Your Home Improvement Guide

Once you understand the process you will be a better informed consumer when you are deciding on which cabinets to put in your home. With that being said your first decision you will need to make will be on the material you would like your cabinets built from.

When you are shopping for your cabinetry you will need to decide what type of material you would like to use on the kitchen cabinets. Your choice is either going with real wood or a manufactured wood like melamine. Each of these materials has their pros and cons. For example, with real wood you will pay a little more money but if your kitchen pipes burst or leak, the water will most likely not damage the cabinets. With manufactured woods you can choose from a variety of solid or wood grained colors and save some money, however, if your kitchen floods your cabinetry could swell.

Once you have made that decision, you will need to decide the style of cabinetry you wish to use in your kitchen. Your choices are a face-frame cabinet or a frameless cabinet. This will tell the manufacturer how to build kitchen cabinets for your home. A face-frame is built by using a frame around the cabinet; many people choose this type of cabinet because they feel it is sturdier. A frameless cabinet is also referred to as a Euro cabinet as the style originated over in Europe. The difference between the two styles is this, when you look at a kitchen with Euro cabinets you will see only doors, with a face-frame cabinet you will see the frame of the cabinet in-between the doors.

Either style is sturdy and will make a great choice in your kitchen; it is really just a matter of preference. Now you are getting to the technical part of how to build kitchen cabinets and here are some things you should know:

Base Cabinets-Each standard base cabinet will be 24″ deep and 34 1/2″ tall. The cabinetry box will have two sides, a bottom and a back. The sides and bottoms will be the same thickness but the back will be made from a thinner material. Once the sides have been attached to the base the back is slid into place. To help sturdy the cabinet and make for an easy installation a hang rail is added behind the cabinet back. Then the box will get any drawers or center styles needed to complete the cabinet.

Upper Cabinets: Each standard upper cabinet is made like a base cabinet except they are, generally speaking 12″ deep and can vary in height. The most common heights to choose from are 30″, 36″ or 42″ upper cabinets. Most upper cabinets will receive two adjustable shelves.

When you are considering new cabinetry, you should understand at least the basics on how to build kitchens cabinets. Here you have learned the basics that will influence how the manufacturers will build your cabinets and a few of the more technical aspects of building the cabinets.