Kitchen cabinet, how to choose?

The kitchen cab­i­net, used for var­i­ous struc­tures, is the main com­po­nent of the fur­ni­ture design. Any host­ess dreams of a beau­ti­ful and func­tion­al kitchen. If you have decid­ed to make repairs in the kitchen or moved to anoth­er apart­ment, you should think about the design and ratio­nal­i­ty of using the work­space. At the same time, you always want to buy a qual­i­ty kitchen set at an afford­able price.

Features and Benefits

The cab­i­net is the most impor­tant attribute that forms the basis of the entire kitchen frame. Hav­ing a dif­fer­ent shape and design, the kitchen set allows you to ratio­nal­ly use the work area. This attribute com­bines two impor­tant com­po­nents, such as func­tion­al­i­ty and ergonom­ics.

The cab­i­net for the kitchen is used not only as a stor­age for dish­es and oth­er uten­sils, but also as a coun­ter­top and even a kitchen table; a wash­ing machine and a dish­wash­er are built into them. This cab­i­net type of fur­ni­ture is installed in any order, opti­mal­ly occu­py­ing the space of the kitchen.

Cabinet dimensions

The dimen­sions of the cab­i­nets must be select­ed tak­ing into account the dimen­sions of the kitchen itself. There­fore, before choos­ing a set, it is nec­es­sary to care­ful­ly mea­sure the kitchen area. For accu­rate results, count every cen­time­ter.

The stan­dard dimen­sions of the cab­i­nets are: depth — 50–80 cm, height — 90–110 cm.

The depth of the cab­i­net should cor­re­spond to its pur­pose. So, if it has built-in appli­ances or a sink, then the cab­i­net should be at least 10 cm deep­er. In the case when fur­ni­ture is used for stor­age, its depth can be select­ed indi­vid­u­al­ly.

As for the height of kitchen fur­ni­ture, con­sid­er the height of a per­son: for non-stan­dard para­me­ters, it is bet­ter to make a cus­tom-made kitchen.

Variety of species

A wide range allows you to choose the most diverse forms of kitchen sets, the most suit­able both in terms of the size of the space and the inte­ri­or.

with drawers

A bed­side table with shelves is a stan­dard option that looks like a sim­ple lock­er. Kitchen cab­i­nets with draw­ers can be of dif­fer­ent sizes. Small box­es are placed on top, and large ones, designed for bulky kitchen uten­sils, are placed below. Although there are options with the same size box­es.

A uni­ver­sal option — a set with doors and draw­ers. It allows you to store both small and large items.

under the sink

A kitchen floor cab­i­net with a coun­ter­top can com­bine two designs at the same time. Its opti­mal width is 60 cm: this is enough to place a stan­dard sink on the sur­face of the coun­ter­top. Using a cab­i­net under the sink will allow you to hide the trash can, sew­er pipes or place box­es for stor­ing veg­eta­bles.

Narrow pedestal

For small apart­ments, nar­row wall and floor cab­i­nets are pro­duced. They occu­py a min­i­mum of space, with­out cre­at­ing the effect of iso­la­tion and tight­ness. The most com­mon types of nar­row cab­i­nets are:

1. A pen­cil case is a col­umn with numer­ous shelves, which is most often placed at the end of a work­ing head­set.
2. Mount­ed. The most pop­u­lar are hang­ing ver­ti­cal cab­i­nets.
3. A pull-out cab­i­net is an indis­pens­able thing for tall bot­tles and cans.

For kitchen appliances

Using cab­i­nets to house house­hold appli­ances is a win­ning option for any kitchen. The cab­i­net under the oven con­sists only of a base and two side­walls: a hob is placed at the top, and an oven is placed at the bot­tom. Some­times a small draw­er is built under the oven.

The option with a dish­wash­er is also often used, the place­ment of which inside the cab­i­net makes the kitchen more func­tion­al.

open model

A less com­mon option are open cab­i­nets with shelves (with­out doors). Some­times they use a com­bi­na­tion of shelves with­out doors with hinged draw­ers.

With extendable table

If you equip the kitchen with retractable struc­tures to save space, then a retractable table is a suit­able option for a small fam­i­ly. Using a trans­form­ing table will be the right solu­tion in terms of space for a small kitchen, allow­ing you to use part of the kitchen set as a din­ing area.

