Designing Custom Cabinetry
It is great to have cabinets throughout your home that look good while being functional. To help keep your home looking neat and tidy, cabinets and drawers are designed to store items either to hide them away, or to keep the dust off them. Shelving holds items for display, and work surfaces such as kitchen and laundry benchtops provide space to enable household chores to be worked through efficiently.
5 Quick Tips for Designing Your Cabinetry
1. Useful terms to know when talking about cabinetry design
Cabinet Style
Cabinets are made from timber which can be stained or painted, or laminates that come in many different colours and textures.
The style of cabinet is usually defined by the pattern of the cabinet door. There are many different styles including Flat, Shaker Style, Beadboard Country Style, Tongue and Groove, Heritage – and many more. The pattern is reflected on the drawers as well.
Take a look through some Cabinetry Choices. This will give you some good ideas to show Michael.
Types of Cabinets
Each room in your home has different cabinetry requirements which can be described as under bench cabinets, over bench cabinets, drawers, benchtops, corner cabinets, pantry cabinets, built in shelving for display or for a library, entertainment cabinets, vanity cabinets and many more including custom cabinets that are unique to your needs. Take a look through Cabinetry Choices for ideas to discuss with Michael.
Bench tops
Bench tops can be made from timber, natural or silica free stone, ceramic or laminate. They come in many different colours, patterns and textures and it is great if you can do some internet research using the links on the Cabinetry Choices pages to find the look that you like. Michael uses these suppliers to help build your cabinets so check out the links and discuss your ideas with him.
Door Handles
Another aspect for you to consider is the type of door handles that you like. For example, wooden or metal, round or long, or maybe you prefer the push open doors that have no handle. Check out the Cabinet Hardware link under Cabinetry Choices to give you an idea of what is available.
2. Designing cabinetry for a new home
When designing a new home you have the opportunity to identify what cabinetry will go in each room at the planning stage.
- Consider how much space and the shape of each space there is for each room.
- Consider where doors and windows will be located.
- Identify where power outlets and plumbing are required.
- Consider the type of activity that is likely to occur in each room. This will help to identify the storage requirements for that room, and the type of cabinetry required.
- Do you want the cabinetry to be a similar design and colour throughout the home, or something different in different spaces?
3. Designing cabinetry when renovating a home, or simply to update a room
When designing cabinetry for a home that is being renovated, or simply to update a room, you may be constrained by existing windows, doorways, electricity and plumbing fixtures.
- Identify where existing windows, doorways, electricity and plumbing fixtures are. Can these be altered to enable a different layout of cabinetry?
- Consider the flow of activity that will occur in this space. For example, a kitchen is used to prepare food for meals and entertaining so it needs storage space for food items, cooking utensils, cooking equipment and appliances.
- Do you want the new cabinetry to match the existing style and colours in your home, or would you like something quite different?
4. Gather pictures of cabinetry and cabinet fittings that you like
- Do a search on the internet for images using keywords such as “kitchen cabinets image”, “cabinet design”, “bathroom vanities”, “kitchen styles image”, and more.
- Check out MD Kitchens Instagram site
- Search on Houzz Australia for ideas that you like
- Check out Pinterest and search using cabinetry keywords as suggested above
- Michael uses these suppliers of cabinetry components to help build your cabinets. Check them out so you can gain a better idea of what you would like for your custom cabinets