Kitchen cabinets - the good, the bad and the ugly!

The kitchen is a focal point in most homes, as well as one of the most expensive rooms during any build or renovation. I discussed benchtops in this post, Michael covered the pros and cons of pre-fabbed kitchens in this post, and now I'll share what I've learnt about cabinetry.

Kitchen carcasses themselves (basically the wooden boxes that have a door or drawer front on them) are generally made of an engineered timber product such as particleboard or medium density fibreboard (MDF), but could be plywood or even solid timber. For anyone who's ever put together Ikea furniture, you would be familiar with particleboard. Plywood is a step up in terms of density and strength, and then it's a step up again to timber.

But it's the front of the cabinets that you'll see, and the part that most people are interested in. I'll admit I've been looking at kitchens for some time without appreciating the nuances of kitchen cabinetry finishes, and I'm really glad I looked into it.

So what are your options?

Thermolaminate

Thermolaminate is a very thin sheet of vinyl, which is heated and wrapped over the cabinet front (door or drawer) covered in glue to help it stick on. The big advantage is cost - it's the cheapest option. It can be used on profiled or routered doors (see below) and because it comes in one piece, it wraps around the whole door/drawer front including the sides, so it looks nice and continuous. However it's very sensitive to steam and heat, and many people find that in these areas (such as kitchens!) it can bubble and start to separate from the cabinet front itself. When I rang a well regarded kitchen company in Brisbane, they won't even offer thermolaminate as an option given its poor performance. Like everything though, there would be thousands of people with thermolaminate in their kitchens who are happy with the finish.

Lots of mitred edges in this kitchen, courtesy of Pinterest

Laminate vs melamine

These terms are confusing because lamination is simply 'the technique of manufacturing a material in multiple layers' (Wikipedia). Melamine is a low pressure laminate. 'Laminate' itself, sometimes known as Formica, is a high pressure laminate. The materials used to make both are similar (a tough plastic resin bonding layers of paper), but 'laminate' has more layers, is more durable, and tends to be used for benchtops. Melamine is still a durable material, perfect for cupboard or drawer fronts, comes in a wide range of colours and is reasonably cost-effective. The downside? You can't have a routered or profiled finish on cupboards because it only comes in flat pieces. Also if you look closely, the joins (say where the front of a door meets the top) will be visible.

Check out Polytec's melamine range here.

2 Pac

Not to be confused with this guy...

Originally used in the automotive industry, 2 Pac/2 Pack/Two Pack is essentially a super-hard and durable painted finish, and is the premium finish for cabinet fronts. It's available in a huge range of colours and finishes from matt through to gloss. Because it's applied directly to the cupboards or drawers themselves, a routered finish is possible, as are curved cupboards, curved edges or continuous coating over edges. 2 Pac also has its detractors who feel that it chips easily, but an equal number of people report heavy use and are happy with it. On average, it will cost 30% more than a standard melamine finish.

Profiled cabinet 2 Pac finish from contourcabinets.com.au

A note on Ikea cabinetry...

Because we are strongly considering an Ikea kitchen, I've been taking a harder look at their website. All Ikea cabinets are not created equal! Take the first example below, the 'Kallarp' cabinet door. Look at the bottom right 'product description'. What's foil do you ask? Foil, or thermofoil, is another term for thermolaminate.

The bottom is the 'Bobdyn' door, and you'll note it's significantly more expensive. Looking at the product description, 'acrylic paint, polyester paint'... that's 2 Pac.

Lastly, cool Ikea stuff to look out for...

Several companies are capitalising on Ikea's popularity and relatively low cost by providing cool cabinet fronts for Ikea carcasses. Check out Superfront - a Sweden-based company with some very stylish alternatives to Ikea's standard range. Currently they only ship their handles and smaller items to Australia, but expect that to change in the future.

Scandi style! Courtesy of superfront.com

Well that's it for now, thanks for reading, and please comment! We'd love to hear about your own kitchen renos or builds.
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