32 Types of Kitchen Cabinets Explained- A Must Have Guide

A kitchen is a place where you can explore, as a lot goes into making a kitchen space personal and lively. Right from the design and interiors to the kitchen accessories you decide to install. One such part of making your kitchen perfect is adding the right type, shape, design, and style of kitchen cabinets. 

Without knowing all the types of kitchen cabinets available on the market, how will you know which is the right one?

While you may believe that kitchen cabinets are only a tiny component of the overall décor of your kitchen, you should keep in mind that the wrong cabinet can dramatically alter its appearance. 

Previously, people used cabinets mainly as desks and storage areas for books and other valuables. However, nowadays, many homeowners build kitchen cabinets to add aesthetics and dynamic appeal to their kitchen. 

Surprisingly, a kitchen cabinet acquired by the Prince of Lichtenstein was auctioned for a whopping $36 million. Crafted from ebony wood and beautifully embellished with semiprecious stones and gold leaf.

Here are some examples of stunning kitchen cabinets that you can consider in your kitchen renovation. We have segregated the cabinets into different categories according to design, style, size, etc.

According to design 

You can find many kitchen cabinet designs in the market. That incorporates different accessories, color schemes, and textures. We have explained some of the different designs of kitchen cabinets below. 

Shaker

According to HGTV, shaker-style kitchen cabinets are a significant trend for the classic and simple look it adds to your kitchen space. This type of cabinet emerged from the American colonial era due to a religious movement by people. Shaker cabinets incorporate a cope-and-stick design model wherein the joint forms a 90-degree angle with its corners. Despite this conventional origin, a shaker-style kitchen cabinet compliments both contemporary and traditional kitchen designs.

For example, a shaker cabinet’s honey-color wood tone can complement a traditional kitchen appearance, while off-white and grey tones match modern kitchens. Many homeowners also install granite worktops in their kitchens to make them look more upscale. 

Shaker cabinets are also quite durable since they are crafted of high-quality American wood, including cherry, maple, hickory, and quartersawn oak.

Louvered

Louvered-style kitchen cabinets are unique yet expensive. This type of kitchen cabinet is made into horizontal slats of wood. This makes the kitchen look more spacious and stunning.

Louvered-style kitchen cabinets provide excellent airflow due to the spaces between the slat doors. 

Flat-panel/Slab doors

Flat-panel kitchen cabinets are the most straightforward and most minor complex in terms of design, and they give your kitchen a clean and basic appearance. As the name suggests, the cabinet’s structure is made up of panels surrounded by a frame. 

Flat cabinets come in various colors and patterns, particularly wood tones. Furthermore, because of its minimalist structure, this form of cabinet is less expensive than other cabinet designs and is simple to clean and maintain.

Distressed

Distressed kitchen cabinets provide a unique look to the home’s most popular area, giving it a lived-in appearance that exudes comfort. In simple words, distressed cabinets are meant to look old and weathered.

You can transform your regular kitchen cabinets into a more distressed style with an easy faux technique. For example, you may try sanding the cabinet’s edges or smashing it with a pricking tool to modify it completely. Additionally, you can even try t use an antique glazing technique followed by sealing. 

Beadboard

Beadboard cabinets make a massive comeback as a country, and cottage-style homes have regained popularity. With subtle colors, this sort of kitchen cabinet transforms into a more rustic appearance.

Beadboard cabinets are often constructed from long wood slats linked together in a bead-like pattern. Most beadboard comes in long, monolithic sheets that look like narrow vertical boards and are easy to install.

According to Customization

Custom

Many homeowners want their cabinets to have a personal touch, which you can accomplish by customizing them to match your kitchen design and layout. Customizing gives you the flexibility to choose the cabinet color, what the size should be, and its creation. 

Additionally, you can even choose where you want to place the cabinet. Should you attach it to a wall or the floor?

However, remember that a hefty price tag comes with the flexibility to make the cabinet as you wish. 

Semi-custom

A semi-customized kitchen cabinet is stock but offers you to add some extra detailing and features. The actual size and dimension of the cabinets remain standard, but semi-customizing allows you to vary the size, length, or depth by a small ratio. 

Also, semi-custom cabinets are cheaper than a fully customized kitchen cabinet. Therefore, semi-customized cabinets are an excellent option if you want some flexibility with designing without spending a lot. 

Stock

Stock cabinets are those that the manufacturer creates to industry-standard size, dimension, and design. This is the cheapest and easiest option out of the three options. 

