Cabinet doors are perhaps the most striking component of a kitchen remodel. Whether you are a homeowner planning your dream kitchen or a cabinet dealer, it’s important to learn about all the exciting options for kitchen cabinet doors today. Presenting our comprehensive guide to popular cabinet door styles.
Top Kitchen Cabinet Door Styles
Slab or Flat Style Cabinet Doors
Slab doors are smooth and flat, with a clean, minimalist look that’s perfect for contemporary or modern kitchens. This flat panel door style is also easy to care for and affordable.
Shaker Style Cabinet Doors
Shaker style cabinet doors, also known as recessed panel, feature a raised edge surrounding a recessed centre panel. Simple and clean, these coordinate well with any kitchen design style.
Raised Panel Style Cabinet Doors
On a raised panel cabinet door, a grooved frame surrounds a higher centre panel to add depth and interest. This flexible cabinet door style integrates equally well with rustic, contemporary, and traditional kitchen designs.
Glass Insert Cabinet Doors
Mullion
Mullion doors contain a glass panel framed by wood (or other cabinet material) and divided by narrow bars known as “mullions.” They are used to show off your fine dinnerware or crystal or to add a visual break to a wall of cabinetry.
Frameless
Frameless glass cabinet door styles are made of a single sheet of glass, held in place by decorative hinges. These dramatic, contemporary style glass cabinets are in line with today’s European style trends in kitchen cabinetry.
Cathedral Style Cabinet Doors
Cathedral doors are a variation on raised panel cabinetry. Each is topped by a distinctive curved arch.
Kitchen Cabinet Door Types
Custom
Custom cabinet doors are designed and built especially for your unique kitchen in many overlay styles. They combine design flexibility, quality, beauty, and traditional artisanship. However, as is typical of high-quality products, they are pricey and take time to craft.
Semi
Semi-custom cabinet doors offer more colour and design options (as well as better fit) than prefab, yet they are cheaper and usually delivered faster than fully custom work. Their quality and price are generally mid-range.
Prefab
Also known as stock, prefab cabinet door styles are sold inexpensively “off the shelf” and are ready right away, although some assembly may be required. This sounds good if you are in a hurry to complete your kitchen remodel at the lowest price point. On the other hand, cabinet styles, sizes and shapes are limited. In addition, prefab doors tend to be made of poor-quality materials. Installation often involves an extra charge.
Top Kitchen Cabinet Materials
The range of cabinet materials is truly amazing; there is something to match any kitchen style. Here are the most popular, with pros and cons of each.
Melamine
Melamine is the most affordable type of cabinet door material. The outer surface is a melamine resin-coated layer of paper, which is heat-fused to a base of MDF, plywood, or pressed wood. You will find an amazing range of patterns, colours, and “grains.” Melamine doors are easy care, needing virtually no maintenance, but this material does tend to scratch and dent readily. What’s more, it is usually available only in limited, right-angled shapes.
Polyester
Polyester improves on the positive qualities of melamine at a slightly higher price point. Pine fibre is added to melamine for greater resistance to wear and tear. (If you do get a scratch, though, you will have trouble retouching it satisfactorily.) Polyester kitchen cabinet doors are available in a wide selection of colours, including a wood look.
Solid Wood
Natural solid wood showcases a classic style, always in demand and popular with homebuyers. Solid wood doors are durable — lasting up to 50 years — and highly damage resistant. Even if the wood does become scratched, you can easily retouch it. A disadvantage is that wooden doors may be damaged by excessive moisture. Wood cabinet doors can be crafted in a wide variety of shapes and styles and may be stained, varnished, or painted to suit your taste.
Medium-Density Fibreboard (MDF)
Medium density fibreboard is a composite made up of wood fibres mixed with resin. MDF kitchen cabinets are smooth and easy to paint or finish to your liking. They also resist cracking and peeling.
Wood Veneer
Wood veneer cabinets have a thin coating of natural wood (normally less than 3 mm thick) glued onto plywood or particle board. Lightweight. They provide a budget-friendly way to enjoy the look of real wood and can be stained or varnished. On the other hand, they are much less durable than solid wood and are vulnerable to water damage, warping, and chipping.
High Gloss Thermofoil
High gloss thermofoil cabinet doors consist of a thin layer of vinyl which is vacuum-pressed onto MDF. Their outstanding characteristic is a seamless, glossy appearance, which reflects light and brightens your kitchen. Although their non-porous surface is suitable as a full overlay design, easy to wipe clean, plus moisture and stain-resistant, it shows fingerprints and smears. In addition, it’s not suitable for elaborate door styles and cannot be painted or stained.
High-Pressure Laminate
High-pressure laminate doors differ from standard laminate in one essential way. Their coating is made up of multiple bonded layers: kraft paper impregnated with resin, decorative paper, and transparent melamine for improved scratch resistance. They are low maintenance, impact and wear-resistant, and require no finishing. Interesting colours and textures include metallic and graphic patterns.
Types Of Kitchen Cabinet Installation Methods
Full Overlay
Full overlay cabinet doors and drawer faces sit in front of the cabinet frame. No part of the door is inside the box, and the entire frame of the cabinet is hidden from view.
There are two advantages to full overlay doors. The main one is the chic, continuous modern look. Most of Laurysen’s customers are looking for this modern style. The other advantage is that you have full access to the inside of the cabinet or drawer, which means more room for storage.
The challenge with this style is that it requires real cabinet-making know how to build and install full overlay cabinets and drawers so that they’re far enough apart so that they don’t scrape against each other when you’re opening and closing them. This is the kind of know-how that Laurysen’s team has.
Partial Overlay
With partial overlay doors, the door sits on top of the frame, but does not completely cover it, as with full overlay. You can see some of the cabinet frame between the doors.
With this style, you get full access to the interior of the cabinet or drawer, but the look is not as polished because of the gaps between the individual doors and drawers.
Inset
In this style of door, the door fits the opening to the cabinet box. The cabinet frame is not covered at all – the frame and the door are on the same plane. Hinges are almost always visible. This is a traditional style, mostly seen in cabinetry created around the early twentieth century and before. It can be custom made today, but can be more expensive than other options.
The Right Doors For Every Kitchen
Whatever your kitchen design needs may be — traditional cabinets, full overlay, standard overlay or partial overlay — Laurysen is here to help. We manufacture quality kitchen cabinets in a wide range of materials and styles. Our team of expert interior design consultants will work with you to plan a kitchen renovation, incorporating the right cabinets and doors to enhance the overall look and function of your new kitchen.
If you are a store manager looking for a cabinetry supplier, we’re here for you, too. We are a local Ontario business defining the industry standard with an emphasis on excellence. Talk to us to find out how we can work together.
This 5-star Google Review describes Laurysen’s approach to caring customer service:
Laurysen installed our kitchen cabinets 20 years ago! Even after all that time, they continue to provide excellent customer service to us! I needed to replace the corner cabinet door trim when we had our cabinet fronts refinished, and they provided the needed amount at no charge!!
– Cynthia S
