Cabinets and Finishing

Styles, Types and More

I knew that there were many different styles of cabinets and it took us awhile to come to a decision on a style we both liked. Months of indecision. Once we decided, then Max said, "Do you want an overlay or insert design?" What?

Now I am learning something new and never took notice of this before. This is an overlay and as you can see, the doors cover the frame completely. It also has a European-style look to it especially if you choose the frameless style as shown in this picture.

By the way, these pictures are taken from a great book, "The Smart Approach to Kitchen Design" 3rd Edition which we bought at the Expo Design Center. Lots of great pictures for ideas and advice.

Now the insert or inset (oh, whatever!) style, the cabinet doors are inside the frame. The vision Max had in mind is to make the cabinets look like a piece of furniture. Here are examples.

At first, I was concerned about the loss of storage space, but it looks so nice! Also, when I figured that what we have now is pretty inefficient use of space and the new design will actually have more storage space.

Finally, we were thinking about the crown moulding. To stay with the "we are going more modern thinking" we came across this picture and Bill, our cabinet guy said, "Sure, we can do that".

So here is the crown moulding. I think Bill said it is an Ziggurat design. We are also incorporating the same style for the island toe kick.

Now the catch with the insert design is that of course we have to submit a change order. Most of the time, the change order goes up in overall price. But this time a portion went down. Why? Well, let me tell you. One thing we found out is that the insert design requires that the finishing has to be done onsite. The cabinets are installed so that the doors are flush to the frame. Then the finishing can be done. Well, Bill's company doesn't do onsite finishing, so we had to find somone else to do it.

So, the demolition was delayed a week while we got a couple of bids from finishers recommended by our Designer ST and a friend of ours, Bette. Bette's finisher came in way lower than ST's finisher, plus we saw his work when we visited her condo. He can be a bit slow, but it is understandable because of the demands and that he is an Artist. We did check and he does have the time available based on our estimate on when the cabinets will be installed. When he came to our house, he saw our dining room chairs which are french antiques. He said he could finish our cabinets to match. Zowee! We were sold.

So we finally decided on the cabinet style, type and finish. Then Bill came over and we went over the design in detail to confirm, redline and signoff each page of the final cabinet design. Then he measured our kitchen again to confirm our original measurements. He was very thorough and spent about 3 hours with us. Here's Bill and Max.

Then here is the sample Bill had made up for us. By the way, the wood will be Alder and the inside will be Maple. We are planning to get a sample of the Alder wood, have it finished so that we can shop for hardware that will complement it.

Bill is a great guy and we will be using him again!