When looking at your kitchen cabinet design, you want to focus your attention on the
cabinet door
styles and how they will appear multiplied many times over in your room. You also want to look at the drawers, hinges, and glides that are being used.
There are different offerings when considering cabinets from various cabinetmakers. They will either offer stock, semi-custom, custom, or some combination of these types.
Stock cabinets are the most reasonably priced, custom cabinets the most costly, and semi-custom falling in between.
By now, you probably have decided whether you want the doors and drawers to be closer together for a seamless look or if standard face frame cabinet are better for your design.
Door Styles
The door style you choose will play a major role in the appearance of your room and there are numerous styles to choose from. After all, this is your "kitchen furniture" and you want a door style that you'll be happy with for many years to come.
Visualize the door style you like magnified and repeated many times over in your kitchen. Intricate profiles with a lot of groves, raised panels, and planted moldings can become ornate and look overdone in a kitchen.
If you don't want a look that is too "busy," you may want to consider a door style for your kitchen cabinet design that's simpler. It's a matter of personal preference but it is a good idea to get an overall picture of how your cabinets will appear when put together.
Some folks want a simpler look while others want more detailed design. Simpler works well for contemporary or transitional styles and detailed cabinets are better suited for traditional design.
You will also want to know what type of hinges comes standard on the cabinets. A nice feature that's available nowadays is quiet close hinges. This will allow the doors to "slow down" and close quietly.
Just think…no more noise when the doors get closed! It's almost a must, by today's standards, to get this type of hinge if it fits your budget.
See many different kitchen cabinet designs in this video.
Drawers
Drawers will either have the same profile to match the door style or have a flat panel. Make sure that you know what comes standard so there are no surprises. Some styles like
shaker cabinets
often come with a flat drawer panel and some cabinetmakers will use flat panels to keep the cost down on other styles.
Look for cabinet drawers that are user friendly. Full extension glides is a very desirable feature. This allows the drawer to extend all of the way out for full access to the contents.
Make sure that the drawers go the full depth of the cabinet so you get the most drawer for your money. This will give you more storage for all of your things and everyone can use that.
Also, you want to know about the load capacity of the drawer glides and what type of glides they are. Glides with metal ball bearings that are mounted on the bottom of the drawer are the best. Glides of this type are usually only available on certain grades of cabinets.
Another nice feature is self-closing drawers. Drawers with this inventive type of glide will close on their own when the drawer is within a close distance of the face of the cabinet. This will prevent drawers from being left open a couple of inches and again, is great for noise reduction!
Three Levels of Kitchen Cabinet Design
You can get cabinets in one of the types listed above to pull together your
kitchen cabinet plans.
Stock cabinets are the most common type of kitchen cabinet that is used in the majority of homes. These types of cabinets are produced in large quantities and made in standard
cabinet dimensions.
A limited amount of door styles and stain colors are available and you can get quick delivery. When looking at stock cabinet you want to determine if the cabinet construction is acceptable to you. In this line of cabinets, lesser quality materials and construction techniques are sometimes used.
Semi-custom cabinets are generally a better quality then stock cabinets and give you many more options and features to choose from. You can get unusual sizes so that you don't have to use fillers to get your cabinets to fit the space.
As far as the usefulness of semi-custom cabinets, you can add dividers; pull out shelves, larger drawers, special corner cabinets, and many other features providing great
storage solution
for your kitchen cabinet design. They require more lead-time and are priced in between stock and custom lines.
Custom Cabinets are hand made much like furniture and are built to fit the exact space and design. There are no stock sizes and they are made to within 1/32" of what is specified.
This type of cabinet is the best choice if standard sizes just don’t fit and you want the utmost in design options. They are the best quality and it's reflected in the price. You can expect anywhere from a nine to twelve week lead-time.
Pulling it All Together
You now know some of the main things that you want to consider when looking at your kitchen cabinet design. If you would like more detailed information about how cabinets are built, go to the
kitchen cabinet construction
page.
Be sure to look at other options available to you. You can get things like cabinet light baffle that conceal your under cabinet lights. You can get cabinet crown molding that is used to decorate the top of your cabinets.
Hood enclosures made of wood, valances, planted moldings, deco panels, appliance garages, and other kitchen cabinet design features and accessories are available as well.
The overall price for the cabinets needs to fit your budget you've allowed. Cabinets are expensive and represent anywhere from 35 to 50% of the total cost or your kitchen remodel.
Once your cabinet plans are priced, you may need to scale back to reduce your cost but hopefully you can get what you want within your budget.
kitchen cabinet design for every taste and style.
If you want to know how to design a kitchen with timeless elegance...the kitchen cabinets will be a main factor in giving you the overall look you want.
With all of the decisions that you need to make, it can be overwhelming at times.
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This may be one of the best investments that you can make toward giving you a finished space that you and your family will enjoy daily!
Make sure that the drawers go the full depth of the cabinet so you get the most drawer for your money. This will give you more storage for all of your things and everyone can use that. 
