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Kitchen Cabinet Doors: Cabinets Come in Many Styles For Your Kitchen
Kitchen cabinet doors come in many styles and colors so that you can get exactly what you want. It's not uncommon for major cabinetmakers to have 25 to 30 different door styles. Door styles are grouped by either contemporary, traditional, or transitional styles. Doors are further broken down based on how the doors fits the cabinet box.
Kitchen Cabinet Doors
Partial Overlay: These are the most common type of doors used in North America.
They fit over a face frame that is attached to the front of the cabinet box. Once mounted on the face frame they leave about an inch of cabinet frame exposed.
Full Overlay: These are designed to be the same as the above but the doors and drawers are made larger so that they almost cover the entire face frame leaving little of the frame showing.
You commonly see this type of door on
frameless kitchen cabinets
but they are also available on face frame cabinets as well.
Inset: This style is set back into the face frame leaving a small gap for the door to open and close. The front of the door is flush with the face of the frame. This requires very precise construction to see that the margin gap between the door and the frame are the same.
Lipped: This style has a grove cut all the way around the perimeter of the door so that it almost fits back into the face frame. This style requires hardware to open it since your fingers can't grasp the backside of the cabinet.
Tambour: This type of door is placed in a tract and moves up and down. It's commonly found on an appliance garage. It operates like the garage door on your home going up and around a 90 degree corner.
Door Panels
With all of the different wood species, door styles and stain colors there are hundreds of styles to choose from if you put all of the cabinet makers together.
You can even get a style that look old or "distressed" like the one you see pictured here. It's kind of funny that it cost more to get old looking cabinets.
Some of the more popular basic kitchen cabinet door styles include:
Raised panel
Recessed panel
Slab panel
Many more door styles emerge from the basic styles with the addition of more details. Each of the kitchen cabinet doors is usually available in a limited number of wood species. In other words, not all door styles are available in all wood species.
When you select doors for your new kitchen you are selecting a:
Door style
Wood species
Finish (paint or stain)
Tips to think about when selecting cabinet doors.
The Overall Look
The door styles really gives the cabinet character. Your kitchen will take on an overall look based on the cabinet doors and finish you select.
Your cabinets will play a large part in how your room will look when finished. Keep in mind that when you are looking at an individual door, this door will be repeated over and over throughout your kitchen. The more detailed that the door is, the more ornate the overall look will be.
Make sure you avoid anything that will be too "busy" unless you want that look. Many times with kitchen design, simper is better. Today, transitional designs with simple lines are the very popular.
The process of selecting kitchen cabinets may seem overwhelming at first glance but you'll be able to narrow it down rather quickly. Frankly, there will be a lot of cabinet doors that you simply won't like. This makes it easy to find an assortment of those that you do like for comparison.
Most showrooms and online cabinet suppliers have all of your main choice for you to look at. Some makers will even make you a sample door with your choice of finish if it isn't available in the showroom or online.
Kitchen cabinet door styles can be seen online but many homeowners prefer to see them is in person at a showroom. At a showroom, you may find that you can get a better idea of how your kitchen cabinet doors will give you the look you're after in your new kitchen design!
However, nowadays, many online cabinet sellers will send you a door style to look at with your other finishes. You may find that the best pricing that you can get is online and going that route may be your best choice to get the look you want for the price that fits your budget...
