If you have chosen your kitchen cabinet door material, it is time to consider the various, decorative and styling choices that define the overall cost of the door and its aesthetic appeal. The three basic kitchen door styles offered are slab / flat-panel doors, recessed panel doors and raised panel doors.

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• Slab / flat-panel doors — the most common choice among homeowners wanting an affordable, simplistic-yet-stylish design for their kitchen cabinets. Slab doors are often referred to as flat doors. They have a simple construction wherein there is minimal need to establish demanding angles/joints. They are ideal for homeowners wanting to create a minimalist ambience in their kitchen. Slab doors with a laminated surface are the most popular form of quick-to-install, refaced kitchen doors.
• Recessed panel doors — they are also called picture-frame design doors. They are definitely a more fashionable option than slab doors. Their installation requires the incorporation of mortise and miter joints that are best handled by professional fitters. Recessed doors offer a flattened, bare surface that can be further designed to complement your kitchen’s décor.
• Raised panel doors — these doors offer a blended construction format wherein frame & panel construction techniques are merged to offer greater ease-of-use and better insulation against maintenance issues such as moisture seepage. Here, professional expertise is required to create the protruding paneling that defines the elegance of a raised panel door.

Understanding Kitchen Cabinet Door Style Options

The above-listed panel doors represent the three, basic kitchen-door styling options that can be further shaped according to your styling inclination. For example, you can ask your designer to reface your kitchen with square-shaped, raised or recessed doors. Similarly, arched doors can also be ordered wherein the door is given a cathedral-type, arched shape towards the top.

Understanding Kitchen Door Decorative Finishing Options

The overall, finished appearance of a refaced kitchen is established when the design elements are carefully chosen to complement its basic layout. Kitchen cabinet doors can be customized to make your kitchen appear fashionably progressive by equipping them with finishing options that are available across a wide design and price range. The following options are recommended since they put forth some handy, practical attributes along with their decorative aspect:

• Wood Veneering — Wood veneers are thin strips of wood applied upon the cabinet’s frame (raw surface) with a special adhesive backing called PSA. Veneers immediately lend a ‘newly-finished’ appearance to the frames and further enhance their durability. Wood veneers are a sensible, affordable choice since they are cheaper than other, wood-based finishing options and offer equal design-oriented worth in terms of their grain consistency. The wooden appearance of veneers is at par with that of natural hardwood. Wood finishes don’t need to be waxed to maintain their defining, glossy finish. Wood veneers help to protect the cabinet doors against seasonal changes that can cause expansion, shrinking and eventual, cracking/splitting within the door’s surface.
• Using Plastic Laminates — Laminates offer the widest range of designer patterns and textures than any other finishing option. They are very resilient against moisture and staining and are easy-to-clean. Usually, the plain, solid color laminates are the least expensive and the price rises in accordance with more multifaceted, texture/design combinations. This makes laminates ideally suited for refacing projects wherein they are fixed upon solid color cabinet frames. They are typically applied when using Thermofoil (RTF) doors.