What Types Of Cabinet Doors Are There?

When talking about kitchen renovations, more specifically cabinet doors, there are basically two types of doors – you have flat panel doors, and you also have a profile door. 

Flat panel doors are pretty self explanatory but a profile door is a door that’s got a shape in it of some sort. Most people know what a shaker door is, which is where there is a frame then a flat centre or something similar. That is an example of a profile door.

What Type Of Cupboard Door Finishes Are There?

When it comes to cabinet and cupboard door finishes, the most common are the following:

• Laminate
• Two Pack
• Timber Veneer
• Natural Timber

Laminate 

The first one on the list is the laminate finish. Laminate has been around pretty much since the Second World War. However, the laminates we have available to us today are light years better than they were back then, and they are even better than they were say, 10 years ago. There’s now a wide variety of laminates available and the choices are almost endless. 

In terms of colours and finishes, wood grains are now really popular. A nice, straight, fine grain looks lovely in a pantry or a wardrobe for example. Some of the wood grain laminates that are available today literally look like a log of wood, it’s just amazing what technology is allowing us to do. 

Where door finishes are concerned, as I said earlier on, laminates have come a very long way. For example, aside from just looking good, the technology we have now is such that you almost cannot find the seam where the edge tape has been wrapped around the panel. The edges are just so discreet, it really is a fantastic finish. 

One of the benefits of modern technology for laminates is we’re now using a lot of coloured carcasses and a lot of wood grain carcasses to add a feeling of better quality to the product. This looks really nice inside drawers for example, rather than just having a plain white board which can look cheap and nasty.

The laminate materials that we’ve got available today are much more durable, much more scratch-resistant, and give you almost any colour you can think of, the range is now so big. This gives people a number of options when they want to keep the cost down. 

Two Pack 

Another finish that is available for cabinet doors is a two-pack painted finish. Two pack paint has been around now for 30 years pretty much, and it’s gotten better and better as the years have gone by. That is why two pack is probably my choice over vinyl for a variety of reasons.

Most two pack has pretty much the same finish and they’re all about the same price as one another. However, the big benefit with two-pack is you can have any colour you want and it’s easy enough to repair it if ever it gets damaged. This means you won’t have any issues with delamination which can occur when foil doors get quite old. 

One thing we have noticed is that the gloss version of two-pack is not so popular anymore. Generally, across the marketplace, gloss finishes, whether it be indoors, whether it be in benchtops, or even splashbacks for that matter, are not as popular as they once were.

The main reason being I guess is that every time you touch a gloss surface with anything, be it a fingerprint, jam dribble, Vegemite, whatever, anything that breaks the reflected surface is going to draw your eye to it, so you’re going to notice it. As a result, the market has largely gone to non-reflective finishes. 

Satin finished two pack, which became very popular about 7 or 8 years ago, is still very popular and almost all the gloss and satin type finishes are now being replaced by non-reflective matte finishes.

Matte finishes are easy to keep clean, easier to repair, and are really a lovely finish. There’s no cost difference between whether it’s glossy, satin, or matte, the cost is the same, which is why two pack is always at the top of the tree where cost is concerned.

Natural Timber Veneer

Aside from laminates, you then have natural timber veneer. The beauty of natural timber veneer is you get lovely wood grains running through them. For example, book-matched veneer allows the grain to go all the way through the panels to the very end and looks completely natural.

However, these days, natural timber veneer can virtually be replaced with some of the wood grain laminates we discussed earlier. This is because they’re so much less expensive and, most importantly, you really can’t tell the difference from an aethestical perspective. The new wood grain laminates are really quite amazing. 

Natural Timber

The other thing we’re seeing quite a bit of these days is actual timber coming back as opposed to say, timber veneer. Solid timber is a wonderful product. Shaker doors made from timber in particular are becoming very popular. For example, there are shaker doors made in oak. They are very soft and silky to touch and come in such a lovely colour, they really add a touch of class to your kitchen.

One of the nice things you can do with natural timbers, generally, is to run the timber grain all the way through. However, as I’ve said before, natural timber and veneers are slowly being replaced by wood grain laminates because they’re just so much more visually accurate than they used to be and can be more cost effective.

So there you have it, hopefully this has given you a little bit of a feel for where colours and finishes of cupboard and cabinet doors are going at the moment, and probably the next couple of years. 

Let’s Talk Kitchens & Interiors have been designing and building bespoke bathrooms in Melbourne and greater Victoria since 1972. Over those 48 years, we’ve made every mistake known to man, so why not take advantage of our hard-won, learning experiences and call us today!

If you would like further help designing your luxury bathroom call Let’s Talk Kitchens & Interiors today on (03) 9068 5496 to speak with one of our qualified Interior Designers or book a consultation.