Let’s break down a few of the most popular kitchen cabinet boxes and kitchen cabinet door choices. Solid wood, laminate, thermofoil, MDF, glass or metal inlays-there are countless possibilities out there when you consider the number of design options and finishes. You will also need to select the type of material you want to use for your kitchen cabinet doors as well. With the inset option, cabinet doors are installed flush with the face of a framed cabinet, whereas an overlay design has the cabinet doors laying over the cabinet. You’ll need to start by choosing between frameless or framed cabinets which will then lead to decisions regarding inset cabinet doors or overlay. One big decision point in kitchen cabinet door design is actually going to come from the cabinet construction itself before the doors even come into the picture. I’ll explain a little more about this later. A flat slab kitchen cabinet door has a simple uniform surface, and is typically made from a single piece of wood. Flat Slab vs PaneledĪ paneled door or drawer has a frame (consisting of stiles and rails) added to it. English, French, Colonial and other very traditional styles typically have raised panels integrated into their look. With that being said, the raised panel can be very timeless. The one big caution of going with raised panels is that they can appear to date the cabinetry if the design is not critically considered. Raised panels are more ornate and luxurious and are very much connected to some of the most traditional looks possible. Your kitchen cabinet doors can have a raised panel or a flat panel. Our team and other highly custom shops offer custom profiles to make the cabinetry even more unique to the home. Applied profiles are more work, and therefore can be more expensive. You can select an applied profile, in which additional wood is added to the cabinet door to create a specific look, or a milled profile, where the stile and rail are routed into a shape. The profile is the “detail” of the door and essentially the personality of the cabinet.

The profile dictates the style of the cabinet more than any other detail.

The profile is a big deal-it’s the shape put on the outside and inside edges of your cabinet.

On each stile and rail you have a profile. I like to intermix a variety of stiles and rails into a design to add visual interest. On large cabinet doors, such as the panels that cover refrigerator doors, they typically include a “middle rail” or even a “middle stile” which would create the four-panel appearance. A “stile” is the vertical piece on a cabinet door and the “rail” is the horizontal piece. Stiles, Rails, and PanelsĪ 5-piece cabinet door has a top rail, a bottom rail, a left stile, a right stile, and a panel. When selecting your perfect kitchen cabinet doors it’s important to understand a few of these so you can be sure you’re making the right choice for your kitchen. As with any industry, the world of kitchen cabinets is filled with specialized lingo and terms.

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