What To Look For in Quality Kitchen and Bath Cabinetry

When shopping for cabinets it’s important to look at the quality of construction. This means you must look beyond the outer appearance of the cabinets and look at the materials and how the cabinet boxes, drawer boxes, doors and drawers are put together.

Most cabinet manufacturers offer different price levels based on quality. As with most products – you get what you pay for so purchase the highest quality cabinets that you can afford. When budget is a concern, to get the most value for your money focus on the basics and skip the unnecessary options and fancy finishes.

The Cabinet Box

One of the most important things to consider in cabinet construction is the cabinet box - the materials used and how it’s put together. Although solid wood seems like a good choice, generally it is not used for cabinet box construction because it tends to warp.

Plywood, medium density fiberboard (MDF) and particle board are the most common materials used in cabinet construction today. Good quality plywood is the number one choice because of its stability and screw-holding power, MDF would be a good second choice, and particle board is the most affordable but the least durable of the three.

source: Kitchen Resource Direct

source: eHow

Be sure to pay attention to the thickness of the material used. Cabinet sides should be at least ½” thick but ¾” thick is best. A side panel that is thinner than 1/2" should raise serious questions about the quality of the cabinet. Top and bottom panels are usually made of the same material as the side panels.

Note that base cabinets often don’t have a top panel because the countertop and its sub-deck cover the top of the cabinet. This is typical cabinet construction – not a sign of poor quality. Back panels are usually ¼” thick and are joined to the side panels with a dado or rabbet type joint as well as secured with glue and mechanical fasteners.

source: Furniture Buying

source: Furniture Buying

In addition, look for corner blocks or I beams which are used to reinforce and stabilize the cabinet box as well as provide anchor points for countertops on base cabinets.

source: Thomasville Cabinetry

source: Renovation Headquarters

Additional types of quality joinery used in cabinet manufacturing include traditional mortise and tenon joinery which is the most common but other types of joinery such as dowels or biscuit joints are also excellent.

Nails and staples are not a good way to join your cabinet parts – they tend to pullout and loosen over time and are usually a sign of inferior quality.

The Drawer Box

A good quality drawer box is much like a cabinet box. For the best quality drawer box look for one made from furniture grade plywood and put together with dovetail joinery. A lesser quality,yet still acceptable drawer box might be made from ½” laminated material.

source: Cabinet Pros

A drawer box consists of 4 sides, usually ½” to ¾” thick and a drawer bottom that is typically ¼” thick. For strength, the drawer bottom should be dadoed into all 4 sides of the drawer box. A decorative drawer front is then attached with screws to the front of the box. Drawer guides or glides play an important role in the quality and function of a drawer as well. For more information on drawer guides see All You Need To Know About Drawer Guides for Your Kitchen and Bath Cabinets.

The Doors and Drawer Fronts

There are many different styles of cabinet doors and drawer fronts –the most common being flat slab, recessed panel, and raised panel. A flat slab style door or drawer front is the most simple in terms of style and is the easiest to make. Slab doors are made from sheet materials such as veneered plywood, MDF, or laminate and have very little or no detail.

Recessed panel and raised panel doors are most often made with a 4 piece solid wood frame and a veneered plywood or MDF panel insert. This type of door construction is called stile and rail construction (also known as cope and stick construction) which refers to the parts of the frame. The vertical pieces of the door frame are called stiles and the horizontal pieces are called rails. Stile and rail construction is the preferred way to make cabinet doors and drawer fronts but it does require time and skills.

A good quality stile and rail door will have tight joints at the corners as well as where the panel meets the frame and it should not show signs of warping or twisting.

source: Cimino’s Cabinets

A lower cost option to a stile and rail door, uses a high tech machine called a CNC machine to mass produce raised panel doors from a slab materials such as MDF. Typically these doors are either painted a solid color or are coated in thermafoil to give the look of real wood. These doors typically are very stable however they lack the finer detailing and finished look that comes with stile and rail construction.

If you are buying ready made stock cabinets off the shelf be sure to look for doors and drawer fronts that lay flat against the cabinet face and are free of warping and twisting. Also make sure they are free of cracks, holes and scratches.

The Shelves

When shopping for cabinets look for shelves that are a minimum of ¾” thick other wise they may sag. Also, shelves that are over 36” wide have a tendency to sag even if they are ¾” thick so look for additional supports along the length of the shelves or look for shelve made from thicker material.

Ideally all interior shelves should be adjustable to provide the most flexible storage but some inexpensive cabinets have only fixed shelves, making it harder to store items of different heights, so keep that in mind.

The Hardware

Cabinet hardware typically refers to the door hinges and the drawer guides or glides, not the knobs and pulls which are known as decorative cabinet hardware. Cabinet hinges and guides play an important role in the quality of your cabinetry and how well it functions.

source: Rockler

source: Amerock

There are a variety of different types of door hinges and drawer guides and they can vary in level of quality, but the basic test is - does the door or drawer open and close easily and does it feel stable. Inexpensive drawer guides will feel wobbly and won’t hold a significant amount of weight. They also tend to be noisy and might not fully extend so you can see to the back of the drawer. Look for stable, quiet drawer guides that fully extend. To learn more about cabinet door hinges and cabinet drawer guides see our articles: Guide To Cabinet Door Hinges For Your Kitchen and Bath and All You Need To Know About Drawer Guides for Your Kitchen and Bath Cabinets.