CONSULTATION ACo | Love Where You Live
Cabinets for Your Home: Everything You Need to Know
All About Cabinets
Cabinets Rundown: What You Should Know
Getting Started: Find Your Cabinet Inspiration
There are two things we’ve learned when it comes to choosing new cabinets for your home:
One, new cabinets can single-handedly transform the look and feel of your space. A bad set of cabinets can suck the life right out of your kitchen, bathroom, or new home bar while great cabinets really add to its look and function.
Two, the sheer amount of choices and decisions needed can make your head spin. So where do you start? Let ACo remove the worry by guiding you through cabinetry design and installation to ensure you truly love where you live.
Whether you click through Pinterest, flip through the pages of design magazines, or browse the ACo project gallery, find what inspires you and let it guide you through making your decisions. To help you better understand the choices available, we have created this guide all about cabinets.
Exploring the Three Levels of Cabinetry
A great place to start when you are looking for new cabinets is with the level of cabinetry; budget-friendly stock cabinets, a more tailored approach with semi-custom cabinets, or the sky is the limit with designed just for you custom cabinets. It’s important to know these three levels because each range significantly in style and in cost, which is likely to affect your decision making for choosing the design that best suits your needs.
1. Stock Cabinets
Stock cabinets, also known as builder grade cabinets, refer to boxes that are built by the manufacturer based on industry-standard styles and measurements. They are built to pre-determined specifications and allow extremely limited customization.
At ACo, stock cabinets are our most affordable option and are produced in a predetermined size, making them less expensive than custom or semi-custom. With stock cabinets you have some different options as far as style and materials, but your choices are limited to what is available. That being said, stock is a great choice if you’re looking for affordable, quality cabinets. Here are some stock cabinet vendors we regularly work with:
Key Benefits:
- More cost effective than semi-custom or fully custom cabinets
- Quicker lead time.
- Still Great Quality: With advances in design and materials, today’s stock cabinets are a great option to consider for your home.
2. Semi-Custom Cabinets
These combine some of the best elements of both stock and full custom cabinetry. Like stock cabinets, semi-custom cabinets are manufactured, making them a more affordable alternative to custom. However, clients & designers can make minor adjustments, changes, or upgrades that accommodate the layout of their space.
Semi-custom cabinets give you more options and allow you to choose certain features, such as custom sizing and applications, and even some built-in features. We regularly partner with these vendors for semi-custom cabinets:
Key Benefits
- Mid-Range Budget: More cost effective than custom as they are standardized.
- Perfect Sizing: Unlike a stock cabinet, which is built to a specific size and cannot be altered, semi-custom can more easily be changed. If you need something with more height or width or a deeper cabinet, then a semi-custom can be altered.
- Semi-Custom: These types tend to come with multiple different door styles to choose from. Each door style will help bring a different look and feel to your kitchen cabinetry, so it’s a great place to really customize.
- Good Value: These cabinets are budget mindful and a quality investment since they give you the look and feel you want. With these two elements in mind, they will add value to your home both now and down the road.
3. Custom Cabinets
Custom cabinets are our most expensive option, but they also provide the most flexibility. You have complete control of everything, from type of wood to stain color to size to finish. Custom cabinets really add value to your home and makes your kitchen something special.
ACo’s custom cabinets are handcrafted in Indiana by skilled Amish artisans. Learn more about our custom cabinet maker:
Key Benefits:
- Quality: With custom cabinetry, you have much more control over the quality of wood and finishes used for manufacturing which means the end-product is going to be much higher quality than that of stock products.
- Customized Styling: With custom cabinets, your door style and finish options are limitless. This is important because the visual appearance of your cabinets is the focal point of your kitchen’s aesthetic. Custom cabinets allow you to color match your kitchen cabinets to any color you want.
- Personal Details: If you have an eye and appreciation for attention to detail and precision, custom cabinets could be the right fit for you. With custom cabinets, you can alter heights and widths, so that every detail lines up. Custom cabinets also allow you access to custom built-ins such as shelving or wine racks, embellishments, custom mullion doors, and various types of moldings and paneling.
- Limitless Space: Since custom cabinets can be made to any size, this enables you to gain access to more space in your kitchen. Those extra inches will add storage and counter space that may have a huge impact on your design.
The Basics of Cabinet Construction and Door Styles
Once you have established your budget and the level of cabinets to fit your needs, you are on to making your selections. Keep in mind that the level of cabinets you choose may affect your available options.
All About Cabinet Construction
Generally speaking, there are two different ways cabinets can be constructed: framed cabinet boxes and frameless cabinet boxes. The former is the most common and simpler compared to frameless, which is more modern and provides more storage space.
Framed Cabinet Boxes – This is the most common type of construction having a 1-1/2” border applied to the face of the cabinet. This flat frame is where the doors are secured, giving the cabinet extra stability.
Frameless Cabinet Boxes – Often referred to as European style, frameless cabinets eliminate the face-frame from the box creating a more contemporary look. Typically, thicker more durable material is used to construct the box to compensate for the missing face frame. Only full overlay doors can be used in this type of construction.
Types of Doors
There are three common types of cabinet doors: partial overlay, full overlay, and inset.
Partial Overlay Doors – Just as the name suggests, partial overlay doors partially overlap the face frame of the cabinet box—probably the most common and economical of the three. Because this type is so common, it is also the most affordable style. Homeowners can also rest easy knowing the precision required when hanging a partial-overlay cabinet door is more forgiving because there are no pieces that must be precisely matched. This provides flexibility for tricky spaces and doesn’t require meticulous installation.
Full Overlay Doors – Full overlay covers nearly the entire face frame of the cabinet, creating a cleaner and more high-end design. Since they are not set inside the cabinet frame, full overlay provides the greatest amount of storage with plenty of room for larger kitchen designed tools.
