Introduction

Kitchen cabinets have become so much of a part of every home such that it’s very hard to imagine a kitchen without a single cabinet in sight. Rightly so, because it is not just its functionality, but also its contribution to the room’s aesthetics that makes it an all-too important fixture in every kitchen. Through the years, kitchen cabinets have evolved from mere shelves and cupboards into kitchen fittings that come in different designs, styles, sizes and shapes.

History of Kitchen Cabinets

Kitchen cabinets have come a long way from its predecessors: those humble and unadorned shelves and cupboards that served as storage spaces for the emerging kitchen gadgets brought about by technology during the post Civil War era. It was during those times when most slaves have left their masters’ homes to work in farms or factories. The woman of the house is left with no choice but to work on the kitchen and do the household chores. Fortunately in the 1920’s, technology brought in small appliances such as vacuum cleaners, washing machine, electric iron, icebox, and other household or kitchen appliances.

The increased use of these appliances brought one more compelling need – the need for storage space. This paved the way for the stand-alone cabinets. At that time, built-in cabinets were not yet common. One such popular cabinet is the “Hoosier” cabinet, a kitchen cabinet that serves as a coffee bar, bread-making board, and storage space for dishes, pots, pans and even linens. Soon enough, the kitchen reclaimed its status as the heart of every home as more modern conveniences inspired the homemaker to make the kitchen as functional, yet comfortable to work in. Many took to designing their kitchen, and building it to fit to their changing lifestyle. Add to that the rising popularity of woodworking after World War II, it was not long before skilled woodworkers turned to cabinet making. From then on, our kitchen cabinets have never been the same again.


General Types of Kitchen Cabinets

Freestanding and Built-in

A freestanding cabinet refers to stand-alone cabinets that can be purchased off-the-shelf, and can be moved from one place of the kitchen to another. Generally, a freestanding cabinet can be bought for less cost than a built-in cabinet.
On the other hand, a built-in cabinet is one that is custom-made for a particular area in the kitchen and affixed firmly on the wall or on the floor. The craftsmanship, time and skills involved make these custom-made kitchen cabinets pricier than freestanding cabinets.

Face Frame Or Frameless
A kitchen cabinet may also be face-frame cabinet, one that is framed around the front side of the cabinet. A frameless kitchen cabinet as the name implies, is a cabinet that is not framed around its front side.

Stock, Semi-Custom, and Custom Cabinets
A stock cabinet refers to cabinets that are readily available for purchase from home centers or cabinet suppliers. They are the least expensive of the lot, immediately available for delivery. But buyers of stock cabinets are, most often than not, limited to only a few design, style, or colors.

While stock cabinets are more mass-produced than custom-made ones, the former may appear to be more inferior in terms of quality. But due to the growing use of more advanced equipment for the manufacture of kitchen cabinets, some stock cabinets may even possess better quality than that of other types of kitchen cabinets.

On the other hand, semi-custom kitchen cabinets are a cut above stock cabinet in terms of quality, aesthetics and variety because the buyer has more options in terms of style, color and finish. Manufacturers of semi-custom kitchen cabinets also let the buyers have their say on other details such as glass panels, moldings, finish, and other features. This flexibility makes semi-custom kitchen cabinets costlier than stock cabinets.

Lastly, a custom cabinet is at the top of the hierarchy in terms of quality and aesthetics, as the buyer can have his/her dream kitchen built by a custom cabinetmaker. The size, design, dimension and other details are custom-built according to the homeowner’s specifications. The work often involves building the cabinet around a particular design, or simply to fit or fill in spaces in the kitchen.

Tips On Buying Kitchen Cabinets

It would be good to have a wide reach of choices before narrowing down your list of choice kitchen cabinets or custom-made kitchen cabinets. However, doing the actual search by yourself is a tiring task. Start looking for kitchen cabinets or designs on the Internet. If that does not satisfy you, try to hit your local store and keep your options open to more features up for modification.

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