Fort Myers Kitchen Remodeling Tip; Kitchen Cabinet Types
There are two basic types of kitchen cabinets being sold in the U.S. today, face frame, the style you grew up with, and European, first developed by our friends across the sea and called frameless in the cabinet world. Let me throw in a quick definition before we wade in too deeply.
A cabinet is simply a box with a door (or doors) on it.
There are two basic types of kitchen cabinets being sold in the U.S. today, face frame, the style you grew up with, and European, first developed by our friends across the sea and called frameless in the cabinet world. Let me throw in a quick definition before we wade in too deeply.
A cabinet is simply a box with a door (or doors) on it.
A Face Frame Cabinet
A face frame cabinet box has a wood frame on the front face to which the doors are attached. The door does not cover the entire front of the box or the frame. This frame is usually a bit more than 2 inches wide and is attached so the top of the bottom rail is flush with the bottom shelf of the cabinet and therefore the frame hangs below the bottom of the box by some 1-1/4 inches. OK, that was too involved even for me, but the point is, these cabinets have a traditional look many homeowners prefer mostly because they are used to the style. Face frame cabinets look somewhat like built-in furniture for the wall. The face frame adds strength to the cabinet so the box itself is normally of lighter construction. The design is venerable and has been in use forever but does have a few serious drawbacks.
The face frame forms inside corners with the box that make it a chore to clean. Center vertical bars between two doors on the same cabinet restrict cabinet access (plumbers hate them), and the frames protrude above and below the box creating dust and cobweb catching corners. Face frames also protrude beyond the cabinet sides and putting two boxes side by side result in wasted space between cabinets. The door hinges are simple but difficult to adjust but this is generally OK because the doors are farther apart and mis-alignments are less noticeable. Re-facing these kitchen cabinets requires painting or laminating a new finish on the face frames (thereby limiting choices) and there is messy glue and dusty routing to trim. After that you can hang those new doors, you know, the ones whose choice cost you several nights sleep.
Face frames tend to waste cabinet volume. A typical 30 inch wall cabinet looses over four inches in useful height due to the frame. That is about 15% of cabinet height. Waste on the cabinet width is not as bad because the space behind the verticals can be assessed although poorly. Drawer cabinets have the most wasted space. There are horizontal frames between each drawer and the space behind the verticals which cannot be used. On smaller drawer cabinets, face frames can cause as much as 30% less useable storage space.
A Frameless Cabinet
Frameless cabinets are quite different. They have no face-frame, the box is built without one so the doors are attached directly to the box and they cover the entire front. There aren’t hard-to-clean corners inside or out and the box is smooth on the bottom and top with no gaps between boxes. Without the added strength of a face frame, the box itself is built stronger and normally has a thicker cabinet back. Drawers have no face frame between them or on the sides so only minimum drawer volume is wasted.
The doors cover the entire face of the cabinets. With the door closed you can’t normally see the cabinet box unless you look up under the wall cabinets or at the end panel of a cabinet run. Since you can’t see the box, changing styles or colors in the kitchen simply means changing the doors. For instance, raised panel doors makes your kitchen look traditional and smooth doors look modern.
A reface in the future will be easy. Only outward-facing flat panels on the wall cabinet bottoms or sides or base cabinet ends will need to be laminated or painted if the change is to a very different color.
The style is clean, the access to the interior is unhindered and hallelujah! the cabinet can simply be wiped straight out with no inside corners. Frameless hinges are self closing, and completely adjustable. If a quality hinge is used, any door can be removed without tools, (unless you count your fingertip), and will still be in adjustment when snapped back in place.
The ease of changing the style or color of a frameless kitchen might come in handy if your tastes change in the future, or perhaps your house is on the market and the prospect has a completely different idea of kitchen splendor. More kitchens feature frameless cabinets every year and we think that for many reasons these kitchens will soon dominate the market.
Next time we will discuss the differences between custom designs and your local big box store design.
A face frame cabinet box has a wood frame on the front face to which the doors are attached. The door does not cover the entire front of the box or the frame. This frame is usually a bit more than 2 inches wide and is attached so the top of the bottom rail is flush with the bottom shelf of the cabinet and therefore the frame hangs below the bottom of the box by some 1-1/4 inches. OK, that was too involved even for me, but the point is, these cabinets have a traditional look many homeowners prefer mostly because they are used to the style. Face frame cabinets look somewhat like built-in furniture for the wall. The face frame adds strength to the cabinet so the box itself is normally of lighter construction. The design is venerable and has been in use forever but does have a few serious drawbacks.
The face frame forms inside corners with the box that make it a chore to clean. Center vertical bars between two doors on the same cabinet restrict cabinet access (plumbers hate them), and the frames protrude above and below the box creating dust and cobweb catching corners. Face frames also protrude beyond the cabinet sides and putting two boxes side by side result in wasted space between cabinets. The door hinges are simple but difficult to adjust but this is generally OK because the doors are farther apart and mis-alignments are less noticeable. Re-facing these kitchen cabinets requires painting or laminating a new finish on the face frames (thereby limiting choices) and there is messy glue and dusty routing to trim. After that you can hang those new doors, you know, the ones whose choice cost you several nights sleep.
Face frames tend to waste cabinet volume. A typical 30 inch wall cabinet looses over four inches in useful height due to the frame. That is about 15% of cabinet height. Waste on the cabinet width is not as bad because the space behind the verticals can be assessed although poorly. Drawer cabinets have the most wasted space. There are horizontal frames between each drawer and the space behind the verticals which cannot be used. On smaller drawer cabinets, face frames can cause as much as 30% less useable storage space.
A Frameless Cabinet
Frameless cabinets are quite different. They have no face-frame, the box is built without one so the doors are attached directly to the box and they cover the entire front. There aren’t hard-to-clean corners inside or out and the box is smooth on the bottom and top with no gaps between boxes. Without the added strength of a face frame, the box itself is built stronger and normally has a thicker cabinet back. Drawers have no face frame between them or on the sides so only minimum drawer volume is wasted.
The doors cover the entire face of the cabinets. With the door closed you can’t normally see the cabinet box unless you look up under the wall cabinets or at the end panel of a cabinet run. Since you can’t see the box, changing styles or colors in the kitchen simply means changing the doors. For instance, raised panel doors makes your kitchen look traditional and smooth doors look modern.
A reface in the future will be easy. Only outward-facing flat panels on the wall cabinet bottoms or sides or base cabinet ends will need to be laminated or painted if the change is to a very different color.
The style is clean, the access to the interior is unhindered and hallelujah! the cabinet can simply be wiped straight out with no inside corners. Frameless hinges are self closing, and completely adjustable. If a quality hinge is used, any door can be removed without tools, (unless you count your fingertip), and will still be in adjustment when snapped back in place.
The ease of changing the style or color of a frameless kitchen might come in handy if your tastes change in the future, or perhaps your house is on the market and the prospect has a completely different idea of kitchen splendor. More kitchens feature frameless cabinets every year and we think that for many reasons these kitchens will soon dominate the market.
Next time we will discuss the differences between custom designs and your local big box store design.
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