Learn all about recessed panel cabinets in the article down below!
Recessed Panel Cabinets – What Are They and Why Are They Popular?
Recessed panel cabinets? Raised Panel Cabinets? Shaker style cabinets? What does this all mean? Recessed panel cabinets make up the largest subsection of cabinets that are available on the market today. Some of the most popular types of cabinets are recessed panel cabinets. Read on to learn more about what recessed panel cabinets are and how they came to be.
In this post, you will learn:
- What are recessed panel cabinets?
- Are recessed panel cabinets and shaker cabinets the same?
- What kinds of recessed panel cabinets are there?
What are Recessed Panel Cabinets?
You rarely hear the term "recessed panel cabinets" thrown around, even when cabinets are the topic of conversation. Take a look around and you'll realize they're all around you. But what makes a cabinet a recessed panel cabinet? Look closely and you'll notice a trend; it's the door panel. Often one of the main differences in the appearance of cabinets is solely the door panel. Recessed panel cabinets feature exactly what they say they do, a recessed center door panel. They come in all different colors and designs, making up one of the largest subsections of cabinet doors.
How are Recessed Panel Cabinets Constructed?
As explained above, the only real difference between a recessed panel cabinet and any other kind of cabinet is the door face. The center panel or core of the door is recessed or sunken into the rest of the door frame. Recessed panel doors can be created in a few different ways.
5 piece doors are made from, you guessed it, 5 pieces. Each door is made from two stiles, two rails, and a center panel. Stiles and rails are what make up the outside frame of the door, with stiles running vertically and rails running horizontally. To be considered a recessed panel cabinet, the center panel must sit lower than the innermost height of the stiles and rails, otherwise, the cabinet may be considered a raised panel cabinet.
Another way that recessed cabinets are made is by creating doors from one piece. 5 piece doors are the more traditional way of creating cabinet doors and it is generally the best practice when creating doors that will expose the wood grain. One-piece doors are a more modern creation that has come about with CNC technology. CNC machines simply carve away the center panel cavity from a solid piece of material. These machines are precise and fast, making them a great means of creating cabinet doors very quickly.
Types of Recessed Panel Cabinets
Recessed panel cabinets come in a wide variety of shapes, colors, and designs, oftentimes varying from one manufacturer to another. We won't go into too much detail with each kind of recessed panel cabinet but I will provide some examples that can help you get started. We've already mentioned the most popular style of recessed panel cabinets; shaker cabinets, but there are many other kinds of cabinets that are also very popular. Glazing is a popular technique used on both raised and recessed panel cabinets. Glazing is a finishing process that accentuates the detail work on cabinets with complex door faces. Recessed panel cabinets can be painted or feature natural wood, however, natural wood cabinets will almost always feature 5 piece doors.
Recessed panel cabinets can be Full Overlay framed, partial overlay framed, or frameless. Each of these styles determines the amount of space between doors and the overall size of the doors and drawer frames. Frameless cabinets have large doors and virtually no space between them, full overlay are similar but have slightly more space between the doors since there a face frame to cover the space, and partial overlay doors provide lots of space between doors.