Face frame cabinets
A hardwood frame across the front of the box — the traditional American cabinet, and what most Treasure Valley houses were built around. Five door profiles, plus every colour that came before.
What is a face frame cabinet?
A face frame cabinet has a hardwood frame fixed across the front of the box, and the doors hang on that frame. It is the traditional American construction, and it is what most Treasure Valley houses were built around. The frame stiffens the box and gives the door something solid to close against.
Does the frame cost you space?
Yes, a little. The frame narrows the opening by roughly an inch and a quarter each side, so a drawer in a face frame cabinet is narrower than the same cabinet built frameless. On a run of base cabinets that adds up to about one drawer's worth of width across a typical kitchen.
What do you get in return?
A face that reads as joinery rather than as a flat panel, hinges that are easier to adjust years later, and a box that stays square when it is carried, set and shimmed. It is also the construction most people picture when they picture a cabinet.
How are the boxes built?
Half-inch plywood with a matching exterior, not particleboard, and the same board right through. Doors and drawers are soft-close as standard. Drawers run on full-extension glides, so the back of a pan drawer is somewhere you can actually reach. The board is CARB2 compliant.
Why does it cost the same as frameless here?
Most shops charge more for one construction than the other, usually face frame, because it is the slower one to build. We hold both lines in the same stock programme and price them the same, so the choice is about how you want the kitchen to look, not about budget.
Which rooms suit face frame?
Houses with trim, panelled doors and a traditional feel, and any kitchen where the cabinets sit beside existing joinery that already has a frame. It also suits a room that will be lived in hard: the frame takes knocks that a frameless edge would show.