Inset Doors – Instead of resting atop the face frame, inset doors fit inside the cabinet face frame creating a clean, flush look. Inset cabinets are desired for their smooth, clean appearance, but the price is around 20% more than overlay doors.
Beyond the increase in price, cabinets with inset doors are built deeper to allow for standard storage space. This may cause issues with existing bulkheads or adjoining cabinetry. Homeowners also need to consider the expansion of wood caused by high levels of humidity which can sometimes cause rubbing to occur between the door and the frame.
Door Styles
Once the construction and door sizes have been selected, it’s time to start exploring the different door styles available. The three most common we see are flat panel, recessed panel, and raised panel.
Slab Door – Slab doors are more modern in design—seamless and simplistic. This door style is constructed from slabs of wood with back battens, veneer plywood slabs, or laminate over a substrate. They are great for showcasing a particular color or finish you may have selected.
Recessed Panel – On a recessed panel door, a raised frame is created around a flat or recessed center panel—it’s clean and minimal in details. This style is considered one of the most popular due to the smooth lines, minimalistic style, and budget-friendly nature. Recessed panel doors are available in many styles and finishes. Some of these doors also feature beveled trim that adds a touch of elegance.
Raised Panel – Raised panel cabinets have the center panel raised to the level of the outer frame. This creates a groove between the frame and the central panel. The look of this style provides extra depth to the cabinetry and is often more intricate. Doors with this level of detail fits well in traditional kitchens that have more elaborate designs and styles.
What You Need to Know All About Cabinet Materials
It all starts by learning the types of cabinet materials as well as the pros and cons, and seeing some examples to inspire you on your kitchen cabinet quest:
All About Cabinet Materials for Your Kitchen – The Pros and Cons You Need to Know
Wood Cabinets – Wood cabinets come in a variety of styles such as natural, stained, or painted finishes.
- Pros: Wooden kitchen cabinets are durable and it’s much easier to repair. These cabinets are also very versatile because you have a wide range of wood spices, styles, colors and finishes to choose from.
- Cons: One of the major drawbacks of wooden cabinets is that they are prone to humidity. When the moisture content in wood cabinets fluctuate during a change in climate, the wood tends to expand and contract which can result in warping. Wood cabinets are also more expensive due to the quality of material.
Eco-Friendly Cabinets – Eco-friendly cabinets are made from reclaimed, renewable, or recycled materials.
- Pros: For some homeowners, it’s important that they contribute towards saving the environment and reducing their carbon footprint. These cabinets are an excellent step in the right direction to make this happen.
- Cons: However, the renewable materials are harder to come by, making them fairly expensive.
Laminate Cabinets – Laminate is a synthetic material that is made of compressed wood.
- Pros: One of the biggest pros to this material is the fact that it is so easy to clean. You only need a water-based cleaner and a sponge. It’s also preferred due to its durability as laminate protects against scratches, stains, etc.
- Cons: Biggest downside is that Laminate isn’t invincible, so any damage done is likely irreversible. Price can vary depending on variety.
Thermofoil Cabinets – Thermofoil cabinets are made of vacuum-pressed vinyl.
- Pros: Like laminate, this material is extremely easy to clean and wipe down. They are also fairly inexpensive with numerous design styles.
- Cons: This material has a major downside in that it is susceptible to heat. You may need heat shields if cabinets are near an oven or dishwasher. This material is also unrepairable if the vinyl layer is damaged.
Metal Cabinets – Often stainless steel, metal cabinets are available in a variety of shiny and brushed metals.
- Pros: Metal offers a sleek and contemporary look that is unaffected by heat or humidity. They are also very durable and stain resistant.
- Cons: Very costly and scratch and dent prone—and tend to show fingerprints prominently.
How Virtual Reality Could Solve Your Cabinet Conundrum
Remember the days when you were limited to dreaming about what your new cabinets might look like, only to be let down by your own imagination once it’s actually finished?
Thanks to Virtual Reality (VR), those days are all but gone.
VR is transforming the home remodel process by eliminating the gap between your imagination and the space you’re remodeling.
What does that mean for you?
Using VR technology, you can experience an immersive, 3D rendering of your home remodel before construction even begins. Now, you can see how everything in your floor plan—the wall cabinets, kitchen, floors, furniture, walls, and lighting. VR aesthetically interacts to ensure your new design meets all of your needs, removing surprises down the road and helping manage costs.
Check out the tools ACo uses to make it happen.
Order Cabinets Online with our Cabinet Concierge
Cabinets designed in the comfort of your home – shipped to your doorstep.
Designing new cabinets for your kitchen can be daunting, and you don’t want to overpay for costly mistakes. Our Cabinet Concierge is here to help and will guide you through a simple approach – The ACo Way – to ensure you get the best cabinetry for your home and a worry-free experience so you can love where you live. Follow the link below to learn more and calculate your budget.
Love Where You Live
At ACo, we want you to love where you live. That is our promise to you, and it guides everything we do.
Building a new home or remodeling your current one can be daunting, but we are here to help! We guide you through our simple approach – The ACo Way – to ensure a worry-free new cabinetry experience that allows you to love where you live.
Our cultivated team of experts, specializing in everything from design to construction, partner with you through every step of your project. Through open communication and well-defined expectations, we help you manage the emotional rollercoaster.
Get started on your cabinetry project with ACo. Connect with us for a complimentary in-home design consultation, or visit our one-stop shop at our showroom + design studio. When you’re ready to love where you live with a luxurious kitchen, lavish bath, beautiful cabinets, or stunning flooring space, we’re ready to make it happen.