Kitchen + bath cabinets, decoded
Door styles, materials, real trade-offs and refacing versus replacing — explained the way a friend with a tape measure would.
No showroom. No sales pitch. Just the decisions, in order.
The 60-second kitchen
Every cabinet decision is really five decisions in a trench coat. Watch them stack up in the order that matters — boxes, worktop, uppers, doors, pulls.
The run 3 uppers · 3 bases · 9 fronts · 1 worktop
Door style switcher
Tap a door to see what it is actually like to live with. Every style below has a full guide with costs, cleaning notes and the mistakes we see most.
1670s to next Tuesday
A flat centre panel inside a simple four-piece frame. Quiet enough for a farmhouse, sharp enough for a city flat, and the easiest style to live with for a decade.
1920s, then 2010s forever
One flat panel, no frame, no fuss. Slab fronts make small kitchens feel bigger and let the grain or the colour do the talking.
1690s to 2005, still going
A centre panel that steps forward inside a moulded frame. It reads as formal, furniture-grade and a little bit grown-up.
1800s, revived 2015
The door sits flush inside the face frame instead of on top of it. Every reveal is visible, so the boxes have to be square and the hinges have to be good.
1870s to 1950s, back again
Vertical planks with narrow beads between them. It brings texture without pattern and looks especially good in a bath or a utility room.
Same boxes, new face
If the boxes are sound and the layout works, new doors and drawer fronts change almost everything you see and touch — while the plumbing, worktop and floor stay exactly where they are.
It is also the decision most people get wrong, because nobody checks the carcass first. Drag the handle below: the cabinets underneath never move. That is the whole promise, and the whole limitation.
Before After Four decisions, in order
Most cabinet regret comes from choosing a finish before checking the boxes, or ordering doors before measuring the openings. Start at the top.
Field notes
Where beadboard works, where it fights you, and how to specify it. Bead width, sealing, scale, and how to dodge the cottage-overload trap entirely.
Boxes, fronts, hardware, install, and the work that follows. Where a cabinet budget really goes, and the choices that move the number the most.
Paint hides grain and forgives touch-ups; stain shows wood and punishes chips. How each finish survives grease, steam, kids and sunlight in a busy kitchen.
