Setting the Tone for Your Kitchen

Of all the elements in a kitchen, cabinets most set the tone for the entire room. They dictate the style, determine how well the kitchen works, take up much of the floor space, and eat up the lion's share of the budget. It makes sense to understand where cabi­nets come from, how they're made, and what goes inside them.

Kitchen Cabinet Style is Made up of Many Elements

To start, take a look at the style. There's no design decree for kitchen cabinet style these days, and that can be both daunting and exhilarating. Cabinet heights, colors, hardware, and door and drawer configurations can be mixed within the same kitchen to benefit both style and function. Hardworking, good-looking cabinets can come from a cabinet factory, from a one-person shop, or from anywhere in between. Together, these sources turn out an astonishing variety of finishes, sizes, and styles.

Detail in Kitchen Cabinets Can Set the Tone
Learn about cases, understand how door and drawer types relate to case types, and discover how many options are available for doors and drawers: solid, transparent, paneled, flat, laminated, painted, carved, and more. Kitchen cabinets can fool the eye but look closely at the construction of a door or drawer to assess how well it will hold up. Cabinet hardware adds the finishing touch and helps set the stage for a smoothly working kitchen. Finally, look inside the cabinets to discover the amazing array of accessories that can make your final choice of cabinets work better and more efficiently.

Trimming tops and bottoms contributes more to style and function more than it might seem. Cabinets can stop short of the ceiling or go all of the way up; Cabinet bottoms may meet the floor or incorporate a toe space.

Doors and drawers tell the most about kitchen style

For instance, kitchen cabinets with green painted door panels and door faces could also be used to frame a black slate countertop. Drawn glass panels in the kitchen cabinets would add extra contrast to the upper kitchen cabinets. The result could be an American Colonial look or perhaps an oriental look.

Kitchen cabinet hardware can transform a kitchen

Pulls, hinges, drawer slides, and specialized accessory hardware make an enormous difference in how kitchen cabinets work and look. These things also make a difference in how much the kitchen cabinets will cost.

Cases, the actual boxes, of kitchen cabinets can have face frames or they can be frameless. Choosing a case type and selecting doors go hand in hand.  Framed cabinets look more traditional, while frameless ones look more modern.

So, start by selecting the right cabinets that will set the tone for your vision of a beautiful new kitchen.