Kitchen Design Ideas- Making Kitchen Cabinets Look Like Furniture

Kitchen Design Ideas-  Customizing any kitchen is easy, it just takes a little creativity.   With the growing trend in the kitchen industry of including pieces of furniture in the kitchen, you can do this without ordering custom cabinets and without breaking the bank with expensive reproduction furniture.    You can easily make stock kitchen cabinets looks like furniture with the simple addition of furniture feet or furniture legs.

There are a wide variety of styles and designs that you can use, and we stock a wide range of them under our unfinished accessories.   In most cases you wouldn’t want to do the entire kitchen with furniture legs, but you want to use them on cabinets or parts of the room that you want to be the focal point – like the sink or cook top.   They are often used on the corners of islands or peninsulas to add an additional design touch where the ends might be sticking out.

Customiziing cabinets with Furniture Legs

Adding furniture legs to any cabinet will add some design accents to a standard cabinet

Installation techniques will vary slightly from product to product, but in most cases you don’t have to do it while installing the cabinets (most of the feet and furniture legs that I have seen could potentially be installed after the cabinets are already in place).   So if you are not looking to replace your cabinets, but you want to add some design touches, you can add some detailed at the bottom of the cabinets.   While we do not carry them, I have also seen some cabinet lines that carry decorative toe kick which can be used to create the illusion of feet.

Accenting Kitchen Cabinets

using decorative trim to accent kitchen cabinets

So if you are looking for an easy way to accent any cabinet line, consider adding decorative feet or furniture legs to your cabinets.    For more DIY tips and tricks, follow us on facebook or pinterest.

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Bathroom and Kitchen Sinks- What is new from the 2013 KBIS Show

Bathroom and kitchen sinks seemed to be one of fastest growing segments in home improvement in terms of new features and options that are coming out.  The variety and combinations of different materials and colors is overwhelming.   The show featured everything from solid stone sinks, unique hand blown glass, bamboo sinks and various types of metal, with free form expressions as well.  While we can’t cover all of them, I thought we would show you some of the highlights of what is now available on the market in terms of sinks.

Glass Vessel Bathroom Sinks

The creativity and color patterns that you can get with glass vessel sinks is almost as unbelievable as the price range.  Glass vessel sinks are becoming more and more affordable and you can really make the bathroom a focal point of the home with a custom vanity and glass vessel sink.   Here are some of the ones that we found at the show:

Glass Vessel Sink

Vessel sink with faucet

Vessel Sinks- Glass

Tower of sinks showing the variety of colors and shapes available

Blue Vessel Sink

Blue Glass sink with matching faucet

Glass Vessel Sink and Faucet

color variation of the vessel sinks that are available

Glass sinks

Display showing options for glass vessel sinks

Vessel Sinks- Glass

Glass vessel sinks with various patterns

Copper Sinks

When most people think of copper sinks, they think of the traditional undermounted copper sinks you might find in an old farm house.   Most are traditionally square shaped, but there is a whole other market for custom copper sinks.   We found everything ranging from vessel sinks to unique, basket weave patterns.

Copper sinks are a timeless look for any kitchen, but you definitely pay a premium for it.   Here are some of the more unique copper sinks that we found at the show:

Free Form Copper Sink

Coppper Vessel Sink made to look like stone

Hand Hammered Copper Sink

Hand hammered copper sink with butterfly on the edge

Double Bowl Copper Apron Sink

Copper Apron Front Sink with Rivets

Copper Sinks

Copper sinks set up in a tree display

Hand Hammered Copper sink

Copper Vanity with basket weave pattern

Bamboo Sinks

What I thought was an interesting trend is the number of companies that are starting to make bamboo sinks.   Solid wood and solid bamboo sinks seemed to be available everywhere.    They came in vessel bowls, standard bowls, and every stained in unique patterns.   While bamboo is definitely an eco-friendly alternative, I am not sure that I would want a sink made out of it!

Vessel sinks from solid bamboo

Vessel sinks made of bamboo

 

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Autumn Shaker Cabinets- Kitchen Design That Everyone Will Love!

We love when our customers send in photos documenting their renovations and rehabs, but this one in particular caught my attention.    The color palette is great, and you can tell it has a professional touch (Thanks to Wolffe Interiors), but the picture quality is professional as well.   It is amazing how much effect a photograph can have on the look and feel of  a kitchen.    The crazy thing about our cabinets, and cabinets in general, is that the color can look completely different in two different lights.    Even in our own showroom, natural light, halogen light, and led light completely change the look and feel of the cabinets.    This is one of the big reasons why we say that it is important to get sample doors before you make a final decision.

In this kitchen designed by Wolffe Interiors, they used our autumn shaker kitchen cabinets in combination with black granite and an awesome greyish subway tile for the back splash and behind the free standing range hood.   Two of the unique designs about this kitchen are the sink in the island, which frees up more work space around the range, and the double sided island that features wall cabinets under the seating area for extra storage.   The kitchen really turned out amazing.  They added little touches, like the decorative end panels on the wall cabinets, that add extra detailing around the glass tile backsplash.  The pull bar hardware really goes great with the overall design.   So enough talking about it….. here are some photos of the finished kitchen!

Don’t forget to pin the photos on pinterest, and share them with friends on facebook!

Shaker Kitchen Cabinets

Autumn Shaker cabinets with a black granite top

ASH1-1 ASH2-1 ASH3-1 ASH4-1 ASH5-1

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Fire Sale on Granite Vanity Tops!