Plywood is the most common material in stock cabinets. And they range in breadth from 12 to 60 inches broad in 3-inch increments.

According to paneling [Doors & Drawers]

Cabinet doors

Raised Panel Cabinet Doors

Raised panel cabinet doors are in great demand as they can go along with both modern and traditional kitchen look. Such a type of cabinet has a center panel that is somewhat taller than the surrounding wood.

This provides the cabinet with an additional dimension. Additionally, every raised panel cabinet door styles are unique. A basic border frame is used on one, while a stepped border is used on another, elevated above the door’s principal surface.

Recessed Panel Cabinet Doors

An open panel cabinet door has a center door panel that is slightly lower than the frame. On the other hand, you can make such entries from thinner woods. Furthermore, because the boards must be narrower than the rest of the structure, you must make them from different materials than the rest of the frame.

Recessed panel doors come in a wide range of colors and patterns, including woods and even the inclusion of glass.

Inset

Inset cabinets have a frame around which the drawers attach to stay inside the frame. A design like this allows for minimal space between compartments while still allowing a complete view of the cabinet.

You can even adjust the inset cabinets to complement your kitchen style. It allows you to incorporate a variety of coloring finishes and moldings.

Inset cabinets also give your kitchen a ‘clean’ look due to the smooth front arrangement of the frame.

Full overlay cabinet doors

Cabinets with full overlay have extra-large front doors and drawers. Manufacturers make this to conceal the frame of the face completely. Additionally, unlike inset cabinets, the face frame and hinges in a full overlay cabinet are hidden.

Moreover, full overlay cabinet doors give you a similar look and design as inset doors, but at a lesser cost. The vertical stile on the face frame is removed from full overlay double doors, allowing for even storage capacity and quicker access to stored objects. 

Because the distance between cabinet doors is barely 1/4 inch, it requires the use of pulls or knobs.

Partial overlay cabinet doors

Cabinetry with partial-overlay cabinet doors has half-inch overlay doors and drawer fronts. Between the doors, 2 inches of the cabinet face frame are visible, giving it a more classic look. As a result, partial-overlay cabinet doors are traditional, standard, or half overlay. 

Many homeowners favor partial overlay cabinetry since it is more economical, but opt for inset or complete overlay doors if you want a more minimalist style. 

Also, because no elements must exactly match, the precision required while hanging partial-overlay cabinet door styles are less complicated than inset or complete overlay installation. 

Cabinet drawers

Five-piece drawer

As the name implies, a five-piece drawer consists of a four-piece frame and a central panel. The mainboard is either raised or recessed, or it may not be patterned. The Stiles are the two outermost components of the frame, and the Rails are the top and bottom parts of the structure. Similarly, a five-piece structure consists of:

• 2 Rail
• 2 stile
• 1 Central Panel

A five-piece drawer offers a variety of materials and finishing options to choose from.

For Your Knowledge:

The construction of the five-piece drawer front is exactly similar to cabinet doors. Most importantly, these five pieces of wood are connected in two styles:

• Cope And Stick – Rails and Stiles of these doors form a 90-degree at corners where the frames are clamped to form a strong bond.

• Mitered – Rails and stiles are cut to 45 degrees and joined at the corner with glue. However, modern mitered doors have hidden mortise and tenon joints that make them the strongest.

Slab drawer

Slab drawer fronts, also known as solid drawer fronts, have a single flat panel with no decorative embellishments, giving them a clean and streamlined appearance. 

For a more contemporary design and to mix up the visual depth of your space, slab drawers with shaker doors might be a wonderful touch. 

According to Attachment

Base cabinet

As the name implies, base cabinets are those that sit on the floor. Base cabinets support the countertops, cooktops, and sinks in the kitchen. Base cabinets are typically 24 inches deep with a variety of widths. The average height of base cabinets is 34 1/2 inches. The base cabinet rises to around 35 or 36 inches high when you install a countertop.

Base cabinets attach to the studs on the back wall and are permanent. Legs on base cabinets are either exposed or covered with a toe-kick, which is a long strip of wood.

Base cabinets are a great way to increase storage space in your kitchen, define the floorplan, and build kitchen islands at a lesser cost.

Wall Cabinet

Unlike base cabinets, wall cabinets attach to the walls of your kitchen. There are various wall cabinet materials used, such as glass and wood. Usually, homeowners prefer to add both base and wall cabinets in their kitchens to increase storage space and make the kitchen more classy. 

