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Top 10 Characteristics of High-Quality Kitchen Cabinets

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A white high-quality kitchen cabinet, illustrating the excellence of craftsmanship and adding elegance to the kitchen space.A white high-quality kitchen cabinet, illustrating the excellence of craftsmanship and adding elegance to the kitchen space.

High-quality kitchen cabinets have at least 10 characteristics that contribute to their long lifespan. The best kitchen cabinets will be durable and beautiful for many years to come. Unfortunately, some cabinets have problems in as little as a year or two. Issues like crooked doors, sagging drawers, scratched faces, loose hinges, and warping boxes quickly deteriorate the look of a kitchen. That’s why it’s important to choose the best kitchen cabinets with high-quality construction. As you shop for cabinets and compare cabinet costs, look for the following construction and features. This will help ensure you choose high-quality cabinets for your home.


1. Long-Lasting, Quality Cabinet Construction

CliqStudios offers all-plywood and furniture board cabinets. You can be confident that your new cabinets will stand up to everyday use and abuse, even from kids and pets.

Furniture Board

Furniture Board

As the standard option industry-wide, furniture board, also known as particle board or MDF is a quality construction choice. Furniture board is made from fine compressed wood particles and glued together in large sheets to create panels and other pieces needed for kitchen cabinets. It’s known for having a silky-smooth finish, it’s less likely to expand and contract, and is also the most cost-effective cabinet construction option.

Plywood

Plywood

Strong and long-lasting, plywood is made from multiple sheets of wood veneers stacked together with glue and rotated for strength. All-plywood is an optional cabinet upgrade on most CliqStudios cabinet lines. Consumer Reports recommends plywood as the premium quality option for cabinets. Plywood holds screws more securely and resists moisture better than alternative materials. It’s resilient against blow-outs, dings, dents, and sagging. These benefits make it a high-quality construction material for cabinet sides, backs, shelves, and drawer bottoms.


2. Quality Cabinet Boxes

CliqStudios offers both fully assembled and ready-to-assemble cabinets, whichever is more convenient for you. Both styles of cabinet come with durable dovetail drawer boxes, full-height back panels, minimum ½" thick cabinet sides, I-beam stabilizers, corner brackets, clear and soft urethane door and drawer bumpers, and soft-closing hardware.

Ready to Assemble
Fully-Assembled and Ready-to-Install

These features are important because they create a high-quality, durable cabinet box that will stand the test of time and not break down after thousands of uses. Cabinets that tend to have a lot of staples and plastic parts don’t last as long as cabinets with higher quality features like these.


3. Durable, Full-Height Back Panel

Any time you are looking for permanent household fixtures such as kitchen cabinets, pay attention to the enclosed back panel, or lack thereof. Quality cabinets should have full-height back panels to fully enclose the cabinet. Why is this so important? This piece adds structural stability to the cabinet.

During installation, this cabinet back panel will help maintain the cabinet’s structural integrity while keeping it square over time as your house shifts. Last, but certainly not least, back panels keep dust and pests off your dishes and out of your food.


4. Quality Finishing Process

Even great quality cabinets can be ruined by a bad finish. Study your cabinet retailer to see how they finish their cabinets and how many steps there are in the process to achieve furniture quality finishes. Do they use catalyzed enamel, lacquer, or a mixture of both? Typically, high-quality finishes are the result of the following general steps:

  • Wood Selection
  • Sanded to Perfection
  • Paint Application
  • Removal of Excess Paint
  • Catalyzed Sealer
  • Drying Process
  • Hand-sanded
  • Dust Removal
  • Catalyzed Top Coat
  • Final Top Coat Cure
  • Final Inspection

Cabinet companies, like CliqStudios, who follow a comprehensive finishing process will give you the best quality product with furniture quality finishes. If you want your kitchen cabinets to look beautiful long-term, ask your kitchen designer for details on the finishing process.


5. Full-Access Drawers

Are you often left digging in the back of your kitchen cabinet drawers trying to find what you need? CliqStudios offers full-access drawers as the solution to this problem. Full-access means the cabinet has glides long enough that the drawer box comes out to the edge of your cabinet box. This means the drawer box and all its contents are easy to see and access.

Full-Access Drawers

6. Soft-Close Drawers

CliqStudios drawer glides are undermounted with ball-bearing soft-close guides and rated to carry 70-75 lbs. per drawer. They can also be operated through 25,000 open and close cycles. CliqStudios provides a limited lifetime warranty on drawer glides.