We recently bought a close out on granite vanity tops, so we are having a fire sale!   We have limited quantities of each style, but we are selling them at 35% percent off of our regular prices.  Big savings if you are getting ready to remodel any or all of your bathrooms.   For available sizes and colors, head over to the sale page: Granite Tops

Once we run out of a particular size, you won’t be able to get them at this price anymore.  They are selling fast, so don’t wait too long.

Sale on Granite Vanity TopsHow would you like the chance to win a FREE vanity AND top?  If you haven’t already, head over to our facebook page and vote in the Kitchen Giveaway Contest.   Everyone that votes is entered to win a FREE vanity combo.  Contest ends in a couple of days, so hurry up and vote.

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Kitchen Cabinet End Panels: Do I Need Them For My Kitchen?

This is a common question that we get from customers and realistically the answer can be yes or no, it really depends upon the situation.  There are some ready-to-assemble products on the market that will reduce the number of items they have to stock by making the cabinet box a universal color and then you have to buy matching kitchen cabinet end panels to get the cabinets to match the face frame and doors (Ikea products are like this).   Our cabinet lines all have finished sides, so they are stained or painted (depending upon the cabinet line) to match the face frame and doors.   So if your only concern is whether or not the sides are finished, then you don’t have to worry… you won’t need the end panels.

So when WOULD you use end panels?  There  are a couple of scenarios where you would need to use end panels, but I think it is important to explain why we sell them first.  All of our cabinets are framed cabinets, which means there is a face frame on the cabinets that adds extra rigidity and strength.  The face frame on our cabinets overlaps the sides by 1/8” to lock them in place.

Overlay of Face Frame on Sides

We sell kitchen cabinet end panels to fill in this gap when the end of the cabinet will be exposed.  As I mentioned, the sides are finished to match the face frame, so in what scenarios would you want to use end panels?

1)      Esthetics – Esthetics is the most basic reason.   Some people want the sides to be flush with the face frame, so the end panel will create that look.

2)      Installing Crown Moulding- If you are installing crown moulding, you will need the sides to be flush to create a clean corner.  The end panel will create a flush side, which also makes that corner much much easier to calculate.

3)      Installing Decorative End Panels – We started selling the regular end panels as part of our deco door kits, but most companies don’t.   Most often a decorative end panel is really just a cabinet door that you are attaching to the side of the cabinet.  For that reason, it is not going to fit into the  1/8” groove that is on the side of the cabinets.   You want this surface to be flush so that the door can overlap onto the edge of the face frame.

When it comes to refrigerator panels or pantry end panels, we currently do not sell them because they are too large and too hard to ship without getting damaged.   In most cases people don’t use them on pantries or refrigerator panels anyway.

So if you are trying to determine if you need the end panels, use the three scenarios above as a guideline.  If you don’t fall into any of those three, then odds are you don’t need them.

 

For more tips like this, follow our blog or visit our facebook page.   If you found this information useful, help out a friend or family member by passing it along.

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Will I Die a Horrible and Painful Death If I Buy RTA Kitchen Cabinets From China?

Are RTA Cabinets Toxic?

Will you die a horrible and painful death if you buy RTA Kitchen Cabinets from China?  Yes, there is that possibility…. if they are not properly secured to the wall and they fall on your head (ok, so I am being sarcastic).  While the idea of you dying from your kitchen cabinets may sound crazy, there are a lot of people that are worried about “toxic chemicals” and off gases because they heard a story from a friend who told a friend who told a friend that anything made from plywood out of China is dangerous… well, I am here to dispel that myth.

If you are active on any of the home improvement forums or chatrooms, at least once a month you will see people asking “are cabinets out of China safe?” and inevitably someone will respond and say that they are full of toxic chemicals.  This is usually not based on fact, but rather because of someone that doesn’t think you should buy a product that is made outside of the US, or because they heard a report several years ago about the concern over formaldehyde in the glue…however, it just isn’t true.    In 2009 (I believe), California passed phase 1 of the ATCM (Airborne Toxic Control Measure) which set strict limits which capped emissions of formaldehyde, but it was also because a lot of US manufacturers were using it in their glue as well (it wasn’t just because products out of China had formaldehyde).   Phase 2 of the CARB compliance procedure took place later that same year and put even tighter restrictions on emissions.

With California being a major gateway for containers from China, all of the factories were forced to become CARB 2 compliant or not be able sell their cabinets in the U.S.    As you can guess, all of the factories that we have dealt with, immediately became compliant and had to get an independent verification to ensure they complied.   Any cabinet line where the factory has been inspected, will have a CARB 2 compliant logo like the ones below:

Kitchen Cabinet Carb 2 Compliance Carb2 CARB2-logo

If you see this logo on the box or on the website of the company, it is a pretty safe bet that you will not die a horrible and painful death from these cabinets.   Even if you don’t see it on the box, CARB 2 compliance has become the norm now, rather than the exception.

So when it comes down to the safety of the cabinets from an emissions standard or the use of “toxic chemicals” this is more of a myth than fact.   If you would like to read the full story about CARB 2 compliance, Columbia Forest Products has a great pdf that explains everything: CARB Compliance FAQ

All of our cabinets come from CARB Compliant factories that have been independently verified and are held to the highest standards of the new California emissions laws.

If you found this blog post useful, please share it with your friends or post it on Facebook.  If you disagree with anything I said, or have any comments, feel free to leave them below

 

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