The depth of standard wall cabinets (sometimes known as “upper cabinets”) is 12 inches. However, nowadays, manufacturers even make the depth up to 15 inches in order to provide greater storage space to the consumers. 

According to The Size

Tall Cabinet

Tall cabinets, often known as pantry cabinets or utility cabinets, provide ample storage while giving a room a dramatic vertical effect. These are usually available in standard sizes, although they may need custom construction to match your needs. The standard sizes are typically 84 to 96 inches tall as a single unit.

Because of their floor-to-ceiling height, tall kitchen cabinets make excellent pantries.  They can be used for a variety of functions, including utility storage, as their height enables the storage of tall storage items such as brooms, mops, and vacuum cleaners. 

Small Cabinets

Cabinets in the kitchen can be as little as nine inches in width. People usually use it as a spice rack or to organize cookie sheet pans. Cabinets are usually built-in 36-inch increments. A cabinet’s depth can be anywhere between 12 and 24 inches, while the height can be anywhere between 12 and 42 inches.

You can even consider a base cabinet a small cabinet, as it is of an average height and width. Although small cabinets are a cheap option, they might not fulfill your storage requirements. 

According to style

According to the trends list of HGTV, warmer color palettes, such as creamy colors (think earth tones), is a big design trend for 2021, and those relaxing hues are showing up on kitchen cabinets.

Contemporary

Flat-panel doors are modern kitchen cabinet doors with a flat, not raised, center panel. There are no furrows or other embellishments, and the doors often cover the entire frame, resulting in a clean, simple, and elegant appearance. Appliances are incorporated into the cupboards to avoid looking disconnected from the kitchen. 

Additionally, the cabinet is in light colors and outfits with current electronics and kitchen equipment to give it a contemporary appearance. These cabinets are designed to keep up with current market trends.

Modern

With an open layout and clean lines, modern kitchen cabinets offer minimalist styling. It is pretty utilitarian, with modern equipment and natural materials. A modern kitchen is a good choice for those who want a functional area with refined touches.

Furthermore, unlike traditional cabinets, which merely provide storage, you can make your contemporary cabinets more functional by installing cooktops and sinks.

Modern kitchen cabinets are often composed of artificial materials such as metal, plastic, concrete, and glass. Modern kitchen cabinets with frosted or semi-opaque glass look trendy. Flat slab doors with minimal detailing are standard in modern kitchen cabinets. Finally, light and beautiful hues such as white and grey are frequently used in modern cabinets.

Around World War I, flat surfaces, geometric forms, and minimal adornment became fashionable, now incorporated in modern kitchen accessories such as cabinets. 

Rustic/Country 

A smart place to start when it comes to country kitchen cabinets, a brilliant place to start is deciding the material to utilize. For a more rustic or country-style kitchen look, wood has long been the material of choice.

Rustic kitchens are recognized for their “down-home” feel, but they can be the ideal blend of country comfort and high flair with the appropriate design elements. 

The common materials used to make rustic or country-style kitchen cabinets are Pine, Cherry, oak, maple, and hickory. These durable materials add a gorgeous country look to your kitchen cabinets. Moreover, a rustic decor tends to be more on the dark reddish and antique color spectrum. 

The hardware, particular pulls, knobs, and door handle, especially those in the ancient metals, go well with rustic designs. 

Retro

Retro kitchen cabinets are a good option if you want a sleek, classic-but-current design for your kitchen cabinets. 

Thanks to its unique equipment and colors, a retro-style kitchen has a distinct look and feels. Decorative grooved wooden cabinets are commonly used in the space, which adds to the old feel. 

A retro kitchen cabinet comes in a variety of shades of colors which are mostly pastels, which are added with stainless steel to give a monochrome taste. 

Midcentury modern kitchen cabinets are one of the most popular retro cabinet styles. This is due to its effortless, angular, robust construction and creative accents like flowing curves and geometric shapes. 

Craftsman Style

Simple straight lines, solid construction, and minimum adornment are common characteristics of craftsman-style kitchen cabinets. Craftsman kitchen cabinets usually comprise Heavy woods like quartersawn oak, hickory, cherry, or maple.

On the other hand, Craftsman-style kitchen cabinets are more expensive than different styles due to the extensive use of classic woods and finishes. However, you can always use the stock and semi-stock variants to keep the style within your budget.

