Typically we build wood cabinets with ¾” birch plywood cabinet boxes and dovetailed drawers, on heavy duty, full extension hardware. We primarily use Purebond ™ plywood, which uses a soy-based adhesive rather than the more common urea-formaldehyde adhesives. The fronts – the parts that show – can be in any wood. Often we use beautiful D select pine from New England, which looks wonderful and is quite economical. Recently we’ve used a lot of ash, which has some of the same stripey , contrasty elegance as the pine, but is much tougher. We use a lot of cherry, too, and any wood is possible. (But see also ecological kitchens for other designs.)
We have our own cabinet system, called post style. It has the efficiency of European frameless cabinetry, but still looks like it was the product of woodworking craft, which it is. We often make either a simple flat panel door, or a “breadboard” door. We can also make a plywood door, painted or in a wood to match the cabinetry (very economical), or a fancier beaded panel door. I also enjoy making a panel door with beaded stock for the panel.
The basic idea is to build cabinets which feature the beauty of the wood itself. We go to great lengths to find wood with a beautiful grain, and show it to best advantage with grain matching and a good, clear finish. (Although we paint cabinets sometimes, too.)
What is Grainmatching?