The cabinet is quite simply the single most important consideration when designing your kitchen. The cabinet finish that you decide to go for will reflect the style of the rest of the kitchen and everything else in the design landscape of the kitchen will follow based on this choice.

In Ireland, you have a huge choice of both cabinet construction and door finishes. Maple has eclipsed oak as the most popular wood for cabinet doors. Cherry comes in third with pine fourth followed by chestnut.

However, your wood options do not end there. Alder is creeping onto the scene in a big way in Ireland, thanks to its natural, knotted look. Darker woods, like mahogany, are being mixed with stainless steel and other finishes and provide a warm yet minimalist ambience.



The carcass construction, whether separate or framed, depends on your budget and with the trend in Ireland to upgrade, or change kitchens entirely regularly, one wonders about going to the increases expense of a solid carcass assembly.

Choices range from flat to raised and curved, and may be plain and simple or intricately carved. In more traditional kitchens, you will find inset and lipped doors; partial overlay and full overlay provide the clean lines associated with designs that are more contemporary.

If you dislike wood, there is no need to worry. Take your pick of shiny polyester and plastic laminate options, opt for stainless steel or go for glass in clear, frosted, ribbed, etched and leaded versions. The permutations are endless.

The finish to whatever cabinet doors you go for is the key to the image you wish to create in your kitchen. Light stains will let the natural beauty of the wood show through. The popularity of painted and glazed finishes has broadened their offering among stock and semi-custom manufacturers. For a truly unique look, one can go an original route with a distressed or crackled finish but this must be done in symmetry to the rest of the house design.

If wood is your cabinet material of choice, there is no laws governing as to what is right and what is not. Good taste should hopefully prevail and cost will be decided by the size of your purse.

Your choice of wood will have the most impact on the cabinet’s ultimate look. If you want a light look, for example, you might start with ash, beech, birch, elm, oak, maple, or chestnut. In the mid-range, consider cherry with a natural finish.

For a dark kitchen (if it is designed from scratch in a new-build, it should not be dark), you could start with a wood that has a little colour to it.  You can also consider clear finishes rather than stains on cherry, walnut, and other woods rich in colour, such as butternut, mahogany, rosewood, and teak.

Be sure to consider your environment and cooking style; solid wood cabinets can be more affected by humidity and temperature than wood veneer cabinets because you are dealing with a natural material that has its own unique behaviour patterns. Weather extremes can cause warping in such woods.

Because of the tendency in Ireland to change or upgrade kitchens more often, veneer and laminate finishes are more popular now. While laminate surfaces appear to be wood, these cabinets adhere plastic foil or paper photographs of wood grain patterns to particleboard or medium density fibreboard.