Everything You Need to Know About Kitchen Cabinets

Kitchen Cabinets 101 starts here.

It’s thrilling to select cabinetry for your new kitchen, but with so many different styles of cabinets to pick from, where do you start? While having options is excellent, it can be intimidating if you don’t have a basic understanding of the different types of cabinets, doors and drawers available and how you can use them to make your renovation dreams come true. That’s why we created this guide discussing everything you need to know about kitchen cabinets.

Let’s revamp your kitchen cabinets.

Types of Cabinets

When it comes to cabinetry for your remodel, there are three basic styles to consider: stock, semi-custom and custom cabinets. This overview will help you pick the appropriate type of cabinets for your project by explaining the differences between the three cabinetry styles and the benefits of each.

Stock

Stock cabinets are a quick and easy solution to give a kitchen a new look. The cabinets are constructed in standard cabinet sizes and come in a limited number of door types, colors and finishes. Aristokraft, for example, can provide style, selection and value, as well as quick delivery, to keep your remodeling project on track and bring your vision to life.

Semi-Custom

Semi-custom cabinets come in more designs, features and options than stock cabinets, allowing you to create a customized look for your kitchen at a lower cost than bespoke cabinets. Semi-custom cabinets, which are built to order and available from cabinet dealers, are often delivered between four to eight weeks. Semi-custom cabinets are available in a variety of finishes, stains, paints, glazes and specialty finishing techniques like distressing. They can also be customized with roll-out shelves, door racks and organization inserts, as well as crown molding, cabinet legs and feet and a variety of hardware options to create a one-of-a-kind aesthetic.

Custom

Custom kitchen cabinets provide the most diverse range of wood kinds, finishing options, construction platforms and customizations. Capable craftsmen and designers can fulfill any need, whether it’s working from current cabinet designs or employing a napkin-sketch approach to produce new custom parts in the production plant, ensuring that you get the exact cabinets you want.

Base Cabinets

Kitchen base cabinets, which are the “heavy lifters” of cabinetry, offer substantial storage capacity. They frequently contain shelves inside for things like pots and pans, cookware or cleaning supplies. They may also have roll trays or pull-out racks for convenient access to items, as well as amenities like recycling bins, trash cans and hampers for clothes. A base cabinet sits on the floor when a Toekick drawer is added to the bottom for more storage. There are also wall-hung base cabinets without a Toekick drawer.

Types

Even though there are countless variations of base cabinets, here are a few that are frequently used in kitchen designs.

Base easy-access cabinets – Base Easy-Access Cabinets are designed with the main shelf and small racks attached to the inner door for easy access to frequently used items.
Base pull-out cabinets – Base Pull Out Cabinets keep frequently used goods close at hand on tiny, open shelves equipped with racks to prevent items from falling over as the shelf is pulled out.
Two-drawer base cabinets – Two-drawer base cabinets make it simple to find what you’re looking for without having to go deep into shelving.
Open base cabinets – Open base cabinets have no doors and open shelving for storing or displaying objects.
Corner cabinets – Corner cabinet storage can contain a built-in Lazy Susan cabinet to assist make the most of limited kitchen space.
Supercabinets – SuperCabinets is the top-of-the-line in the base cabinet category. They come in a variety of styles and include adjustable pull-out shelves, pull-out wire racks and extensive door storage in racks attached to the inside of the cabinet doors.

Uses

Base cabinets open up new possibilities in every room of the house, from the kitchen to the bathroom to the laundry room or home office.

Kitchen islands – Make an island more functional by storing cookbooks in open base cabinets with shelving. Include base pull-out cabinets for easy access to cooking ingredients and a base SuperCabinet for extra storage of pantry items or kitchenware.
Window seating – Window sitting may be created in any area, from the kitchen to the family room, using low-profile drawer base cabinets.
Recycling and trash – Base cabinets with removable tubs are offered to keep recycled materials and rubbish hidden from view while remaining easy to empty.
Kitchen convenience – Drawer base cabinets can be used to store anything from pots and pans to table linens. Store bottled fluids and juices in easy-access base cabinets.

Wall Cabinets

The workhorses of cabinetry, wall-mounted cabinets offer much-needed storage space above base cabinets, making them perfect for retrieving objects while standing or moving around the room. Although there are many other kinds of wall cabinets, these are a handful that is frequently seen around the house.

Pull-down spice rack – With a pull-down spice rack, you may quickly get the ingredients you require without having to rummage around in the cabinet’s back for a certain spice.
Appliance garage – When not in use, countertop appliances can be stylishly hidden with the help of an Appliance Garage.
Wall easy-access storage cabinets – Easy-access wall storage cabinets are perfect for keeping both large and little objects because they come with three shelves and wire racks on the inside of the cabinet door.
Kitchen wall cabinet with a Lazy Susan – Digging deep into a corner cabinet is a challenge that a wall cabinet with a Lazy Susan eliminates by having rounded, rotating shelves.
Electronic lift cabinets – Like this Vertical Lift Cabinet with an Automatic Opening Mechanism, electronic lift cabinet doors offer maximum accessibility with a simple touch to open and close doors.

