Tips for Selecting Kitchen Cabinets

Have you ever renovated or thought about renovating your kitchen? There are a lot of decisions to be made including choosing kitchen cabinets which has of the biggest impacts on the space.

After completing a full renovation of my kitchen a few years ago, I learned a few things to look out for and consider when selecting kitchen cabinets as well as the design process in general. Today I wanted to share with you some of the things I learned along the way.

Aesthetic + Style

Aside from nearly infinite choies for the color or finish and style of kitchen cabinets comes the choice between inset or full overlay doors and drawers. Inset doors and drawers streamline the look of the kitchen as they are flush with the frames of the cabinets. They give off more of a chic farmhouse vibe. Full overlay doors and drawers cover the entire face of the cabinet frame. They each deliver a different look and feel to a kitchen, and inset cabinets are considerably more expensive than full overlays. When planning my kitchen I originally wanted inset cabinets for that cleaner, more polished farmhouse look but, I couldn’t justify spending the extra $1,000 for something that i wasn’t confident I would really appreciate or notice as time went on. I ultimately chose shaker style full overlay cabinets and was very happy with my decision.

There many, many options for cabinetry style. Shaker style is classic and timeless, so that’s a good option if you want something that looks current but isn’t trendy. My absolute favorite kitchen design includes white shaker style cabinetry. Always! With the help of hardware, you can dramatically change the look of the room. I opted for polished nickel hardware and glass pulls with the same polished nickel, but I think brass, gold and bronze hardware also look great, too. It just depends on the look and feel you’re aiming for in the space.

Quality Construction

When it comes to quality, you want to be sure the cabinets are built to last through all the wear and tear for years to come. A good indicator of quality construction is to look at how the drawers are assembled. The ideal thing to look for are dovetailed drawers where the side panels and the front panel of the drawer are grooved together for a more sound structure. Overtime, the front panel of drawers tend to get loose or fall off when the drawer is simply constructed by nailing and/or gluing the front panel to the sides.

Another thing to think about when selecting kitchen cabinets is how the doors and drawers close. Soft closing drawers and drawers are much easier on the cabinets and can reduce the wear and tear it would otherwise endure when the user had to forcefully open and close a drawer or cabinet. Soft closing doors and drawers will minimize damage that results in repetive opening and closing, especially those few drawers we tend to use most often.

Use of Space

The corners of kitchens tend to create a lot of questions as to how to wisely use the space especially when choosing kitchen cabinets. I’ve noticed that sometimes one or more corners are boxed off to accommodate cabinets with shelving or drawers on either side. Other cabinet options include adding in a corner unit where you can add a two tiered revolving shelf system, a unit with drawers that can be pulled out, or the least expensive option, a long cabinet with a shelf that runs the length of the cabinet. Because I was on a budget, I opted for the latter option and found it to be a great place to store kitchen electrics and bulkier items. I kept less frequently used items toward the back of the cabinet.

Another idea to get a customized feel is to add a cabinet or two that sits on the counter top and runs the same height as the other surrounding cabinets. They provide more storage space and can help reduce clutter that tends to make its way onto the counter. The two end cabinets in my kitchen are 2″ deeper than the other three which adds dimension.

One pet peeve of mine is when cabinets in a room with “normal” ceiling heights (anywhere up to 9′ to 10′ or so) do not go up to the ceiling, leaving this weird gap for junk or dust to collect. These seemingly floating wall cabinets can actually make a room feel shorter. Aside from the aesthetic appeal to having wall cabinets that extend up to the ceiling, capped off with beautiful crown molding, they also offer more storage with the extra height. It’s a win-win! For ceilings that are especially high, you could always stack a shorter cabinet on top of a wall cabinet at the longest length, Of you opt for 100% customization, you can pretty much get whatever length and width you want.

Choose What You Love

There were a few things that I wanted to incorporate into my kitchen that I allowed my designer to talk me out of when planning the kitchen design. Two of those things included a white apron sink and a bronze faucet. The designer told me that they were both quickly going out of style and wouldn’t help with resale down the road. It’s been close to five years since we had that conversation and I’ve yet to find her assumptions to be true. I haven’t come across anything anywhere that indicates apron aka farmhouse sinks are a thing of the past; in fact, I continue to see kitchens remodels include these fixtures and finishes. Maybe in 10-15 years they will phase out, but that’s true with most things. Another design element I was talked out of was adding quarter round trim to the base of all of the cabinets; I think it gives kitchen cabinetry a finished, built-in and custom look, and it’s something I plan to add in the future.

The point I’m trying to make is that if it is something that you really want, then don’t let someone else talk you out of it simply because it might not appeal to others or it might look dated at some point in the future, especially if you’re planning to live there for many years to come. On the contrary, if you’re looking to sell in the near future, then it would help with resale to design around what’s trending, while still keeping the space relatively neutral, as that is what buyers are generally looking for in their future home.