Traditional inset cabinets are cabinets with the doors and drawer-fronts set into a face frame. Think picture frame. The doors and drawer-fronts are the paintings inside the frame. Inset cabinets look more like furniture pieces than storage cabinets.
They are also known as flush inset cabinets because the face of the doors and drawer-fronts are flush with the face of the face frames.
Face frames have horizontal and vertical parts, in the same way a shaker style door does. The horizontal parts are called rails and mid-rails. The vertical parts are called the stiles and mid-stiles.
We offer two different face frame styles for inset cabinets; square inset and beaded inset face frames.
Square Inset Face Frame Cabinets
A square inset face frame cabinet has square edges on all of the edges of the face frame, including the inside edges of the frames that surround each door and drawer opening.
The example below has concealed adjustable hinges and a standard 4″ high toe-kick. Clean and simple!
Beaded Inset Face Frame Cabinets
A beaded inset face frame cabinet has a 1/4″ bead detail around the inside edge of the face frame openings for each door and drawer-front.
The example below also has concealed adjustable hinges , but with a version of a furniture-style toe-kick.
Both inset face frame types are available with either concealed Blum hinges or exposed barrel hinges.
The example below is square inset with exposed barrel hinges.
The next example is a beaded inset with exposed barrel hinges and extended tapered legs going to the floor.
Other Inset Cabinet Options
Exposed End Panels
These are the visible sides or gable ends of cabinets.
- They could be simple a flat panel, painted or stained, depending on the cabinet.
- they could be finished with a matching door panel, or
- they could be finished with a matching door panel that has been paced into a face frame. Like this:
Toe-kick Options
This is the area at the floor where your toes tuck under the cabinet. Most cabinets have 4″ high toe-kicks, but there are other options.
- a standard 4″ high toe-kick
- extended legs going to the floor
- a decorative furniture-style toe-kick
- flat front toe-kick
- extended legs going to the floor with a decorative curve cut-out
Anna & Tristan’s grey kitchen cabinets have extended legs going to the floor with decorative curve cut-outs.
They’re beaded inset cabinets with end panels that have matching door panels set into face frames.
Free standing kitchen cabinets have the look and feel that create a casual, functional cottage style kitchen. They are a collection of individual cabinet and furniture pieces that make up all of the dry storage and work surfaces in the kitchen.
In the past, free standing kitchen cabinets were the norm; a hutch, a dry sink, a pantry cabinet. They were furniture pieces, not attached to a wall, that where used in a kitchen as functional piece to store dry goods and provide work areas. In North America, these have largely gone by the way in favor of wall-to-wall continuous cabinets and counter tops.
In this Wesley Ellen free standing kitchen, you’ll find a separate apron front sink cabinet, a seperate tall, shallow pantry for storing dry goods and small appliances, stove side base cupboards, and of course a free standing kitchen island. To the left of the sink cabinet, you’ll see another free standing cabinet which houses the dishwasher.
There are only three upper cabinets; one open display cabinet with a contrasting painted bead-board back, and the two simple upper cabinets on either side of the range.
How Do I Get A Quotation?
It’s pretty simple really, as long as you can provide the right drawings and can answer a few questions.
BTW: If you don’t have drawings, we can collaborate with you and create the drawings you need. Yes, for a small fee. Call or email us about that.
Let’s start with drawings. We need concept drawings that show us basic information like dimensions, doors and drawers, stuff like that.
They don’t need to be fancy or have been drawn by an architect or designer. You can even draw them yourself on Sketch Up or hand-draw them yourself …they don’t even need to be to scale.
*One warning here: Before you spend a lot of money having a professional create your drawings, it will be best if they contact us first in order to understand how to draw inset cabinets that can actually be built affordably. Face frame stiles and rails need to be wide enough to allow for the 3/4″ plywood cases we build and for fitting built-in appliances properly. Re-drawing is an unnecessary expense.
Here’s what we need: elevation drawings that look something like this and give us this information:
- the height and width of each cabinet
- doors, drawer-fronts including special doors with glass or mesh
- any interior roll-out drawers, roll-out trays
- any detail about how finished ends are to be finished
- any glass or mesh doors or open cabinets
- any integrated appliances with matching cabinet door fronts: dishwashers, refrigerators, freezer drawers etc.
- any openings for built-in appliances: wall ovens, steam ovens, microwaves, coffee makers etc (for shop drawings we will need actual make and model numbers, but for a quotation, we just need to allow for the openings)
- Toe-kick detail: standard 4″ high, extended legs to the floor, furniture-style base or ?
Then we need to know what your choices are for the following if you haven’t included it in your drawings:
- will the face frames be square inset or beaded inset? Learn more about those choices here.
- will your cabinets be painted or stained?
