Cabinetry
A cabinet is a case or cupboard with shelves or drawers for storing or displaying items.
Commercial grade cabinets usually have a melamine-particleboard substrate and are covered in a high-pressure decorative laminate commonly referred to as Wilsonart or Formica.
A small bedside cabinet is more frequently called a nightstand or night table.
Before the advent of industrial design, cabinet makers were responsible for the conception and the production of any piece of furniture.
In parallel to this evolution there came a growing demand by the rising middle class in most industrialised countries for finely made furniture.
This movement exemplified the reaction to the eclectic historicism of the Victorian era and to the 'soulless' machine-made production which was starting to become widespread.
The more serious and skilled amateurs in this field now turn out pieces of furniture which rival the work of professional cabinet makers.
Together, their work now represents but a small percentage of furniture production in any industrial country, but their numbers are vastly greater than those of their counterparts in the 18th century and before.
The main colours of glam cabinets can follow high impact or soft and luxurious directions.
The main features of glamour in cabinetry are: This style of design is typified by clean horizontal and vertical lines.
For example, a table top may have what is considered a "live edge" that allows you to see the original contours of the tree that it came from.
Mission design is characterised by straight, thick horizontal and vertical lines and flat panels.
For early mission cabinetmakers, the material of choice was white oak, which they often darkened through a process known as "fuming".
Red is a frequent colour choice along with landscape art and Chinese or other Asian language characters on the pieces.
A built-in cabinet is usually custom made for a particular situation and it is fixed into position, on a floor, against a wall, or framed in an opening.
[7] Modern cabinetry is often frameless and is typically constructed from man-made sheet materials, such as plywood, chipboard or medium-density fibreboard (MDF).
According to design guidelines of the National Kitchen & Bath Association, known as the NKBA,[citation needed] the height from the counter top surface to the bottom of the upper cabinets should be no less than 15" in clearance.
Cabinet boxes produced for kitchens are typically made of wood derivatives such as MDF, plywood, or particle board.
A type of adjustable leg has been adopted from the European cabinet system which offers several advantages.
They can also be attached by means of a hole drilled through the cabinet bottom at specific locations.
The legs are then attached to the cabinet bottom by a slotted, hollow machine screw.
Other insert hardware includes such items as mixer shelves that pull out of a base cabinet and spring into a locked position at counter height.
This hardware aids in lifting these somewhat heavy mixers and assists with positioning the unit for use.
More and more components are being designed to enable specialized hardware to be used in standard cabinet carcasses.
In many cases, the top is merely to enclose the compartments within and serves no other purpose—as in a wall hung cupboard for example.
