The Design Elements Of Traditional Kitchen Cabinets
Posted on: 2 July 2020
When you visit with a cabinet maker to start planning the design for your kitchen, one of the first questions they're likely to ask is what style of cabinets you're looking for. If you have a more traditional kitchen, you'll probably want traditional kitchen cabinets. But it's important to know what this means. Here are the major design elements you would expect to see in kitchen cabinets described as "traditional."
1. Detailed Wood Design
Traditional cabinets are almost always made from wood, rather than from melamine or MDF that some more modern cabinets may be made from. Also, the wood is arranged in a way that gives the cabinet door more detail. You won't see a plain, flat panel. Instead, you'll probably see a raised panel. This is a fancy way of saying that the cabinet doors will have a raised frame around the outside and a middle that is inset.
2. Stained Finish
Some people associated painted cabinets with traditional homes, but in the strictest sense, painted cabinets are really more of a country or cottage look. True, traditional kitchen cabinets are stained. Now, you can choose almost any color of stain you want. You can choose a darker, walnut-colored stain for a deep, expressive look, or a lighter, blonde stain for a more subdued appeal. Your cabinet maker should be able to show you plenty of samples so you can decide what best coordinates with the rest of the wood in your home, and with the color scheme that you've chosen for your kitchen.
3. Detailed Hardware
The smooth, nickel and chrome hardware you see on a lot of more modern cabinets does not coordinate well with most traditional cabinets. Instead, you will see more detailed, darker hardware made from something like wrought iron or oil-rubbed bronze. The hardware may have some raised beads or embellishments, and it is often on the larger side. This is true of both the hinges and the handles. Exposed hinges are the norm for traditional cabinetry.
4. Symmetry
Make sure you consider the way the cabinets are laid out. In a traditional kitchen, cabinets are usually symmetrical. In other words, the cabinets on one side are the same size and shape as those on the other side with the sink or stove serving as the inflection point in the middle.
Traditional cabinets with the features above are a great choice for most old-style kitchens. Talk to a cabinet maker like Pioneer Cabinets to learn more.
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