Kitchen Remodelling: Cabinet Door Styles 101

Kitchen Remodelling & Kitchen Renovation

When you first start thinking about remodelling the kitchen in your Toronto-area home, you probably have a vague idea of what you’d like. Maybe you know you’d like a huge, farmhouse-style sink and a built-in wine chiller. You probably know that you’d like more storage and are looking forward to installing beautiful new cabinets. You probably even have a general idea of what you’d like those cabinets to look like…the colour they will be, as well as the general style.

But what style of cabinet doors do you want? Most homeowners can’t answer this question. They know what they like when they see it, but they have trouble describing what they want in kitchen-remodelling terminology.

The team at Kitchen and Bath knows exactly what you’re going through and they are there to help. However, in order to make your remodelling journey a bit easier, here’s a quick guide on cabinet door styles to get you started. When you know the proper terminology, it’s much easier to jump right to the styles that fit your design aesthetic.

Full Overlay Cabinets

For a truly contemporary, clean look, full overlay cabinetry features the door (as well as the drawer) faces completely covering the cabinet frame. You won’t see the cabinet frame at all; the only thing you will see across the entire expanse of the cabinetry is drawer and cabinet door faces. Having the cabinet (and drawer) faces installed on the outer part of the frame gives you more storage inside. In order to achieve this look, however, you’ll need to work with a contractor (like one of the professionals at Kitchen and Bath) who is very good at installing this type of cabinet. If they’re not properly installed, the cabinet doors and drawers will catch and scrape each other.

Partial Overlay Cabinets
For a slightly less modern look, partial overlay cabinets have the door (and drawer facing) sitting over the frame but not covering it completely. This still provides the ample storage space of full overlay cabinets, as the doors and facings are completely outside the space of the cabinet and drawers themselves. You will see the cabinet frame on the sides of each cabinet door, as well as around the drawers. This kind of cabinet is more easily installed, as each door and drawer has a space between it.

Inset Cabinets

The most traditional of all of the cabinet styles, inset cabinets have their cabinet doors and drawer facings sitting inside the actual cabinet box. The cabinet frame and the cabinet door will line up evenly. Most antique cabinetry was designed in this style. With inset cabinets, you will lose a bit of storage space, as the cabinet door and hinge mechanism are all inside the cabinet box itself.

Now that you’ve gotten a cabinet door primer, you can march confidently into Kitchen and Bath and discuss the kind of cabinets you want for your upcoming kitchen remodel. The experts there will guide you through the additional details of how to get the kitchen you’ve always wanted. Additional Articles about Kitchen Cabinets:

Kitchen Remodelling: Cabinet Door Styles 101

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