Kitchen cabinets can become an afterthought during a kitchen renovation because they can take up to 50% out of your budget. With all the other important details such as flooring, lighting, appliances, and color scheme going on in the homeowner’s head, kitchen cabinets will most likely be put aside.
Forgetting to plan how your cabinets will look is a crucial design mistake. You should keep in mind that kitchen cabinets are an essential element in face-lifting your kitchen from an average one, to the kitchen of your dreams.
When talking about types of cabinet doors, we are not talking about fashion, even though the essential elements of style also refer to the door overlay and door style. Instead, it’s concerned with how the cabinets are constructed, described, and classified.
Research and Plan Before You Start Renovating
Homeowners should know what they’re involved in when it comes to cabinets and kitchen renovation. It’s true that the kitchen is the heart and soul of every home, but it doesn’t mean it can be quickly built.
There are a lot of factors to consider before you begin buying the materials you need for kitchen cabinetry. For instance, your preferences, lifestyle, and budget are your main concerns before you start renovating your kitchen.
Connecting your cabinetry to your lifestyle should be taken into priority because the lifespan of the cabinets will depend on how you use them. If you rarely cook at home, then there would be no need for expensive and fancy cabinets. On the other hand, cabinets should be sustainable for daily use if you prefer to do prepare every meal at home.
10 Types of Kitchen Cabinet Doors
Here are some of the better-known types of cabinet doors that you may see fit for your budget, and best for your overall home design.
Shaker Cabinets
Known for its simplicity, elegance, and beauty. It features recessed or flat-panel doors to provide a profile that’s sleeker and cleaner compared to raise panel doors. The recessed-panel doors allow the shaker type of cabinet to be the most flexible if the design is involved.
The shaker-type cabinet is inspired from highly skilled craftsmen and carpenters called the Shakers. Further, it’s the most common type of cabinet because of its minimalism, complemented with light stains or natural finishes.
The shaker-type cabinet is a combined five-piece door made from hardwood or flat recessed panels and has no beveled frame. The frame has no bevel because it consists of a four-piece recessed panel that’s flattened. The fifth piece is the single flat panel in the center that serves as a backing.
Louvered Cabinets
These cabinets are perfect for homeowners that value beauty and functionality for their kitchen. Louver-type cabinets can make the kitchen look more spacious because it’s made from thick horizontal wood slats.
Adding a touch of architectural style to your kitchen, the louver-type cabinet has small gaps between each slat, providing ventilation. Although not all louver-type cabinets have spaces between each slat, some homeowners can have closed louvered doors or fake louvers, mainly for its style.
The open louvered doors will keep your dishes, snacks, and ingredients dry, cold, and fresh. You won’t ever have to worry about moldy and smelly cabinets with the Louvered type of cabinet.
However, with the best functionality that the louvered cabinets provide, they’re also expensive. But, if this type of cabinet fits your lifestyle and you’re willing to invest in your kitchen, it’ll be worth it in the long run.
Flat Cabinets
Homeowners that love a contemporary or modern style kitchen, flat cabinets are known for its style and simplicity. Flat cabinets are the most affordable type of cabinets because it’s made from decorative laminate or wood. Decorative laminate is used by many because it offers a variety of colors and sheens, and it’s more budget friendly.
Moreover, you can choose if you’d want your flat cabinets to have handles or not. Since flat cabinets have slab doors, the entire door is directly attached to the sides of the cabinet.
By going for flat cabinets without handles, it will help you achieve a clean, minimalist look. Since they maximize function and utility, they opt to skip the fancy decorations and loud details.
Inset Cabinets
Known for its beauty and high price, the inset cabinets provide a long-lasting classic style. Although it’s expensive, the timeless design is worth the cost. Further, unlike standard cabinet doors that rests on the outside of the frame, inset cabinet doors are set inside of the cabinet frame, hence the name.
Apart from the overall custom and smooth appearance the inset cabinet provides, they will need a push-to-open or pulls hardware to access the inside of the cabinet. Opening these type of cabinets with your fingers is impossible to do.
Further, constructing inset cabinets require a lot of skill, which makes them one of the expensive options. Inset cabinets need a lot of skill because the doors have to be even and precisely match, without the doors hitting each other when opened and closed.
Also, one disadvantage that puts off some homeowners are the exposed hinges, unlike traditional cabinets where the hinges are concealed. Further, although this type of cabinet can free up a little space in the kitchen, it can also lose you a bit of storage space since the doors are inset.
Glass Cabinets
Providing a classy and luxurious look to your kitchen, glass cabinets are pricier than traditional hardwood cabinets. Glass kitchen cabinets are still popular even after glass furniture stopped being a thing.
Making a glass cabinet also requires skill because the glass needs to be fitted inside the wooden frame. A benefit glass cabinet can provide to your kitchen is that it brings depth, making your kitchen seem spacious than it is.
Homeowners appreciate the unique qualities of the glass cabinets such as transparency. Also, glass cabinets frame the items attractively by displaying what’s inside the cabinet, but not completely exposing them.
