Inset from the outset

As I mentioned yesterday, framed cabinetry comes in three primary overlay styles: standard overlay, full overlay and inset. Here's a breakdown of what those terms mean.

This is a standard overlay door. You can see how the door doesn't cover the faceframe completely. This is an old-fashioned design that's not at all popular anymore. Do not buy standard overlay doors! The arched top rail on this door pushes this style closer to the dustbin where it belongs. 

This is a full-overlay framed cabinet door. See how the door and drawer front cover the face frame? This is what you want, regardless of the door style. The door style I'm showing here is what I call a wide-stile Shaker door. It's the more modern take on a typical Shaker door.

Finally, there's inset cabinetry. Rather than resting on the surface of the faceframe, inset cabinetry doors sit inside the faceframe. Generally, inset cabinet doors are made with either a beaded or unbeaded frame, and with either visible or hidden hinges. The image above shows a non-beaded cabinet frame with hidden hinges on the door.

Here's a beaded frame on a cabinet with hidden hinges. The bead in a beaded frame is the outline you can see around this door. That bead is an added detail and serves no real purpose but to make the door appear to be larger. Beaded inset cabinetry is usually available with either exposed or hidden hinges.

And here's a non-beaded frame with exposed hinges. When you're looking at inset cabinetry with exposed hinges, there are usually three or four hinge finishes available. In the image above, the hinges are finished in a matte black and they have a ball finial. An exposed hinge can give a modern-ish door like this one a more vintage feel.

Inset cabinetry is a traditional form of cabinet making and it's been making a comeback in recent years. Although it's a traditional form, it doesn't have to be used in a traditional setting. 

The kitchen above is a transitional contemporary design with some traditional elements --the Hoosier-type cabinet  between the wall ovens and the well-disguised refrigerator jumps out at me as the big traditional element here. That Hoosier cabinet is actually made from inset cabinetry by the way, and all of the cabinetry shown in that image is by and available from Medallion Cabinetry. If you'd like a good run-through of a solid and well-made inset cabinetry line, check out Medallion's Platinum line.

Back to kitchen design: framed or frameless?

I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that I'm working on two jobs that are using honed marble counters. One of them is about to start construction and it will be a beauty. As work progresses on that job, I'll post some photos of it. But in the meantime, the cabinetry going into that kitchen is what we call inset cabinetry. Inset is one of the three overlay styles available in the world of framed cabinetry and it's hands-down my favorite. Since terms like that have meaning for so few people, it's time for a little cabinetry 101.

Cabinetry is made in two primary construction styles, framed and frameless. Here's a shot of what I mean by framed cabinetry.

Framed cabinetry has a face frame that functions as a fourth side to a cabinet box, and it makes them more structurally sound. The door hinges on a framed cabinet attach to this frame.

Frameless cabinetry has no fourth side. On a frameless box, the door hinges attach to the insides of the cabinet itself. Oftentimes, a framed cabinet is referred to as a European box. A lot of people who sell frameless cabinetry make a big production out of the difference in the interior size of a frameless box over a framed box. That size difference can be measured in cubic centimeters and it's an amount of space I'd trade for increased strength any day.

There are partisans on both sides of cabinetry construction style rift, and you can place me firmly in the camp of the framed fans. In day to day use, I defy most people to tell the difference between the two and when asked, most people have to run into the kitchen to check which kind they have.

I like framed cabinetry because it allows me more flexibility. Framed boxes allow me to go larger and wider with my designs because its a stronger construction method. Every kitchen designer I know has a preference of one over the other, but at the end of the day, I don't think most clients will notice a difference between the two.

This kitchen was made with frameless cabinetry.

And this one was put together with framed cabinetry. See the difference? I thought not.

So there are the two construction styles you're most likely to run across in the world of cabinetry. Far more important than which style you buy is that you find a designer whom you trust and who listens to you.

Tune in tomorrow for part two of my cabinetry 101 when I'll discuss the three overlay styles of framed cabinetry.

Kitchen solutions from Richard Edic

Richard Edic has been a Rochester-based kitchen designer for 30 years and along with his brother Martin, wrote Kitchens That Work: The Practical Guide to Creating a Great Kitchen. Their book was published by my heroes at Taunton Press, and is available here. Richard Edic also has a Website and blog dedicated to kitchen design called Kitchen Solutions. You'll find a link to him in my blog roll and in case you missed it, here's that link again.

Richard's writing sticks to kitchen design a lot more than my PM Magazine approach to the topic does and I'm glad to refer people to his site. I went over it and what he's dispensing is legitimate advice and opinion and like my site, it's offered from the perspective of a professional in the field. Like what I'm trying to do here, he cuts through the hype and the industry nonsense and I'm glad to link to him here.

So if you're considering a renovation or if you just like to read about this topic, spend some time with Richard Edic.

Hmmmm

I saw this on Apartment Therapy earlier this week and it struck me as an interesting way to frame a photo. I tend to run in the opposite direction when I sense something country-fied is nearby, but this doesn't make me want to run away. Maybe it's my inner miser or just my novelty-seeking self at work here. Got a Mason jar or anything with a wide mouth? Try this and see how it looks.

One last trompe

One last trompe l'oeil that is. On Friday, I showed a couple of photos of Classical Roman decorative painting and then a church in Rome. Let me just state for the record that nowhere on the planet offers such bountiful rewards to a solitary walker than the city of Rome. I will repeat that to anyone who listens (or who doesn't listen) for the rest of my life. Ottorino Respighi captured the exitement and glory of a walk in that city in his first movement from I pini di Roma. Listen to it sometime. It makes me weep like a child. Really. Blubbering hysterics. Anyhow, during another on of my Rome walks I came across the Church of St. Ignatius Loyola. I had no idea what the Church of Ignatius Loyola was until I opened the door and walked in.

Sant'Ignazio is a baroque church that opened its doors in 1650, and was the project of Jesuit architect Andrea Pozzo. In my readings since I walked into that church, I've learned that Sant'Ignazio is considered to be the pinnacle of Baroque painting. And here's why.

Photos cannot come close to capturing the effect of this ceiling. When you stand in the center of the church and look up, this painting completely fills your field of vision, and it's probably 100 feet in the air. You also lose sight completely the fact that this ceiling is flat. It appears to extend upward into infinity. Terms like breathtaking get thrown around pretty loosely, by me particularly; but I never experienced true breathtaking-ness until I saw this. And if that weren't enough, as you look forward and toward the altar, you look up into the dome of the church. 

Or you look up to where a dome ought to be, only it's another, perfectly flat ceiling painted to look like the inside of a dome at dusk. Pozzo completed these paintings more than 325 years ago and his motives and excitement for the subject matter are still palpable, regardless of a viewer's religious inclinations. 

For some reason, the Church of Saint Ignatius doesn't merit a whole lot of mention in the tour guides to Rome, but it affected me more than any other religious building in Rome did, that's for sure. Maybe because I stumbled upon it when I was walking by myself --it felt like my own private find. It's tucked into its own piazza not too far from the Pantheon. Some day when I want to prattle on about exquisite marbles, I'll bore you with some Pantheon photos. Hah!