Full-Access, Fully Concealed Steel Undermount Guides

CliqStudios cabinets feature full-access, fully concealed steel, ball-bearing, undermount guides with the soft-closing feature. The ball-bearing glide is concealed beneath the drawer box supporting up to 75 lbs. The glide uses a dampening system that is almost silent when opening and closing your drawer.


7. Soft-Close Doors

All CliqStudios cabinets have 6-way adjustable soft-close door hinges. They have been tested to withstand 65 pounds of weight and operated through 25,000 open and close cycles. CliqStudios provides a limited lifetime warranty on all door hinges.

The 6-way adjustable feature allows you to move the door up and down, side to side, and in and out to keep your doors properly aligned. Soft-closing features are highly sought after because they dampen the typical commotion of a kitchen, but they also preserve cabinets over time by preventing doors from banging against the cabinet box.

Smart-Stop Soft-Close Hinges

Smart-Stop Soft-Close Hinges

CliqStudios Signature Plus cabinets feature Smart Stop soft-close hinges. They are 6-way adjustable, concealed, nickel-plated steel, with a 107-degree opening. They have a limited lifetime warranty.


8. Easy-to-Clean Interiors

Kitchen cabinet interior surfaces should be non-porous and easy-to-clean. Cabinet interiors also need to be tough enough to last the life of the cabinets without staining, bubbling, or showing wear.

Laminate and melamine are two different, yet similar materials. They are the perfect surface for cabinet interiors because of their extremely high resistance to moisture. Most laminate and melamine cabinet interiors are printed with a light-tone wood grain.

Wood Veneer Interior

Wood Veneer Interior

Although a stained wood veneer interior or shelf is beautiful, it will eventually absorb moisture and stains. Wood is naturally porous and rough, so it will also trap soil in the grain of the wood. The finish also won’t tolerate strong cleaning solutions. Wood veneer can become damaged by residual moisture. This damage could come from dishwashers, excessive humidity, greasy cooking fumes, as well as dirt and food particles.

Laminate Interior

Laminate Interior

Laminate is durable and resistant to fire, water, and stains. It can be safely cleaned with strong household solutions. As a shelf or cabinet lining, it wipes clean easily. CliqStudios uses a neutral, light, wood-toned laminate that brightens the cabinet interior.


9. Ease of Mounting

CliqStudios’ full-height cabinet back panels and high-quality construction means you can mount your cabinets directly to the wall without complications. When leveling cabinets, use shims where you need them and easily fasten cabinets to the wall. Other brands sometimes use racking systems which are hard to cut, make shimming more difficult, and add more to you or your contractor’s plate during installation.


10. Warranty

Kitchen remodels are serious investments in your home, so every big purchase should come with protection. Guarantees or product warranties, like CliqStudios’, usually always cover manufacturer defects that could happen to the following:

  • Cabinets
  • Accessories
  • Hinges
  • Drawers
  • System Hardware

Warranties also commonly cover any mishaps that may occur during shipping. Being that it’s out of your control, the cabinet company should cover any shipping issues. We want to make sure you get the best product quality possible from day one.

Are you ready to start shopping? Explore CliqStudios RTA and custom cabinets now!

3d rendering of cliqstudios kitchen design with white shaker cabinets and green kitchen island with seating

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Frequently Asked Questions

What are the highest quality cabinets? 

The highest quality kitchen cabinets are typically constructed using plywood. Plywood is extremely durable and will stand up to daily use. Plus, cabinets made of plywood will not expand or start to flake away due to the occasional water leak or other inconveniences.  

How can you tell what a quality cabinet is? 

There are several characteristics of high-quality kitchen cabinets. These cabinets typically are made of plywood, include wood I-beams for structural stability, have quality cabinet frames constructed of solid hardwood, and easy-to-clean melamine interiors that make them last longer.

What is the best kitchen cabinet brand? 

CliqStudios kitchen cabinets have all the characteristics of quality cabinetry. They are crafted of plywood and hardwood, are incredibly durable, and are available in every style and budget. Plus, you can work one-on-one with your very own designer to create the kitchen design of your dreams, in terms of both functionality and style.  

What are the most popular cabinets? 

In terms of style, the most popular kitchen cabinets are typically shaker style cabinets. They have clean lines that help them fit into traditional or modern homes. Shaker cabinets are available in paint and stain finishes. Talk to a CliqStudios designer for more details.