Three Cabinetry Door Styles To Know

When I am designing a kitchen or bathroom for a client, they are usually surprised at how many decisions are involved, sometimes small ones they never dreamed of. So many details are hiding around every bend in the remodel road, and one of the things that most people have never had to notice or think about is the style of cabinetry they want. Sure, people know they want something simple and modern, or something ornate and traditional. But there is a level beyond that we always need to explore.

The most popular door and drawer styles now are called "inset" and "full overlay."

An inset door and drawer is one that is, as the name suggests, inset into the frame of the cabinet. The front of the door or drawer is flush with the face of the cabinet, as you can see below in a recent kitchen I did for a client (previously here). The result is a sleeker, cleaner look even while using traditional Shaker doors as illustrated here.

Photo by Rick Pharoah

Photo by Rick Pharoah

Photo by Rick Pharoah

Photo by Rick Pharoah

This inset style is currently very popular, but every now and then I hear feedback from a client who thinks the look seems a little busy. They don't like being able to see not only the lines around the door or drawer but then also the face which they perceive as making more visual lines. In this case, I recommend the full overlay door style. This is where all the doors and drawers meet, so one cannot see the face frame of the cabinet at all. This style looks great with more modern slab front doors and drawers. I designed two bathrooms, seen below, that show this off beautifully.

The warm wood of the Walk In The Forest bathroom, previously here, adds a beautifully organic feeling to the minimalist slab doors and drawers, allowing the horizontal wood grain to become the feature. The full overlay doors and drawers here make the vanity feel neat and composed.

Photo by Genia Barnes

Photo by Genia Barnes

Photo by Genia Barnes

The next bathroom, which I called Dramatic (see it here) because of the deep plum wall, features a vanity with full overlay doors and drawers.

Photo by Bernardo Grijalva

Photo by Bernardo Grijalva

Photo by Bernardo Grijalva

But you don't have to use slab doors to achieve a nice effect with full overlay doors. A more traditional door profile, as seen below in the Light and Airy  Kitchen, here, I designed for some clients, shows this off nicely. A Shaker door modified with a slender bead looks wonderful in this configuration.

Photo by Bernardo Grijalva

Photo by Bernardo Grijalva

Photo by Bernardo Grijalva

The third option is one that most people now avoid because it gives your newly remodeled space a dated appearance. The "standard" or "partial overlay" is one where the doors and drawers are neither inset into the cabinet box nor do they meet to hide the face of the box...they are just small enough to allow about a half inch of the frame to be seen. This is called the "reveal" and to my eye is not only dated but also has the look of a piece of cabinetry from a big box store...and such pieces tend to be poorly made. Not to put too fine a point on it, but standard or partial overlay doors and drawers make the piece of cabinetry look like the least expensive thing a landlord could buy to put into a rental unit. If you stick with full overlay or inset doors and drawers, you will have a space that looks well designed.

Happy designing!

History of Furniture: Shaker

In this chapter of our ongoing History of Furniture series, let's look at a simple design element that has really withstood the test of time. You probably know about the door profile that is referred to as a Shaker style door.

But do you know where this classic style came from?

The Shakers (officially called The United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearing) were a Christian sect founded in England in the 1700s that later settled in colonial America a few decades after their founding. For a Christian sect at that time, they held surprisingly progressive views: they were pacifists, they valued equality between the sexes with women taking on leadership roles within the society (reflecting their belief that God is both male and female), and they lived a communal lifestyle. They practiced celibacy--sex was forbidden for members and because of this, child-rearing was not something the Shakers often did, save for a woman who might be pregnant at the time of her admittance to the Shaker society or the adoption of homeless orphans. This meant that the Shaker population would naturally dwindle. They welcomed this idea and at this point, in 2020, there are only 2 (yes, TWO) remaining members of the Shaker society in the world.

But in their earlier days, their beliefs led them to live in austere ways that were highly functional and completely devoid of ornamentation. They practiced restraint and economy in all things. The classic Shaker cabinet door is what is called a 5-piece: 2 rails at the top and bottom, 2 side stiles, and a center panel, all without any carving or embellishment.

The Shakers were supremely adept and ingenious at inventions and interior developments to help make cleaning and organizing that much easier and faster. They installed peg rails around rooms so chairs could be stowed up and out of the way when not in use, making it easier to sweep or mop a floor. These peg rails also conveniently held other every day items like brooms and hats.

Photo by Erin Little

But the Shakers were not collectors or ones to value objects, so their interiors were often a bit bare with plenty of negative space. But this leads me to reflect on the Zen idea of negative space being full. Since the Shakers were a religious sect, their interest in this kind of austerity and minimalism certainly had its roots in the belief that negative space was not "nothing" but full of something whether that might be energy, God, or space itself. There is a kind of lovely ease and peace that can come with an uncomplicated, organized interior which allows one to reflect inward.

A bedroom in a "dwelling house" at the Canterbury Shaker Village, Canterbury, New Hampshire. Photo by Erin Little 

The peg rails held the classic cane-seated Shaker chair which came in flat and rocking versions.

The Shakers were also masters of woodworking and made beautiful, simple baskets and boxes of bent wood. These classic Shaker boxes are highly valued.

Here is a shot of the Shaker Retiring Room on display at the Metropolitan Museum in New York City, featuring various authentic Shaker objects.

Happy designing!