Manufacturing materials

To cre­ate a sea­soned inte­ri­or, every detail is tak­en into account: even the legs and doors of kitchen cab­i­nets.

There are the fol­low­ing types of doors:

1. Swing. Of all types of doors, this option is the eas­i­est and most con­ve­nient to use. How­ev­er, it is not suit­able for small kitchens: open doors take up a lot of space.
2. Fold­ing. Using this type of fur­ni­ture allows you to open the night­stand with one fin­ger, while the doors are direct­ed either up or down.
3. Slid­ing. They are used for small kitchens, while tak­ing up a min­i­mum of space, but lim­it­ing the depth of the cab­i­net.
4. Fold­ing. This con­fig­u­ra­tion is extreme­ly rare.

The base of the kitchen struc­ture must be sta­ble. It can be pre­sent­ed in the form of legs or a plinth.

Open legs for kitchen cab­i­nets are made of met­al, plas­tic or wood. Some­times, for the sta­bil­i­ty of the struc­ture, the num­ber of legs may not be 4, but more.

The plinth is used both as a base and as a dec­o­ra­tive facade. For its pro­duc­tion is used:

• Chip­board — the cheap­est mate­r­i­al with a wide col­or palette;
• MDF is a high­er qual­i­ty mate­r­i­al com­pared to chip­board, which is char­ac­ter­ized by an increased cost;
• PVC, which is not afraid of mechan­i­cal dam­age and mois­ture, does not fade in the sun;
• alu­minum is the most expen­sive, but envi­ron­men­tal­ly friend­ly mate­r­i­al.

How to choose

Depend­ing on the type of con­struc­tion, kitchen floor cab­i­nets with a work­top can be:

1. Embed­ded. Such cab­i­nets are installed in a spe­cial­ly des­ig­nat­ed place in the struc­ture or in the wall.
2. Cab­i­net — autonomous bed­side tables, the loca­tion of which can always be changed.
3. Mod­u­lar — mod­els are installed ele­ment by ele­ment, so they can also be inter­changed.

When choos­ing a coun­ter­top, you should pay atten­tion to the mate­r­i­al used.

Most often, coun­ter­tops are made from the fol­low­ing mate­ri­als:

1. Lam­i­nat­ed chip­board. This inex­pen­sive mate­r­i­al has mois­ture-resis­tant and impact-resis­tant prop­er­ties. Its major draw­back is its short lifes­pan.
2. arti­fi­cial stone. These coun­ter­tops are durable and low main­te­nance.
3. Nat­ur­al wood. Wood slats are the most expen­sive mate­r­i­al, prac­ti­cal­ly not sub­ject to defor­ma­tion. How­ev­er, they must be care­ful­ly looked after and con­stant­ly pol­ished.
4. nat­ur­al stone. They can be made from gran­ite, onyx and mar­ble and require spe­cial care.

We make a cabinet with our own hands

Hav­ing decid­ed to build a struc­ture with your own hands, you need to care­ful­ly take mea­sure­ments and think through all the nuances. Hav­ing decid­ed on the design, you should design and cal­cu­late each ele­ment of fur­ni­ture. It will be pos­si­ble to do this with the help of a com­put­er pro­gram: hav­ing indi­cat­ed the dimen­sions of the room, you begin to design. After that, set the size of the boards and install the prod­uct in the right place. Hav­ing dealt with the design prin­ci­ple, this task will not seem very dif­fi­cult.

You can make a sink cab­i­net — this is an eas­i­er option for begin­ner builders. It con­sists of 2 sides, bot­tom plinth, bot­tom, top braces and a door. Details of kitchen cab­i­nets can be made of wood, chip­board and oth­er mate­ri­als. At the same time, it is nec­es­sary to stock up on tools with­out which it is impos­si­ble to make fur­ni­ture: a drill, a screw­driv­er, self-tap­ping screws, a tape mea­sure, etc.

Hav­ing learned how to make fur­ni­ture for the sink, you can pro­ceed to the next step — mak­ing a bed­side table for dish­es in the kitchen with your own hands. Here, in addi­tion to the exter­nal struc­ture, spe­cial atten­tion should be paid to the inter­nal shelves.

By mak­ing each com­po­nent of the kitchen set in turn, you will learn how to make more com­plex struc­tures, assem­ble and install them in the kitchen.