Framed & Frameless Cabinets: An Overview

When it comes to choosing new custom cabinets for your kitchen or bathroom remodel, you’ll be happy to know that there are two fundamental styles to select from: framed and frameless cabinets. Before you get too excited about a seemingly unlimited number of available options, you should know that there are a number of key differences between frameless and framed bathroom vanities and kitchen cabinets that are worth considering. 

If you’ve got decision fatigue, fret not. This article will help put to rest any confusion you may have regarding framed and frameless cabinets.

 

Appearance

It’s kind of remarkable how adding or omitting just one distinct feature of a household staple like cabinetry can alter its appearance so drastically. And yet, a frameless cabinet is often viewed as more contemporary, cleaner, and minimalist compared to the framed alternative. This is because when a frameless kitchen or bathroom cabinet door is closed, there is nothing there to frame the door. Frameless cabinets owe their clean aesthetic to the simple fact that they don’t have an overlying frame to support the box of the cabinet.

Framed cabinets, for their part, can include one of three distinct door styles, depending on your preference. These styles include: 

• A full overlay: is the type of door that covers the reveal (the part of the cabinet that can be seen once the door is attached) in its entirety. 
• A semi-overlay: covers a portion of the reveal.
• An inset door: is a door type that sits snugly within the reveal and is framed completely. 

If you’re looking for a rule of thumb to help you gauge when framed or frameless is the better option stylistically, remember that frameless cabinets are generally used to achieve a clean contemporary aesthetic, whereas framed cabinets tend to offer homeowners raised panels with more decorative features. Lastly, when you open a frameless cabinet, you won’t find an overlay or a center stile (the piece of wood aligned vertically on the frame). This absence of overlay and stile grants the homeowner a greater degree of access into the cabinet.

 

 

Space

Since framed and frameless cabinets contain equal volumetric capacity, space itself isn’t generally among the most important criteria when considering going with one or another. What you do want to consider, however, is accessibility. As mentioned above, frameless cabinets one-up framed cabinets when it comes to being able to access a cabinet’s contents, since the lack of a frame and stile won’t prohibit access to the item you need. If unimpeded access to the interior is important and all other criteria are equal, the decision should be relatively straight forward. 

 

Installation

For those of you who have decision fatigue, you’ll be happy to know that when it comes to installation, there is very little difference between framed and frameless cabinets. One difference to make note of is installing shelving in a framed double cabinet. In this scenario, installation is made slightly more difficult as the stile can potentially get in the way. Fortunately, this won’t add much in terms of cost or time to the installation, but it does require a bit of finesse to get them in there. Frameless cabinets are still considered a new product on this side of the pond, so you might find that some installers have less experience installing this product. The only other consideration worth mentioning as far as installation is concerned is the hardware that is used. Framed cabinets require longer screws to fasten one cabinet to the other since the hardware needs to go through the frame.

 

Costs

Like any other renovation you undertake, the lion’s share of the cost difference between any two options can be attributed to the different materials that are used. Materials like MDF will be cheaper than plywood, and thinner plywood will of course be less expensive than thicker wood. Here’s something worth considering that may not be so obvious: Since frameless cabinets do not benefit from the rigidity provided by a wooden frame, frameless cabinets tend to be constructed using thicker material to compensate. This naturally means a potentially higher price tag. 

 

Strength & Durability

It stands to reason that adding a frame to any structure will add strength and help to distribute weight and improve rigidity. Sometimes however, having the additional frame doesn’t necessarily translate to improved quality. For example, a manufacturer may add a frame, but then decide to use quarter-inch plywood instead of a thicker option for the construction of the cabinets. 

Frameless cabinets on the other hand are constructed without a frame and that means that it’s a bit more difficult for a manufacturer to get away with using less robust materials since the strength of the cabinet will be compromised. This can mean that, on average, frameless cabinets can be sturdier than their framed counterparts.  

 

And there you have it – all you ever needed to know about the differences between framed and frameless cabinets. Hopefully this article has given you enough information to make an informed decision when the time comes to remodel your kitchen, bathroom, or both!