Material used in Cabinet Doors

While choosing a kitchen we can easily get confused by the large selection of materials which are used in making cabinet doors. Here's a quick guide.

The laminated door
A laminate is an outer covering based on phenolic or melaminic resins; it's normally applied to wood based panels like particle-board or MDF. It has optimal technical characteristics, it's tough and it's hygienic. In common terms it is often called "formica" and is composed of a series of resin sheets glued together to create a thickness of about 0.6 mm. The best kitchen manufacturers today use HPL or high pressure laminate: it's a laminate which respects the EN 438/1 law and is exceptionally waterproof, stable and resistant to wear.

High Pressure Laminate is the tough laminate used by the best names in kitchens. It has exceptional qualities of hardness and resistance, whether to scratching, bumps or abrasions. It remains stable even under extreme temperature changes. It respects the UNI EN 438/1 characteristics and it has an optimum price/quality ratio.

The melaminic and polymeric laminated door. These doors are composed of a particle board whose surface is covered with a synthetic PVC material of variable thickness which confers an agreeable look to the panel and also a high resistance to liquids, bumps and scratches. It costs slightly more than laminate. The polymeric is part of the range of "noble" laminates, or those which are covered with an additional layer which increases their resistance to liquids, bumps and scratches. The other types of cabinet door covering are: melaminic when the panel is covered by a decorative paper impregnated with melaminic resin, and phenolic if the paper is impregnated with phenolic resin.

The veneered door is made of a panel whose surface is covered by a thin sheet of wood obtained by slicing a trunk. Often a solid wood panel is covered with a sheet of more prestigious wood to increase its aesthetic appeal. Veneered doors cost more than laminates. The wood is processed by the best kitchen brands with high-quality varnishes which anyway can’t completely protect the door against persistent infiltration of water, drips or steam.

The solid wood door this term indicates parts made from solid trunk-wood. Unlike the previous materials, solid wood is the least resistant to liquids and scratches. And it's surely the most expensive of all.

The lacquered door The lacquered door is normally made of an MDF panel (made of wood fiber), painted with polyester or polyurethane paint. The lacquer can be glossy or mat.
The open pore lacquered door: In this type of cabinet door, the varnishing is done after polishing the wood. The polishing is a cleaning treatment for the wood that can be carried out by sanding or with chemical agents, and which highlights the grain and texture of the wood. Once stripped, the door is lacquered, and thus the wood grain stands out in a refined and pleasurable way.


RULES FOR MATCHING COLOURS IN THE KITCHEN


The human eye can perceive milllions of distinct colours, but this can mean millions of ugly colour combinations.
In colouring your home it's enough to follow a few simple rules to avoid making choices you will regret.

The 60 - 30 - 10 rule
It's a valid rule for any kind of interior: the most pleasing colour combinations are invariably subdivided in percentages of 60 - 30 - 10. On a background of uniform colour (that is 60%) there will be a colour that attracts the visual attention (the 30%) and a colour which is barely hinted at that emerges from the others (the 10%).
This division could be compared to that of a man's formal suit, where 60% corresponds to the colour of the jacket and pants, 30% to that of the shirt, and 10% to the colour of the tie. Transferring the metaphor into the kitchen, we get:

- 60% will be the colour of the walls
- 30% will be the colour of the panelling and or upholstery of the furniture
- 10% will be the colour of a unique piece or floral arrangement.

Choose a colour scheme
The colour triad you choose will make up your personal palette. But it's easy to go wrong. To simplify the process you can make use of a colour wheel and limit your choices to two-colour schemes. You can therefore proceed, for example, by matching two complementary colours (on the opposite sides of the colour wheel), like red and green or blue and orange. Visually, a room with these colours will be stimulating and also formal. These colours would go very well for a dining room. If you prefer analogous colours (neighbours on the colour wheel) like yellow and green or blue and violet, you will get more casual rooms, they will be more relaxing.

Don't forget the black
It's an old interior designer trick. By adding a black element (a lamp, a vase, a picture frame, etc.) you accentuate all the other colours present.

Follow nature
The most common error in these situations is not so much the matching of colours, but their shades. It can happen, for example, that one side of the room is too dark and feels "heavy", whereas the other side, with light tones, tends to visually "float". In this case, the space has not been correctly balanced in terms of shades of colours.
The secret for avoiding this mistake is to reproduce the natural shades of the outside world inside the room: the darkest shade for the floor (the ground), medium shades for the walls and / or furniture (trees and mountains) and light shades for the ceiling (which symbolizes the sky).
Following this "vertical" principle, one should get a pleasing interior.

Take a hint from a model
Still don't know what colours to use? Here's a hint: get ideas from the colours of the most important object in the room (curtains, uphostery, paintings, etc.). For example, if your curtains are white, yellow and red, you could choose yellow at 60%, white at 30% and red at 10%.