors are closed, the gap between the left and right door will be a very small gap, while gaps between adjoining doors will be larger

Paint Choice; The paint color and sheen will not only affect the overall look of the cabinets, but will also affect the price.

  • Generally speaking, darker colors will show more flaws and as a result usually take longer to paint. Darker colors are more difficult to formulate the paint at a chemical level as well. They also will show dust and dirt easier with time. Additionally, darker colors will show nicks/scratches/wear and tear more than lighter colors. Darker colors will frequently have an upcharge associated with them.

  • Paint sheen will play a large role in longevity of the color and also its ability to hide flaws and damage with time. Satin paint is the most common pain sheen used on cabinets/baseboards/millwork. This paint sheen has the best compromise between robustness and ability to hide damages and yet easy to clean. Matte/eggshell paints can be harder paints to clean while semi gloss and gloss paints have a tendency to magnify imperfections.

Upper Cabinets:

Upper cabinets can be designed to fill the space all the way to the ceiling or can be designed so that there is an air gap of as small as a few inches to a foot or more. This is a style preference. Air gaps can allow for fun customization such as hidden accent lights or space for personal decorations, while no gap installs can offer a clean room filling look.

Special Features

  • One of the most important steps in designing your cabinets is to determine how and what you will be using the cabinets for. What will you be storing? How will you be using the space? With some understanding of items and actions to be used in the space, we can discover an endless possibility of custom features that will make your space truly unique.