Cabinet Basics (Continued)

Doors and Drawers

Solving Corner Cabinet Woes

Corner base cabinets are notorious for dark, difficult-to-reach storage space. Using a corner cabinet for effective storage requires some pretty fancy hardware to make the things in the corner space reachable. There are a variety of solutions, some better than others. But is is possible to make a corner cabinet handy and useful with a little prior planning.

No Corner Cabinet

The very best way of dealing with corner storage is to not have any. Corner storage can simply be eliminated when the other storage in the kitchen is sufficient. Two cabinets are butted up to each other ("dead-ended" is the technical term) leaving the corner empty. The resulting "hole" in the cabinets is concealed by the counter top. But if you need the additional storage in your kitchen, read on.

"Easy Reach" Cabinet

The simplest option is just a cabinet with adjustable shelves. Frequently termed "Easy Reach" cabinets for marketing purposes, they are anything but. Access is through an tiny L-shaped door set into the corner of the cabinet. Only the front 10" or so of each shelf is actually useful. In most cases, the only way to retrieve anything in the back is to crawl in with a flashlight. Typically found on lower end cabinet lines, the sole advantage of this corner treatment is its simplicity and low cost.

Lazy Susan Cabinet

Installing a lazy susan turntable in a corner cabinet greatly enhances its usefulness. Anything stored in the back of the cabinet can be brought 'round to the front with a little twist of the wrist. But there are some disadvantages. Fitting round lazy susans into square cabinets means that there are dark corners where things that fall off the turntable can get lost. Fortunately, there are a couple of simple solutions to this problem. One is to make the cabinets round to fit the turntable. Another is to fit individual turntables on adjustable shelves — often called "super susan" cabinets. We like this solution better than round cabinets that tend to be flimsy (thick wood does not bend, so thin plys are used — these are usually not very strong.)

There are a lot of different kinds of lazy susan. Some attach to L-shaped cabinet doors so the doors rotate with the turntable. They tend to get jammed up more often than other styles and work best with inset doors. For overlay doors, free-standing units are the better choice. Free-standing turntables can be notched or beveled. The notched style fits L-shaped doors, and the beveled variety fits a 45-degree corner door (the preferred style — it provides more storage).

Turntables are also made in a variety of materials. The least expensive is the common white PVC plastic product. Metal and wood units are considerably more expensive — especially stainless or hardwood finished to match your cabinets (a total waste of money). Actually, PVC is, in this instance, the better product. It is lightweight, tough, easy to clean, simple to adjust, and cheap. It is unquestionably ugly, but it's hidden most of the time behind your nice hardwood doors, so what does it matter?

Blind Corner Cabinet

Photo: Hafele Another solution for the corner is a blind corner cabinet in which one cabinet is simply tucked behind another at a corner. There are a variety of mechanisms used to make these work as storage. The simplest involve a semi-circular tray — commonly attached to the door — that swings out into the room. Others are true Rube Goldberg-ish devices. When the cabinet door is pulled straight out, two large wire trays attached to it appear. Then swinging the door to the side pulls out two more shelves that were hidden in the corner. This makes use of virtually all of the space in the cabinet as storage, compared to the trays (that use about 50% of the space), but at a cost of some convenience and about $800.00 US before installation — and installation is no walk in the clover.

Corner Drawer Cabinet

Another way to use a corner is to fill it with drawers.

Some complain that drawers waste space. We disagree. A bank of four corner drawers provides as much usable space as a two-shelf lazy susan configuration. And the space is much, much easier to get to. We dislike doors on lower cabinets for a variety of reasons — and this dislike extends to doors hiding lazy susans rather than shelves. (For more information, see Mise en Place: What We Can Learn from Commercial Kitchens.) Doors and drawers really make the cabinet when it comes to appearance and function. While variations abound in detail, most doors fall into three style categories: raised-panel, flat-panel (or recessed-panel) and flat (slab or plank — the terminology differs among manufacturers) doors. Panel doors, whether flat or raised, are available in square or many different cathedral (or arch) styles. Adding to this mix the overlay variations: full, half and inset, and there are many hundred different door styles even before we consider the hundreds of different woods and thousands of finishes.

Cabinet Doors

The most expensive doors are usually those made of solid wood, either one piece or paneled. The more exotic the wood — mahogany, ash and rosewood to name a few examples — the higher the cost. Cherry, hickory, oak, maple, birch ("CHOMB") and sometimes pine ("CHOMB-P") are the "standard" cabinet woods offered by most cabinet manufacturers. Expect to pay more for any other species. (To view the many hardwoods suitable for cabinets available from Nebraska hardwood producers, see Guide to Nebraska Hardwoods for Cabinetmakers and Woodworkers).

