The concept is simple - the face frame is eliminated and just the box remains. The doors are attached directly to the sides of the cabinet box for a clean, modern look. Without the frame, frameless cabinets rely on a thicker box for strength and stability.
A face frame in cabinet making is the frame fixed to the front of a cabinet carcass which obscures the edges of the carcass and provides the fixing point for doors and other external hardware.
Framed cabinets have a supporting feature that lies over the cabinet structure in order to support the box, whereas frameless cabinets do not. The frame is there to add more durability and strength, but in some cases this can mean the cabinets themselves are made from thinner materials.
The combination of wood grain directions in the face frame helps to reinforce the horizontal strength of the cabinet at the front opening. As another perk, the addition of a face frame minimizes an alignment issue known as racking, where the cabinet box is easily tilted out-of-square.
Frameless cabinets leave you with a sleeker, cleaner, and classier look, perfect for today's modern living. Plus, frameless cabinets provide much needed additional storage space, allowing you to declutter and put all your favorite kitchen tools, gadgets, pots, pans, dishes, and glasses within easy reach.
Frameless cabinets are a better option for smaller kitchens in which every inch matters. They offer a modern look, more drawer and cabinet space, and no center stiles that get in your way. Plus you get to seem wildly exotic when you tell your friends you went with the European style.
The only difference between framed and frameless cabinets is the box construction. The structural quality and durability between the two types of construction is equal, you simply have two very different construction methods that offer two different distinct looks.
The pricing difference between the two kinds is mostly in the material cost of cabinets; Frameless Shaker Door style cabinets (material and supplies only) will cost between $4,500 to $6,500 for a typical 10-by-10 kitchen, while comparable cabinets with face frame will normally cost about $1,000 less for all the ...
Flat Panel Cabinet Doors
These cabinet doors are often minimalistic in design and feature a recessed panel surrounded by a frame. This style of cabinet door is great for paint or stain finishes. The best example of a flat panel cabinet door is the Shaker cabinet door.
The term flush-overlay as used in cabinetry can refer either to the doors or to the drawers. The term describes the way in which the doors and drawers get fitted together with the functional hardware elements and the frame of the cabinet, as described at the Remodeling 101 and the Perfection Cabinetry websites.
Because a frameless cabinet will likely be made of thicker materials to compensate for the lack of frame, frameless cabinets usually cost more.
Frameless cabinets only offer one overlay style, Full Overlay. The Full Overlay of a frameless cabinet completely covers the entire box, leaving only a 2mm reveal that creates a sleek, seamless appearance, making it a popular choice for modern and contemporary styled kitchens.
-Frameless cabinets tend to be less durable than framed cabinets because the cabinet door is bolted directly to the cabinet box as opposed to bolted to the additional cabinet face. -Frameless cabinet doors are more likely to shift out of place after an earthquake or other natural event.
Poplar and soft maple are popular for most parts of a cabinet—face frames, end frames, and door panels—mostly due to cost and workability.
Full Access cabinetry have no face frame and they have slightly more interior cabinet space. Full Overlay doors are used on all Full Access cabinetry, inset doors are not available. Full Access cabinetry tends to be a more contemporary cabinet style. Full Access cabinetry is only available in Luxury Line.
Flat Panel or Recessed Panel Door
The frame of flat panel door comes with a profile. If the frame is without any profile, it is considered Shaker door. Shaker style and flat panel door both have recessed center panel.
Pros: Flat panel doors are easier to clean than any other style. Because slab cabinets require less material than other door styles, they tend to be slightly less expensive.
Because of their simplicity, flat-front cabinets can be the least expensive, but it all depends on the type of wood used, the finished applied, the hardware, and more.
The Pros of Full Overlay Cabinets
They're a good alternative to inset cabinets for tighter budgets. More Storage: Because the doors are mounted on the face frame instead of inside it, there's more room to squeeze large items through the opening than in inset cabinets.
In general, installing frameless cabinets isn't harder or easier than installing framed models, but frameless cabinets tend to be trickier to install when the walls aren't flat. Installing frameless cabinets can be harder if you don't have the European hardware designed for them.
IKEA cabinets are frameless, which means that there is no lip. Why does this matter? Frameless cabinets have up to 10% more storage per linear foot than framed cabinets. The drawers and pullouts can maximize the width of the box and not be limited to the opening size.
Are frameless cabinets less sturdy? No. While framed cabinets have an additional layer of hardwood and frameless cabinets are usually manufactured from engineered wood only, frameless cabinets are just as sturdy as framed cabinets because they rely on a thicker box for strength and stability.
The center panel is raised above the rest of the door or drawer and there is usually a recessed border around it. Raised panel cabinets are often more detailed and intricate. On the other hand, recessed panel cabinets have a flat center panel with a raised border around it, which gives off a more sleek appearance.
A face-frame cabinet is a cabinet which has a front panel into which an opening has been cut. An overlay door is a door which, when closed, lays “on top” of the cabinet opening (no part of the door goes into the opening since the door is larger than the opening).