4 Tips For Buying New Kitchen Cabinets

Posted on: 26 August 2021

Remodeling your kitchen and need new cabinets? If so, it will help to know some tips for starting the shopping process and then deciding on the style of cabinets you want to purchase.

Decide On The Type Of Wood

There are various types of wood materials that you can get for your kitchen cabinets, and it's important to know what the differences are. Many people prefer natural wood, which will show off the grains of the wood after staining them to your desired color. It's the best way to highlight the natural features that are not possible with other types of wood. MDF (medium density fiberboard) doesn't have those grains and knots, and are better for painting a flat color. 

The type of wood that you select will also determine how you refinish the cabinets in the future. It will be a mistake to paint natural wood down the road because you'll cover up all those natural features, and stain is the preferred method. With MDF, you will need to stick to painting because the wood is not going to accept a stain well.

Decide On The Type Of Drawer Mounts

You'll have a few options for how the drawers are attached to your cabinets. Side mount glide drawers do not allow the drawers to be fully extended outside of the cabinet, but are a cheaper way to mount cabinet drawers. Full extension undermount glides allow the drawer to not only be flush with the sides to allow a slightly bigger drawer, but completely pull out to the end of the drawer. This helps you find stuff near the back of drawers without having to reach inside them.

Decide On The Type Of Joints

The way that the wood comes together to form your cabinets can also make a big difference in the construction. Cheaper construction is going to use stapling to hold the wood together, where one piece of wood is flush with the other, held in place by a nail or staple. Some people prefer dovetail joints, where the pieces of wood slide into each other like a puzzle piece to form a solid joint that will be less likely to fall apart over time. 

Decide On The Type Of Cabinet Face Exposure

You'll need to form a preference to how much of the cabinet face you want exposed. With no cabinet face exposure, the doors and drawers are larger and make up the entire visible surface of the cabinet. Meanwhile, other cabinets will have the drawers and doors spaced out slightly so that you can see the face of the cabinets between them. The exposed face style does lead to having slightly smaller drawers, but the cabinets will remain the same size on the inside.

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