How do I Choose the Best Kitchen Cabinet Doors?

Choosing kitchen cabinet doors can be fun, but also a little daunting with so many different choices available today. In order to make the best cabinet door choice for your kitchen, it's a good idea to just view all kinds of doors without thinking much about them at first; see which styles and materials you really love. Once you realize what your favorite cabinet door elements are, including not only style and material, but also color, you can specifically look for doors with those features. Narrowing down your choices of kitchen cabinet doors to several that best suit your interior design can help you save time in making your final decision.

Of course, if you're keeping your cabinet frames and are choosing only the doors, you'll have to pick the look that will coordinate best with the cupboard base units. Kitchen cupboard doors in a different material, color or style than the cabinet bases are likely to ruin the look unless you plan for a smart contrast. For example, two shades of the same color in painted wood may look good in folk art cabinets for a country kitchen, while traditional dark cherry kitchen cupboard frames paired with medium oak doors are bound to create a mismatched appearance. The best choice for replacement kitchen cabinet doors, if you want a modern, airy look to go with any existing cupboard frame unit, is a frameless glass style. If you'd rather partially hide the contents of your cabinets, you could choose a frosted glass look for the doors.

If your choice of kitchen cabinet doors isn't dependent on cupboard base units, then you'll have more options in colors as well as materials. If you've always had wood cabinets, perhaps you'd like to consider metal. Or, you could choose a kitchen cupboard door style that opens upward like the overhead storage compartments on many airlines, rather than the traditional cabinet doors that open on one side. On the other hand, if you've had only inexpensive laminate-coated, ready-made cabinets, and your budget allows for it, you may want to invest in custom cupboards made from quality hardwood such as cherry, oak or maple.

Don't forget about choosing attractive handle hardware when you're picking out a kitchen cabinet door style. Oftentimes, changing the handles on a lower priced cupboard door can make it look much better. Too plain or overly ornate handles may detract from the look of expensive kitchen cabinet doors. It's a good idea to be creative and open-minded when choosing a door design so you can find the best one.