Things to consider when purchasing Flush Inset Cabinetry

By Vincent C. Rogers

 

First let me clarify exactly what flush inset cabinetry is. Flush inset cabinets have their doors mounted inside the cabinet frame opening rather than laying on the face of the cabinet like standard cabinets. The face of the door is flush with the face of the cabinet itself. The cabinet face frame itself can have square edges like normal, or a small beading detail can be added but usually costs a little more than the square edges. The advantage to this beading detail is that it adds a lot of character to the face of the cabinetry. It also can be enhanced if a glazing is being used on the cabinet finish.

The first aspect of flush inset cabinetry to consider is the depth of the wall cabinets. Standard wall cabinets are built 12" in depth from the wall out to the face of the cabinet. This works well with cabinets that have overlay doors, but with flush inset cabinetry, you lose the thickness of the door in overall depth. The typical cabinet door is 3/4" thick but some very high end cabinet manufacturers offer doors that are 1" thick. This doesn't sound like much but sometimes just a little bit will make the difference whether your favorite platter will fit in the cabinet. Some cabinet manufacturers have changed their standard depth on these cabinets to 13" or so to make up the difference but not all do this. A lot of kitchens that I design with flush inset cabinetry, I specify some wall cabinetry to be 14" in depth. This has always worked great and doesn't effect the overall design.

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The second thing is price. Flush inset cabinetry typically costs more than standard overlay styles. One reason for this is that it is more labor intensive to precisely fit each door to the frame opening and therefore costs more. In Flush inset cabinetry, if a door ends up even 1/16" too big or too small, it will be very noticeable. Another reason is that some manufacturers do not make or offer flush inset cabinetry. Only manufacturers that makes higher quality cabinets makes flush inset cabinetry and therefore can charge more of a premium price. The advantage to paying this premium price is that the cabinetry does have a more expensive look and designers use this style quite a bit in the designs of their higher end clientele.

Another thing to consider is the hinges. Flush inset cabinetry is usually offered with two different hinge styles. One style is the pin hinge similar to the hinges on your house doors and has a small barrel section that has finials’ on each end. This part of the hinge is visible when the doors are shut. The negative about this hinge is that some form of magnetic catch is required to keep the door shut, but most kitchen designers choose this hinge for its authentic and beautiful look. The second type of hinges on flush inset cabinetry is a concealed hinge. The advantage of this hinge is that it is self closing, which means no magnetic catches and the doors are more easily adjusted if needed. The negative is that you lose the look that the pin hinge gives to the design of the cabinetry, but some kitchen designers do choose the concealed hinge if they are wanting the cabinetry to have cleaner lines to suit their design.



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Next is the door and drawer styles. Most manufacturers only offer certain door styles on this style of cabinetry. Typically mitered door styles are not offered which limits your choices to some degree. And certain drawer front styles are not available because of the height constraints in the drawer opening. There is simply not enough room for the drawer front to be reduced in size and still maintain its aesthetics.


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The last thing to consider is the maintenance, especially door and drawer adjustment. The cabinetry can be perfect when it is first installed, but over time doors tend to get a little out of adjustment due to settling of the house and just overall use. Concealed hinges make adjustment easier while the pin
hinges are more difficult to adjust.





Copyright 2010  Articles by Vincent
All rights reserved

 

About the Author

Vincent Rogers has been designing, building, and installing beautiful kitchens for over 25 years. His primary focus is on high end custom homes with projects exceeding $100,000.