A reasonable compromise in price and quality is a flat-panel door, in which 1/4" veneered plywood is used in place of solid wood in the panel. The frame is still usually made of solid wood. An alternative is a "framed" panel door that is actually carved out of MDF to which a veneer of fine wood is applied. This process actually makes a durable, beautiful door, and makes otherwise expensive exotic woods affordable, but is offered by only a few manufacturers.

Many manufacturers now use quality hardwood veneers in the place of solid wood, to remarkable effect. The veneer is often heat-moulded to a pine or fir strip to make the frames in framed doors. In the best examples, you have to look closely to see the difference. The savings are often substantial, and with tough, factory-applied finishes, these doors hold up well under all but the worst abuse. Exotic woods often not available at all, or available only at very high cost, are frequently not only obtainable but affordable as veneers.

Cabinet Drawers

Good quality drawers are a must. Anyone who has caught his 4-year-old using a drawer bank as a ladder to reach the upper cabinets knows why. Drawers suffer a lifetime of relentless use and not infrequent abuse and should be as sturdy as nature and the art of joinery allow. Some factory cabinetmakers use 5/8" plywood in their high-end cabinets. Custom cabinet makers have been known to use 3/4" plywood for even greater strength and rigidity. The absolute minimum should be 1/2" plywood. In low-end and middle-range cabinets, the drawer boxes are often made of laminated particleboard. While suitable for cabinet cases, particleboard for drawer boxes is not going to hold up like plywood over time. Most manufacturers will upgrade drawer boxes to plywood for an extra charge.

Almost all drawers now incorporate mechanical slides. Drawer slides range in capacity from 50 to 250 pounds. Avoid, when you can, slides with minimal base support. At minimum, look for slides that wrap under both sides of the drawer at least 1/2 in. The best slides are 8-piece affairs that run on bearings and allow the drawer to extend almost completely out (full-extension slides). Although more expensive than standard slides (that expose about 75% of the drawer), they are available from most manufacturers as an upgrade. If you are not sure what kind of slide you are getting, ask. It's important. Some slide mechanisms offer "soft close" as a feature. The drawer closes itself for the last inch or so, and cannot be slammed. It's a very cool effect — and if you are going to store fragile dishware in the drawer, a desirable feature. But rubber bumpers also prevent slamming for about 25 cents per drawer and are suitable for most drawers. Photo courtesy Top Drawer. Full English dovetail drawers are usually considered the best construction, but locking mitre joints are equally strong and less expensive to manufacture.

How the drawer is framed is also important. In better cabinets, the drawer is a four-sided box. The front you can see (the false front) is a separate piece screwed to a front panel of the drawer box to make it pretty. In lesser cabinets, the front you can see does double duty as the actual front of the framed box — it is attached to the sides with screws or even staples. This is not a strong design and should be avoided.

Because the most stress on a drawer occurs when it is pulled open, the front of the drawer box should be solidly attached to its sides — otherwise a good, hearty tug on a jammed drawer may literally pull it apart. The sides of low-end boxes are stapled and screwed to the front. In better boxes, the sides are joined to the front with a machine-cut dovetailed joint or a special machine-made drawer joint.

The English dovetail joint is the traditional joint for drawer fonts because it survives the constant pull and yank of opening the drawer repeatedly for hundreds of years. The machined drawer joint is the industrial-age equivalent of the machine-cut dovetail joint. Both are equally effective. In the very best drawers, however, the dovetail is hand cut. This is the strongest joint of all.

Finishes

Lower-grade stained-wood cabinets are usually sealed with a sprayed lacquer, which produces an attractive finish, but one that is less colorfast and not very durable. For this reason, most of the better cabinets today are sealed with a catalyzed conversion varnish. It is heat cured in an oven like an automobile finish. The application and curing process takes longer, so the finish is more expensive. Local custom cabinetmakers cannot match this factory-applied finish, but several coats of polyurethane is just as good.

Many MDF-surfaced cabinets are now sealed with a pigmented polyester finish, applied in many layers in a tightly controlled environment. It's labor intensive and therefore expensive. The resulting finish is tougher than lacquer and usually has a high-luster sheen, which is easy to wipe clean.

