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You may have seen an image of a kitchen you love in a magazine, or visited a friend's newly remodeled kitchen and adored their style. What you may not have realized is that the style was, in part, driven by the construction style of the cabinets themselves.

In this article, I will define the two construction styles for cabinetry - framed and frameless -  and discuss the pros and cons of each. I will also review the three door style categories for framed cabinetry - inset, full overlay and 1/2" overlay.

Frameless Cabinetry

If you think of the cabinet as a box, frameless cabinetry is define by the absence of the front of the box, which is commonly referred to as the face frame. The doors are hinged to the sides of the cabinet box, covering the entire front of the cabinet box. The spacing between adjacent doors and drawers is minimal, providing a clean, uniform aesthetic for the kitchen.

As there is no face frame blocking the front of the cabinet box, frameless cabinetry offers the greatest access to the interior of the cabinet box. For this reason, it is often referred to as "full access" cabinetry. Because of the tight construction tolerances required for this construction type, the cabinet box is typically constructed with engineered wood and finished with white melamine or wood grain veneer. Finished sides are often not available, and special end panels are used instead. An all plywood box may be available as an upgrade.

Frameless cabinetry is typically associated with European, or modern-style cabinetry, with sleek lines and Thermofoil doors. More and more, though, cabinet companies are offering their traditional, wood doors for use with their frameless cabinetry.

Framed Cabinetry

Unlike frameless cabinetry, framed cabinetry does incorporate the front of the cabinet box, the face frame. The face frame typically closes the opening for the door and drawer spaces by 3/4" on each side. For this reason, drawers in framed cabinetry boxes are slightly narrower than in frameless cabinetry boxes, and access behind doors is slightly obstructed by the face frame.

Framed cabinetry construction ranges from a box made predominantly with engineered wood to all-plywood construction. For most consumers, a middle option - with a plywood  face frame, sides and drawer boxes, and wood grain veneer-covered engineered wood for shelves and the cabinet back and bottom - is the appropriate choice.

Within framed cabinetry, there are three categories of door styles: inset, full overlay and 1/2" overlay.

Inset Door Styles

Inset doors are set within the face frame of the cabinet, such that the front of the door and drawers are flush with the front of the cabinet face frame. The doors are often attached to the cabinet with exposed hinges.

While this aesthetic is featured in many "designer" kitchens, there are drawbacks to this type of cabinetry. First, this door style offers the most limited access to cabinet space and the narrowest drawer size. Second, inset cabinetry requires that you control the environment within the home in order to maintain humidity levels consistently in the 60% range. Inset cabinetry face frames, doors and drawers made of solid wood will expand and shrink when the humidity changes. As the spacing between the doors/drawers and the face frame is approximately 1/8", expanding doors and drawer fronts can result in sticking, jammed cabinet doors and drawers. Lastly, installation requires greater care as cabinets installed out of square can also lead to sticking, jammed cabinet doors and drawers. Even with a controlled environment and careful installation, you should anticipate that the contractor will need to adjust the alignment of each door and drawer front once installed.

Full Overlay Door Styles

Full overlay door styles (left) are the most commonly used today for framed cabinetry. The doors and drawers almost completely cover the face frame, typically revealing only 1/2" of the face frame between adjacent doors and drawers.

1/2" Overlay Door Styles

In 1/2" overlay door styles (right), the doors and drawers overlap the face frame by only 1/2" on each side. Assuming a standard 3/4" width for the face frame, this door style will typically reveal an inch of the face frame between adjacent doors and drawers.

This door style is implemented today to achieve a particular aesthetic - either a vintage look or in a duotone setting, where the face frame of the cabinet and the doors have two different finishes.