However, glass cabinets are not entirely transparent. There are different types of glass you can choose from. Some homeowners feel inconvenient exposing what’s inside their cabinets, that’s why they prefer using frosted or leaded glass.
Frosted glass is cool and sleek that will look great in modern style kitchens. Also, it’s not entirely opaque but it does hide the mess behind the glass nicely, and you can still distinguish the colors and silhouettes behind the frosted glass.
Further, the leaded glass is rich in lead, which gives a unique look and tint to the glass. Even though the leaded glass shouts elegant and artisanal, it can be challenging to find. Thus, homeowners use tinted or stained glass as an alternative.
Custom Made Cabinets
If you can’t find the perfect cabinet type to complement and highlight the design of your kitchen, you could have yours designed to your preferences. Since not all kitchen designs have the same color schemes, kitchenware, appliances, and lighting.
You have to plan everything out before making a final decision. You can even combine the different types of cabinets to fit your lifestyle and to match the environment of the kitchen. For instance, you could have a shaker-style cabinet combine with glass to make it luxurious, while maintaining the elegance and simplicity.
It’s difficult to choose what’s best for you because there are also a lot of cabinet types to choose from. Further, you could hire a professional designer that you could rely on to design it with the specifications and preferences you provide.
There must be a lot of home improvement companies near you that you could go and inquire to. But, kitchen renovations Melbourne are most especially willing to help you meet your needs, and make the best kitchen cabinets to complete your kitchen.
Having reliable experts that you could work with to make the best cabinetry can add a bit more to your expenses. However, if your kitchen is an investment for you and you’re willing to make it the heart of your home, it’ll be worth it.
Distressed Cabinets
Distressed cabinets provide a rustic and casual look to your kitchen. Further, homeowners who love to go vintage and has antique kitchenware can never go wrong with distressed cabinets.
Since there’s a 15 to 20 percent increase of payment to manufacturers for distressing your cabinets, you can distress them yourself. With an easy and fast faux finish technique, you’ll be able to achieve the distressed look in a matter of hours.
Using distressed cabinets along with the royal sophistication of black will add charm and definition to your kitchen. Thus, making a kitchen that brings up an aura of formality, age, and comfortable warmth.
If you want an even more extreme distressed look to your cabinets, you could gently hit the edges of the cabinets with chains and hammers or denting some areas. By doing so, you’re making it look like the cabinets have gone through a lot, making it look more genuine.
But, distressing the cabinets too much as to look like they’ve been destroyed and abused will make the entire kitchen look shabby and uncool. Thus, you have to be careful if you’re doing a DIY distressing.
Thermofoil Cabinets
A durable and cost-effective type of cabinet, the thermofoil cabinet doors are molded out of medium-density fiberboard or MDF. The doors are wrapped in a thin malleable layer of a material similar to foil, and it is then heated and vacuum sealed.
Homeowners who are looking to complete their kitchen renovation without spending a lot for high quality and expensive cabinets can go for thermofoil. Thermofoil cabinets also provide varieties of design such as faux wood grain or solid colors, and other colors and patterns that you could choose from.
Unfortunately, with the price of thermofoil cabinets, it still has its downsides. For instance, the backside of the cabinet doors will only be a neutral colored laminate, which won’t match the front side of the door when opened. Also, the thermofoil can peel away from the medium-density fiberboard overtime.
Beadboard Cabinets
Beadboard cabinets is a type of vertical-paneled cabinet that have recessed lines that stretches from top to bottom. Another noticeable characteristic of the beadboard cabinets is that the simple geometry design of the vertical recessed lines appears neat and clean.
Also, even though there’s not a lot of things going on with the design and decoration. The detail of the recessed lines provides excellent texture that will highlight the design of the kitchen. Besides, beadboard cabinets are also an attractive alternative to the known shaker-type cabinets.
You’ll often find beadboard type cabinets in traditional cottage-themed houses. To make the best out of beadboard cabinets, combine them with metallic details and vintage inspired kitchenware.
However, beadboard cabinets aren’t only for cottage-style houses. Beadboard cabinets are known for providing practicality. Since it saves a lot of space, it can also provide relaxation and comfort despite its simplicity.
Raised Panel Cabinets
Unlike the traditionally styled cabinets such as shaker-type or flat-type, the raised panel cabinet has the center portion of the door slightly raised. Raised panels come in various styles and designs, and doesn’t have any panel recessing in on each other.
Raised panel cabinets are popular in both modern and traditional kitchen designs. Homeowners sometimes feature metal or glass inserts to outline the raised panel as well as adding an excellent touch to both the cabinetry and the kitchen.
Further, the raised panel cabinets are only made from hardwood and can be quite expensive. But, various finishes could be applied to the hardwood, making it easy to incorporate to any kitchen.
Takeaway
How you use your cabinetry to complement and highlight your kitchen design will all depend on you. Your preferences and personal taste are both critical factors to how you choose the materials and design for your cabinets. Also, keep in mind that your budget also matters in this project.
Few of the cabinet door types can be expensive, but if you know what you want and what you’re doing, you can even combine the design and material of the different types of cabinet doors to make your kitchen unique and special.
