Custom Kitchen Cabinets San Diego
What You Need To Know About Our Custom Kitchen Cabinets
First, all cabinets are not created equal. Some cabinets only possess beauty that is skin deep.
What do I mean by that? Simple, what is under the pretty finished wood and what is the main materials used for constructing your cabinets?
Many cabinet makers use particle board, melamine and MDF (material density fiber) on areas that do not show. This seems to be the trend as raw materials get more expensive…adjust the quality downward by using cheaper materials.
Even the big box stores are now offering “beautiful” cabinets that are made out of Styrofoam with a laminate or veneer over the top, and I thought particle board was bad!
When preparing your kitchen cabinet budget, make sure it is realistic. Don’t just look skin deep. You want your cabinets to last years and years, not begin falling apart the day the installers leave.
Frame or Frameless
You won’t have that problem with Spectrum Kitchen Remodeling.
We use only ¾” quality cabinet grade plywood as our main material for our custom cabinets.
Let me start by saying there are a lot of variations in cabinets from one manufacturers to the next. So, I will explain the basic differences and what we offer. This is very important and will have a huge impact on who you choose to do the work and help you design the look of your new dream kitchen.
Let’s start with the design. Cabinets either have front face frames (aka. American) or they’re frameless (aka, European, full access). Sometimes they’re hard to tell apart because more and more face frame cabinets are using oversize doors to conceal the frames and use concealed European (hidden) hinges, which in turn makes them look frameless.
The face frame has a box (casework) with a wooden frame around the front. The frames very in size but 1 ½” is common. The frames usually have a ½” reveal around the doors. It is very common to have center stile in the middle of large cabinets for support. The hardware attaches to the front of face frame.
Another type of face frame cabinet is where the door sits inside of the frame. This is called an inset cabinet. This tends to be very labor intensive to build so the price is usually very high, but they do look nice.
Frameless cabinets do not have a wood frame. Therefore they do not have a reveal around the door. The door wraps the front of the casework. The door wraps the front of the casework. View the pictures below.
Face frame cabinets are what we use to build when we first started building custom cabinets. Each year more and more people would want me to hide the ½” reveal around the doors and use European (hidden) hinges. So it just made sense to offer frameless cabinets as an option. The more I taught homeowners what the difference was the more they chose frameless. So for me it was inevitable to completely switch over. The two main reasons were:
1. More interior space. I wasn’t loosing ½” all the way around the inside of the cabinet. I didn’t have to deal with center stiles for sink or pantry cabinets. This easily allowed me install larger pull-out drawers and made getting under the sink more manageable. That is why some people call them full access.
2. I preferred the way they look. It had a more seamless look to it and showed off the doors.
Now you know the difference between face frame and frameless and why we only offer frameless (European) on new cabinets.
Frame Frameless
San Diego Custom Kitchen Cabinet Styles
Alexander: This is our medium budget cabinetry line. This is a Beautiful custom cabinet made out of ¾” or 17mm cabinet grade Birch Ply. Drawer boxes are maple dovetail with full extension under mounted soft close guides. The casework has 3-mm edge banding and is stained to match the doors. There are hundreds of doors to choose from and can be made from dozens of different types of woods. An example of our great selection is the 35+ finishes from Mohawk Stains. This is our most popular cabinet and is great value for a custom cabinet. If you want great cabinets for an outstanding price this is your line!
Savannah: This is also a custom cabinet made out of ¾” or 17mm cabinet grade Birch Ply. Drawer boxes are maple dovetail with full extension under mounted soft close guides. The casework is edge banded with ¼” solids wood (same as the door material). There are hundreds of doors to choose from and can be customized to your liking from dozens of different types of woods. What sets these cabinets apart, is their amazing finish. We can accomadate different stains, glazes, accents, or distressing all custom made to your liking. For the highest quality in custom kitchen cabinets, Savannah is your choice.
