Cabinet types, what are they talking about?

So you need cabinets or you are just curious. What are people talking about when they throw around words like inset, full overlay, modified reveal or full reveal. Not to mention frameless and framed cabinets. Even word check doesn't recognize frameless. This a little, not to exhaustive look at this very issue.

First we are going to tackle framed cabinets and the various ways the door is hung. The way the door is hung is where we get the different types. Below is a picture of how a framed cabinet is built.

If you look down towards the bottom of the picture you will see the face frame, this the front of the cabinet and the doors are mounted on this.

Sorry for the poor resolution, the way this door is hung on the face frame is called full reveal or modified reveal. That means that most of the face frame is showing behind the doors. This is less popular than it used to be and I think it is safe to say used mostly by builders.

This style is call full overlay, meaning that the door itself covers all of the face frame. It is probably the most used door style at the moment and the picture above shows it in a Shaker door style, also very popular and timeless.

This style is called inset, for the obvious reason that the door is hung flush with the face frame or in other words inset into the opening made by the face frame.

Here is a picture of a kitchen using inset doors. On to the next issue, what is the difference between framed and frameless cabinets?

The answer to that is that there is no face frame on frameless cabinets. If you just knew what the parts and pieces of the cabinets were called you probably could have figured all this out without my help. The door is actually hung on the box since there is no face frame. The installation tolerances are much tighter so it is best left to an expert. A frameless kitchen cabinet installation and a really cool picture.

To return to my website click www.lweldondesign.com