You do not need to be a cabinet maker to tell a well-built cabinet from a weak one. You need about five minutes, your hands, and permission to open things. Most of what matters is behind the door.
Check five things: what the box is made of, how the drawers are built, what hardware is on them, how the cabinet meets the room, and what the finish looks like on the edges. Do it in a showroom, in a shop, or in a friend’s kitchen. The same checks work everywhere.
Start with the box
The box is the part that carries the weight of the counter, the dishes and everything else. It is also the part most people never look at.
Open a door and look at the inside walls. Ask what the material is and how thick it is. Then check three things yourself:
- Thickness. Look at the front edge of a side panel. A thicker panel holds screws better and stays flat over a long span.
- Shelves. Press down in the middle of a shelf. It should not give. Long shelves made from thin material sag over time.
- The interior surface. A finished interior wipes clean and does not snag. Raw or papery surfaces wear quickly around the sink and under anything that leaks.
Look at the back panel too. A solid back keeps the box square. A thin one that flexes when you push on it is there to close the box, not to hold it together.
At Atrics: cabinet interiors are 3/4-inch pre-finished maple. See what goes into an Atrics cabinet for the full list.
Pull out a drawer
Drawers take more abuse than any other part of a kitchen, so they show the build faster than anything else. Pull one all the way out and look at it from the side.
Check the bottom first. Press on it from inside. If it flexes under your hand, it will sag once it is loaded with pans. Then look at the sides. They should be the same thickness all the way around, and the bottom should be held in the sides, not just stapled underneath.
Now look at the corners. This is where a drawer comes apart if it is going to. A dovetail joint, where the two sides lock together like fingers, is the traditional sign of a strong corner. A well-made square joint can also last. What you do not want is a corner held by a few staples and nothing else.
At Atrics: drawer boxes are 3/4-inch pre-finished maple on every side, including the bottom. You can choose a standard or a dovetail drawer.
Work the hardware
Hinges and slides are the moving parts, and they are small enough that it is easy to forget to check them.
Open a door and let it go. It should close by itself and slow down before it lands. Open a full drawer and do the same. Then pull the drawer out as far as it goes. A slide that lets you reach the back of the drawer is far more useful than one that stops partway.
Look for a brand name stamped into the metal. Good hardware makers put their name on their parts. If there is no name, ask who made it, and ask whether soft close is included or an extra.
At Atrics: hinges are Blum or Salice, drawer slides are Blum, and soft close is standard throughout.
Look at where the cabinets meet the room
Step back and look at the ends of each run and the gap at the ceiling. Walls are rarely straight, so this is where the fit shows.
Look for filler strips, the flat pieces that cover a gap between the last cabinet and the wall. They are not a defect. They mean the cabinets came in standard widths and the leftover space was covered instead of used. In a small kitchen, that can add up to a cabinet’s worth of storage.
Then look along the door fronts. The gaps between doors and drawers should be even from top to bottom and match each other across the run. Uneven gaps usually come from a box that is out of square or an install that was rushed.
At Atrics: we measure your space ourselves and build to those dimensions, down to 1/32 of an inch. We do not use filler strips to make standard boxes fit. Our kitchen cabinetry page shows how that looks in a finished room.
Check the finish where no one looks
A front face is easy to finish well. Edges are harder, so look there.
Run a finger along the edge of a door and the bottom edge of a drawer front. The finish should carry around the edge without a rough line or a seam that catches your nail. On a laminate door, look at the corners for lifting. On a painted door, look at the joints for hairline cracks. On a stained door, check that the color is even across the frame and the panel.
At Atrics: exteriors are a waterproof, scratch-resistant laminate, or wood doors in the species you choose, stained or painted.
See one before it is finished
The most useful thing you can look at is a cabinet that is not done yet. With no doors on it, there is nothing to hide the box, the joints or the drawer construction.
Every cabinet we build is cut, assembled and finished by hand in our San Jose shop, and you are welcome to come and look. Plan a visit and bring this list with you, or call the shop at (408) 252-5546 to set a time.