Kitchen 101 - What’s New in Cabinets?
If you are thinking of a reno or are building a new house, the last think you want is to end up with an out dated look from the get go. Just because you liked it in the ‘90s doesn’t mean you should have it in ‘00’s.
Typically, both the construction and the style of a kitchen or bathroom should last a good 20 years. As you come to the end of your single digit years, you know that reno you did 18 years ago? Well, it’s time for a face lift.
Cabinetry
Door Styles: The 2 ¼ square shaker flat panel door is out, and the 3” is in. There’s more meat to it, and it looks a lot “beefier”. If you are tired of cleaning the inside square with a Q tip, go for an inside cove or bead. For those who are picky about doors and drawers lining up perfectly we recommend an outside cove or bevel. The eye can’t pick up a 1/16 of an inch so easily when the outside of the door isn’t a 90 degree square.
For a more contemporary look try a “slab” door. This is not a shaker but remember it is not a solid piece of wood either. If you had a door with pieces of solid maple glued together it would warp and not hang flat. The slab doors are created using Medium Density Fibreboard (MDF) and then covered with a real or engineered wood stainable veneer. The MDF will cause the door to remain flat. These doors are very popular, and are considered even more high- end than shaker.
Definite no go’s … Cathedral doors, Melamine doors, and many of the raised panel doors.
Colour: There is a design rule that we break all the time but it is a good one to go by…The floor and the counter must agree and the cabinets are the contrast. Light cabinets, dark floor and counter or dark cabinets, light floor and counter.
The Espresso is still in and will be for a long time to come. For a bathroom, an espresso cabinet with crema marfil marble, and a light beige tile on the floor is still a winner every time. Or for the kitchen, place an eggshell quartz on top of Brookside Veneer slab door in Wenge. A hint about the Brookside Veneers…the grain can go horizontal…but the sheets only
come 48 x 96 vertical.
We often go for 2 – toned kitchens…using a cream painted slab door for the tall’s and uppers and the Brookside with horizontal grain for the bases. Want to spend even more money? Have the horizontal grain book matched, as long as you don’t have a run of more than 96” of base cabinets, that is.
Lighter main cabinets and a darker island furniture piece is still popular as well as placing a tint of the island colour glaze into the ridges of the lighter cabinets.
Warm cherry, light to dark maple, even a rustic look in alder are all popular colours for cabinets. See our Door Styles Page for a more comprehensive list.