Kitchen Cabinets the Fun Way
Kitchen cabinets, though they seem to be a subject of ultimate boredom, but in reality they play an important role in our kitchen life. Without them you would not be able to store or place you spoons, forks, cookies, coffee cups the list goes on and on.
Although invented in the early 20th century, previously known as Hoosier Cabinets, now have evolved just like the humans. Their hard ware or foundation can vary from laminated wood to delicate but strong metal structure or even solid earth like marble.
Last month when I was planning to install new cabinets, I had to choose from a wide variety of designs. Since I greatly admire hand crafted woodwork, I quickly came to a decision about what I needed, but the problem was which design I should choose. For people like me, who like traditional wood crafting and the essence of natural wood color to the eyes, a custom face frame design made of hard maple wood or any wood of your choice and that is easily affordable along with a hardwood floor, but if you are a modernized person the best design that would suit you is the frameless European cabinet, which can also be in traditional woodwork but metal work would really give you the look you want.
The problem was I had a limited budget and the one I wanted; I knew it would not fit into my kitchen renovation budget, so I chose soft maple wood for the doors, knobs and frames of the cabinet and its drawers and plywood for the body, drawer and shelf trays. The only question still remaining was the finishing. Since I had chosen soft maple for drawer faces, doors, knobs and frames I had to find something that would bring out and conserve the grain and pore patterns of the maple and provide good durability. The answer was water based polyurethane, a transparent varnish with good durability, also UV stable and safer than the other varnishes chemically.
Now I had a cabinet that I am happy with. When my sister visited my house she really liked what I did with the kitchen cabinets, she was amazed to see how the drawer and shelf trays were made of plywood. Even though a drawer can hold up to 75 to 100 pounds of weight, the drawer tray you use does not really matter as it is fixed in a frame of wood, your frame needs to be strong or else the tray will fall.
Although there are several designs, patterns and materials to choose from when making a kitchen cabinet, like the face framed or the frameless and others, I would prefer the face frame as it delivers both quality and good design.