Tall Cabinets

Tall cabinets are the true “high achievers” of cabinetry, surpassing several other cabinet styles in terms of both height and storage capacity. They come in sizes that reach 96 inches in height. Tall cabinets are frequently used for pantry and utility storage because they can hold large or awkward goods, such children’s jackets and boots, bulk food supplies, mops, and brooms.

Although there are many different kinds of tall cabinets, the following are a few that are frequently found in homes.

Utility tall cabinets – To house smaller goods in a kitchen, bathroom, laundry room or mudroom, utility tall cabinets come in a variety of designs and can contain shelves, hooks, or even drawers. The Utility Drop Zone Cabinet (pictured), Utility Organizer Cabinet, and Utility Easy Access Cabinet are a few of the specific types that are offered.
Oven & microwave cabinets – Warming drawers, oven-microwave combos (like this Oven and Microwave Cabinet), single or double ovens, as well as other sizes and configurations of oven cabinets are also available.
Tall pantry pullout – Tall Pantry Pullout Cabinets’ narrow shelves with side racks keep kitchen necessities close at hand.
Pantry supercabinet – The Pantry SuperCabinet is the pinnacle of pantry storage and organization, keeping essential things close at hand.

Cabinet Doors

There are options for raised or recessed center panels on cabinet doors (sometimes referred to as flat panels). Cabinet doors with raised panels have a center panel that is elevated above the rest of the door, frequently with a beveled edge that gives it a distinct design. Usually, more classic designs use these doors. Cabinet doors with recessed or flat panels have an exterior edge that is higher than the middle panel, which defines the style of the door. Modern designs frequently employ recessed panel doors.

There are full and partial overlay cabinet door options. The front of the cabinet box is entirely covered by full overlay doors. Only a very small portion of the frame is visible when two overlay cabinets are side by side, giving the appearance of a nearly seamless, streamlined design. A smaller portion of the cabinet box front is left exposed when partial overlay doors are used, giving the cabinets a more conventional appearance.

With complete visibility of the cabinet frame and an unusual appearance that may be altered in a variety of ways, inset cabinet doors fit inside the openings in the cabinet face frame. Beaded or non-beaded inserts can be used to customize your inset cabinetry. The beaded insert is integrated into the cabinet door, adding a finishing touch that evokes high-quality craftsmanship.

To complement the design of a home, cabinet doors come in a variety of styles. Several types include:

Arch doors have a raised panel with a curved top in the shape of a half-oval.
Cathedral doors also include a raised panel with a top-mounted medieval arch.
Shaker doors feature simple recessed panels.
The flat panel on slab doors is neither raised nor recessed.
Beadboard doors have vertical grooves in their decorative wood paneling.

Cabinet Drawers

There are many different fronts available for cabinet drawers, but the five-piece and slab fronts are the most popular. The overall cabinet door type that has been chosen affects a cabinet’s drawer front design. Depending on the drawer size, kitchen drawer fronts might differ from one area to another. For instance, certain door designs won’t fit on smaller drawer arrangements and may necessitate the use of a slab front. For specific types, many manufacturers provide drawer front improvements. Here are two examples:

Five-Piece Drawer Fronts – A four-piece frame surrounds a center panel that is either raised or recessed on five-piece drawer fronts.
Slab Drawer Fronts – Slab drawer fronts, also known as solid drawer fronts, have a single flat surface with no decorative accents, giving them a clean and uncluttered appearance.

You could believe that a drawer is just a drawer, but there are a variety of drawer designs and purposes that you might not have known about. Here are a few things to think about when remodeling.

Corner Drawer Cabinets – Many homeowners view kitchen corners as a “black hole,” but MasterBrand has a number of options to make it a functional area.
Pegged Dish Organizer Drawer – Reduce the need to remove heavy dish stacks from upper cabinets by using a drawer that has an adjustable Pegged Dish Organizer to keep dishes organized.
Warming Drawer Cabinet – If family members are running late coming home, a warming drawer cabinet makes sure that dinner is hot and ready when guests arrive.
Utensil Drawer – Long utensils are stored diagonally in a diagonal drawer insert to maximize drawer space.

Is it time to replace your outdated kitchen? Check out Valor Home Services. If you require assistance in designing your new area, our kitchen designers would be pleased to answer your questions and collaborate with you to design your new kitchen layout. Once you have the design, we will have our skilled remodelers get everything started for the actual remodel. For more information, a price breakdown or an explanation of our process, give us a call today.