Don't Buy Kitchen Cabinets Without Watching This First! By See Jane Drill

 Updated on: December 4, 2023

Introduction

Special thanks to Cabinets.com for providing all the cabinets in the See Jane Drill kitchen remodel series. Hi, everybody. I'm Leah from See Jane Drill. If this is your first time here, I just want to welcome you. People who have been watching the See Jane Drill channel for a number of years know that I'm a journeyman in my craft and I was a trades instructor. Recently, we decided to do a master class series for a kitchen remodel, and I had to look for cabinets. Even though I've been in this industry for over 25 years, even I got a little confused when it came to selecting a cabinet.

The Common Thread: Cabinet Materials

What Do Particle Board, MDF, and Plywood Have in Common?

In the beginning of the video, I told you about three materials that had something in common: plywood, MDF, and particle board. All three of these materials are used in cabinet construction to make the cabinet box.

Particle Board

Now we're going to start off with particle board. Particle board is made with wood fibers, sawdust, and adhesive, and it's pressed into sheets and then cut. This makes for an inexpensive cabinet. If you're on a budget and you're looking for something inexpensive, chances are you'd find cabinets made out of particle board. But the downside with particle board is it doesn't have a lot of holding power for screws and fasteners, and if it gets wet, it starts to deteriorate. For that reason, I stayed away from cabinets made with particle board.

MDF (Medium-Density Fiberboard)

Next up is MDF. MDF is like its cousin particle board because it's made out of sawdust and adhesive. Where it's different, however, is it’s a lot denser and it's a lot heavier of a material. But here's the thing where it's alike: it doesn't hold screws very well. And the other thing is, like particle board, once it gets wet, that's it! It starts to swell; and for that reason, I decided against MDF.

Plywood

Last up is the material I selected for my project, and it’s plywood. Plywood is also an engineered wood product, but it's different because it's like sheets of wood veneer going in different directions, just like lasagna. But the difference is, believe it or not, when you take veneer and you lay one in one direction and the other in the other direction and you sandwich it, that way, it makes for a very stable wood. That's why a lot of furniture is made out of plywood: because it is so stable, and it is so strong.

To Assemble or Not to Assemble?

Assembled vs. RTA Cabinets

Okay, so your next consideration should be: fully assembled cabinets or what's called RTA (and that stands for Ready To Assemble) cabinets. They come in a flat pack, and then you can put them together yourself and save a little money. I'm like everybody else: I struggled with this one. I didn't know whether or not I wanted to go with fully assembled and just install the cabinets; or whether or not I wanted to take an afternoon (or two!) and put the cabinets together. But at the end of the day, I decided… well, I'm a little lazy, but my time's valuable, too. So, I decided to go with the fully assembled cabinets; and that's a decision you'll have to make.

Making Style and Color Choices

The Importance of Aesthetics

Now, the next component to selecting kitchen cabinets is really kind of fun, and it's where your personal taste comes in, because it's about style and it's about color. Now, I can't tell you what you like, okay, but I can tell you this: and that is the vast majority of cabinets that are selected are white, and it makes sense because white is classic. It never goes out of style, and it matches almost everything. I, on the other hand, decided against white, and I went with espresso and a shaker style, because it really fit the elements of the home that it's being installed in. The home is a mid-century modern and it played well. So, you're going to have to take into consideration what style of home you have and “is it going to work?” Don't just think about color and what you like. Think about your surroundings and whether or not that cabinet is really going to be in harmony with the rest of your house.

My Cabinet Selection

The Final Reveal

So, here's the cabinet that I selected. It's from Cabinets.com. It's from the Deerfield line. It comes fully assembled. Here are the plywood sides. It has a plywood bottom and back, and the shelves are plywood, as well. Now, I'm going to slide the cabinet around to the front so you can get a good view. Remember I talked about espresso: I went with espresso color, and that's what this is. And I went with a very sleek, shaker style: simple design.

Additional Features to Consider

Drawer Box and Soft Close Hardware

Now what you're looking at, here, is the top of the cabinet. This is a drawer box, and one thing that you'll want is you'll want a solid wood drawer box. You want the sides and the back and the front to be solid wood. Here's another important feature – and I can't stress this enough – look for cabinets that have dovetail joints. That joint, there, is one of the strongest joints you can make for cabinet drawers. 

Since we're looking at the drawer, I want to show you something else: when you're looking for cabinets, pull the drawer out, and what you will notice is: most cabinet drawers, they stop right about here. But a feature you want are full extension drawers, where they come out all the way, and you can access even the stuff behind the silverware. Now that the drawer is fully extended, guess what we're looking at: that's the hardware and this is called under mount hardware, and that means that the hardware isn't exposed. 

You pull the drawer out, and you don't see any clunky hardware on the side of the drawer; it's fully hidden. It's invisible, but beyond that, okay, it's a hallmark of a good and well-made cabinet. Now the last cabinet feature I’ve got to tell you about, it's really optional: you don't have to have it. But boy is it nice; and it's especially nice if you have kids in the house. It's a soft close feature. It's just impossible to slam a drawer that's got the soft close feature.

Conclusion

So that's it, folks: if you're looking for kitchen cabinets, hopefully this video answers a lot of questions and will save you time. Now, I'm going to place a link in the description below to Cabinets.com so you can check them out for yourself. This is Leah saying, “You can do this!” See you next time.