Laminate Coatings

Not all cabinets these days are sealed with liquid coatings. Those made of MDF or partleboard are often covered with synthetic solid coatings. Here are some of the most common:

High-Pressure Laminate. High-Pressure Laminate (HPL) is composed of layers of compressed resin and paper available in a dazzling range of colors, finishes and textures. It is very similar to the material used in surfacing countertops. Manufacturers include Formica and Wilsonart. HPL is durable, soil resistant and easy to clean. Laminates, however, cannot be easily repaired and a badly scratched door will probably have to be replaced. Cabinets covered in high-density laminates are sturdy and easy to keep clean. For that reason they are usually the first choice in hospital and industrial applications.

Low-Pressure Laminate. Low-pressure laminate (LPL), commonly sold under the trade name Melamine®, is less durable and less expensive than HPL. It is most often used on the interior of cabinets and to surface shelves — locations where it is not likely to suffer great abuse. For these applications, it is perfectly adequate. It is not as suitable as other choices for surfacing doors and cabinet frames. Like high-pressure laminate, it comes in a wide range of colors, but is most commonly seen in white. Photo courtesy American Woodmark. Is it paint or is is Thermofoil? For the look of painted wood in a finish that is easy to maintain and extremely hard to damage, try Thermofoil. It never needs repainting.

Polyester. A durable, lustrous finish first championed by European manufacturers, polyester is available in a full range of colors, in both high gloss and matte finishes. Polyester finished cabinetry is made by fusing polyester to a substrate at fairly high heat. It is fade-resistant and comes in a variety of colors, but not as many as other surfacing choices.

Thermofoil

Thermofoil is actually a form of laminate — vinyl plastic film that is vacuumed molded onto MDF doors. It is sometimes referred to as RTF (meaning, simply Rigid Thermofoil, which is redundant since all Thermofoil is more or less rigid). The MDF door is normally shaped to give the appearance of a panel door, and is made in just about every possible style of panel: raised, flat, cathedral, arched, shaker/craftsman and so on. Thermofoil is available in a large variety of solid colors and many patterns including woodgrains and metalics. The Thermofoil process is increasingly popular on medium-price cabinets, because it offers a smooth, durable, cleanable, seamless surface that is still very affordable. If you prefer painted cabinets, seriously consider Thermofoil instead. If you like woodgrain, but need more durability, also consider Thermofoil.

Special Storage Features

A walk-in butler pantry may be the ultimate storage accessory for kitchens with the necessary extra space.

Photo Courtesy Master Brands Even the toe kick area under your cabinets can be used for storage.

Photo Courtesy Julius Blum GmbH Illuminated drawers and cabinet interiors make searching for items in the dark a thing of the past. Cabinets these days offer some impressive storage features, which can really improve efficiency and convenience, especially in cramped kitchens. Photo courtesy PantryMate Coated wire shelves pull out into the room for easy access to the gobs of stuff inside this tall pantry.

Photo Courtesy Diamond Cabinets This undercounter "super" pantry by Master Brands is about as storage-efficient as a cabinet can be made. Accessories include revolving can racks in pantry cabinets, pull-out wire pantries, lazy susans with recycling bins, spice racks, pull out base trays, wicker baskets, shelves and more; even special pull outs for baking sheets.

Many are offered by the manufacturers who build cabinets as extensions to their cabinet lines. Many more, however, are available from independent suppliers. Look for distributors of "Cabinet Organizers".

Some of there are pretty ingenious. Several companies make a coated wire pull-out pantry that fits in a base cabinet. What would otherwise be the cabinet door is attached to the pantry. When the "door" is pulled, the entire interior of the cabinet rolls out into the room for easy access from both sides to anything stored in the cabinet. Another of our favorites are pull-down shelves that make it easier for individuals confined to a wheelchair to access items in upper cabinets.

Even the space under the cabinets is now being used as storage. Check out Using Toe-Kick Space. Filler strips used to conceal voids in manufactured cabinets can become pullout storage for spice jars and other small items. A number of manufacturers now make pull-outs designed to be hidden behind 3" and 6" fillers.

Any kitchen designer will tell you that good lighting is one of the key features of a well-planned kitchen. Poorly placed or inadequate lighting makes a kitchen an uncomfortable place to work. Lighting has even extended into cabinets and drawers. We all know about the switch that turns on a light when a door is opened, but now drawers can have the same feature. A well lit drawer sounds like an unnecessary gimmick until you have one, then you will wonder how you ever did without it.

For maximum storage, however, if you have the room, nothing beats a full walk-in pantry or butler's closet. Finding the space may be a problem, but a good candidate is an adjacent closet, part of a neighboring porch, or even a slice of the mud-room. A pantry closet is also an excellent candidate for a bump-out. See: Finding Some More Kitchen Space for more information.

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