Craftsman-style kitchen cabinets arose from the Arts and Crafts movement in England around the end of the nineteenth century.

According to material

Hardwood/Solid wood

Cabinets made of solid wood are more expensive than plywood, particleboard, laminate, or MDF cabinets. This is owing to the higher cost of natural wood and the necessary manufacturing methods. 

As a result, you can use solid wood to construct cabinet doors, face frames, and trimmings, but not in the cabinet box.

However, wood is more durable, elegant, and valuable, and It’s also the obvious choice for high-end residences. The different types of solid wood available are maple, cherry, ebony, hickory, mahogany, and walnut. 

Plywood

Unlike solid wood, which is natural wood, plywoods are artificial. Manufacturers make it by gluing multiple layers of veneer in various ways. These veneers are made from wood logs that have been peeled into thin sheets.

The higher the quality of plywood, the longer it will last. For example, plywood of good quality is preferable to commercial MR grade plywood. On the other hand, Marine-grade plywood is superior to both of them. 

When it comes to cabinet construction, plywood is typically a superior material. Because it holds screws and other mechanical fasteners more effectively, plywood has a longer lifespan in construction.

Additionally, you have a far excellent choice of colors and patterns as the material is man-made. 

MDF

Like plywood, MDF is also an engineered wood used for making several pieces of furniture. MDF, or Medium Density Fiberboard, is a wood product made of wood fibers and resin. MDF is made of compressed wood fibers and glue. 

It’s good to use MDF for kitchen cabinets or kitchen cabinet doors with solid wood casings. MDF is a very robust, cost-effective choice and does not warp easily. MDF cabinets also offer various finishing options such as painting, staining, and varnishing. 

Particleboard, or medium-density fiberboard, is a cost-effective and long-lasting alternative to solid wood cabinets such as cherry, oak, or maple.

Metal

Manufacturers use sheet metal to construct metal cabinets, which are then produced by a fabrication process that results in thin, broadsheets of metal. The initial stage in treating metal to improve strength and ductility is usually heat treatment.

Common raw materials used to make metal cabinets are aluminum, steel, and stainless steel, which have their own set of qualities and finishes that span a wide range of performance and price. 

Metal cabinets are tougher, beautiful, stable, and have more impact resistance than many other materials. 

Metal cabinets are more preferred options for modern-style kitchens. 

Laminate

A thin film of material attaches to the outer surface of cabinet doors in laminate cabinets. At the same time, less expensive or pressed wood components cover the cabinet’s interior sections.

Traditional wood cabinets are more expensive, but laminate cabinets are less expensive and easier to maintain. They’re also less prone to damage, making them an excellent choice for families with small children. 

Furthermore, acrylic or laminate kitchen cabinets are heat and water-resistant, making them perfect for use in hot and humid areas. Because it’s water-resistant, it’s also simple to clean up spills and food stains.

Melamine

Melamine is a laminate product. A polymeric substance used in contemporary cabinets. Made from paper and resin and is cheaper than laminate cabinets. It’s long-lasting and comes in a wide range of colors and patterns. 

You can even make your melamine cabinets more environmentally friendly by fusing them with plywood. 

Melamine is manufactured by heat-sealing a substrate such as pressed wood. Medium-density fiberboard, plywood, or comparable material between two sheets of paper soaked with thermally fused melamine resin or TFM.

Melamine cabinets are highly durable, offer a range of colors and designs, and are eco-friendly. 

Thermofoil

Cabinets made from thermofoil are manufactured from vinyl. That has been heated and pressed onto an MDF core. Thermofoil cabinets, which are used for cabinet doors and drawer fronts. Which are available in a variety of colors, designs, and finishes, including textures that imitate solid wood.

This is more durable for everyday use and ordinary wear and tear. Because of its plastic covering, the surface is resistant to typical household damage like water spills and minor hand scratches.

Additionally, thermofoil cabinets are cheaper than solid wood cabinets.

Glass

Glass-front cabinets are ideal for storing and displaying beautiful objects like flatware and china, wine glasses, champagne flutes, tableware, and crystal. Additionally, glass-front cabinets open up the space and complement the interior window above the sink.

Glass kitchen cabinet doors are adaptable, ageless, and attractive, making them an excellent material for any kitchen design.

Furthermore, you don’t have to replace your cabinets because you have glass kitchen cabinets. If your existing cabinets are in good shape, you can replace them with glass inserts.