- if they are to be painted, do you want:
- a solid color (we color-match your favorite paint company color)
- a brush-stroked solid color or
- a milk-paint finish
- if they are to be stained or clear-coated, which wood specie would you like? White Oak, Douglas Fir, Walnut, Maple, Alder…or
- if they are to be painted, do you want:
- how do you want the visible cabinet ends (sides/gables) to be completed:
- flat panels
- matching door panels
- matching door panels set into face frames
- Do you want concealed adjustable Blum hinges or exposed barrel hinges?
- Toe-kick detail: standard 4″ high, extended legs to the floor, furniture-style base or ?
How Much Do Custom Inset Cabinets Cost?
That depends on which options you choose. Have you got a few minutes?
People often ask if we have a lineal foot price for our work. The short answer is, no. Here’s why.
Think of it as buying a new car. You can buy the base model, or the next level up, or with all the bells & whistles.
The base model costs the least and then as you add options the price goes up until you’ve reached the top price.
Here’s a quick summary of options to choose from and then we’ll go into more detail:
- Choose from either a square inset face frame style or a beaded inset face frame style
- Choose how the visible cabinet ends will be finished:
- A simple flat panel
- a matching door panel
- a matching door panel set into a face frame
- Choose the kind of toe-kick detail you would like:
- a standard 4″ high toe-kick
- extended legs going to the floor
- extended legs going to the floor with a decorative curve cut-out
- a decorative furniture-style toe-kick
- Choose the kind of paint or stain finish you’d like:
- solid color paint
- hand-brushed paint finish
- milk-paint finish
- stained
- Choose the knobs and pulls hardware. Quality and pricing vary significantly.
- Choose the number of drawers and interior roll-out drawers you will want
- Choose if you will have any special pull-outs units like waste/recycling, special corner units or spice pull-outs.
Square Inset or Beaded Inset Cabinets with Hinge Options
The base model in inset cabinets is a square inset face frame cabinet with concealed adjustable hinges. They look like this:
Pretty sweet, if you ask me! This example has a standard 4″ high toe-kick.
Square inset cabinets have clean square edges everywhere. We call them square inset because they have square inset profiles around the inside edges where each door and drawer front fit into.
The concealed adjustable hinges part means that the door hinges are not visible from the outside; they are concealed inside the cabinet.
We use Blum Clip Top Blumotion hinges. They are top of the line adjustable hinges with a soft-closing feature.
The next step up would be the same square inset cabinet but with exposed barrel hinges. Like this:
This square inset cabinet with exposed barrel hinges happens to have a furniture-style toe-kick.
After that, you could choose a beaded inset cabinet with concealed adjustable hinges. Like this:
Also very sweet! Do you see the 1/4″ bead detail around each door and drawer opening?
And you don’t see any exposed barrel hinges, right? It also has a version of a furniture-style toe-kick.
The next step up is a beaded inset cabinet with the 1/4″ bead detail plus exposed barrel hinges. Like this:
This photo is from our own home. The apron front sink cabinet has all the bells & whistles with a furniture-style toe-kick.
So why do exposed barrel hinges cost more than concealed adjustable hinges?
There are two reasons:
- traditional exposed barrel hinges are time consuming to install. We’ve become really good at it, but it still takes long.
- barrel hinges do not have any springs in them that pull the doors in and keep them closed. So that means you need to physically move the door with your hand and place it in its closed position. Because doors can’t be counted on staying where they been place, think small children, we have needed to come up with a way to keep the doors in place that isn’t tacky. Rather than using plastic/metal magnets from another era, we use 3/8″ diameter rare earth magnets recessed into the top and bottom of the doors as well as in the face frame. Works like a charm. But it takes more time.
Visible Finished End Options
If a cabinet is between walls then there is no additional cost to finish the ends, But, if one or both of the ends are visible, then we need to decide how we will finish them. There are three options:
- They could be simple a flat panel, painted or stained, depending on the cabinet.
- they could be finished with a matching door panel, or
- they could be finished with a matching door panel that has been paced into a face frame. Like this:
Toe-kick Detail Options
- a standard 4″ high toe-kick
- extended legs going to the floor
- a decorative furniture-style toe-kick
- flat front toe-kick
- extended legs going to the floor with a decorative curve cut-out
Earlier, I listed four different toe-kick options. Actually there are at least five.
You’ve already seen the standard 4″ high toe-kick and the furniture-style toe-kick above and just now, you also see the extended leg option in the photo above. Extended legs can be tapered, as above, or they can be straight. Your call.
A fourth option, is also seen in the above photo on the left, which is a flat continuation of the face frame to the floor with no recess.
This is a traditional detail that works if you are not needing toe-kick space.
The fifth option is extended legs going to the floor with a decorative curve cut-out as seen below.
In Summary
There are just too many details to say how much a lineal foot our cabinets are. But…
We’re always happy to provide an estimate once we have sketches or drawings to work from.