Choosing home furniture is often a difficult task, if you consider the sheer variety available for buyers in recent times. Furniture pieces for each zone of the house can be bought in diverse types. You can even customize your furniture as per your specific needs. In this context, having thorough knowledge about the furniture types in multiple categories is essential to take informed buying decisions. Let us take a closer look at one of the most vital items for any home, namely cabinet doors.
Common Types of Cabinet Doors
Here are some of the commonest cabinet doors that are available today.
- Swing Doors- These are standard or regular doors that swing outwards to the left or right upon being opened. They work well with frameless and framed cabinets alike. Multiple hinges can be used on these doors including pivot, mortise, strap, barrel, and butterfly, to name a few.
- Flip Lift Doors- These doors flip upwards, sideways, or outwards upon being opened. There are hydraulic hinges that support these movements, keeping the door in position at a particular angle for easier access. Lift doors have similar attributes, although they pull outwards and lift up with the door facing downwards instead of any angle. There are several innovative lift up cabinet doors that are also available from leading brands like Blum. These come with unique motion technologies for hassle-free and seamless experiences.
- Bi-Fold- Cabinet doors in this category have a couple of vertical or horizontal panels in a similar or different style. There are additional hinges enabling them to fold easily in the middle. With the horizontal bi-fold system, the door pulls outwards and upwards. It then folds and remains in position through hydraulic hinges. With vertical bi-fold doors, the opening track is outwards, while there is left or right folding. The doors may also fold left or right within the tracks along with sliding open whenever necessary.
- Track- This door comes with one or multiple vertical or horizontal panels sliding through rollers on tracks. These are positioned at the top, bottom, or both places of the cabinet opening. The exterior barn door style is also observed in many cases, where the door is hung from bars linked to rollers. These rollers move along the horizontal track’s top which is right over the cabinet opening on the wall or face frame.
- Tambour- Tambour doors are rolling track doors that have flexible and thin slats, tailored to enable easy sliding and rolling back into the cabinet box. This is almost like the mechanism followed by an antique desk or garage door. Tambour doors are usually set up on vertical side tracks across upper wall cabinets or countertop cabinets for concealing smaller appliances. Horizontal side-by-side configurations are also used for lower wall cabinets and countertops.
- Pocket- Pocket doors have similar features as tambour and swing doors. They can be opened like regular doors, although you can keep opening them to 90-degree angles, perpendicular to the face of the cabinet. They may also slide back into the pocket that is built along the cabinet box exterior.
For aluminum frame and wooden doors, lift up cabinet systems are great options to ensure silent and soft closing. This ensures a quieter environment at home. To conclude, it can be said that cabinet doors come in several common varieties that you should be aware of. Take a closer look at the mechanisms and functionality quotient of each of these types before zeroing in on the best choice for your needs.