Details / inside the build

Most of the work disappearswhen the room is finished.

Sheet: 12/12
Details: 07
Scale: 1:1
Rev: A

Details / inside the build

Open a drawer, follow a grain line, look at the reveal or the way light is built into a shelf. These are the decisions that stay in daily use long after the installation photographs are taken.

01 AssemblyOne cabinet, drawn apart

Base cabinet — exploded assembly Not to scale

Keyed to the drawing

01 Door face Doors and drawers set inside the frame rather than over it. A consistent reveal all the way round is the hardest thing to hold, and the fastest way to read a shop’s tolerance. Two-toned kitchen 02 Drawer box Concealed hinges and full-extension runners, damped so nothing slams. The detail you notice every day for ten years and never photograph. Fitted as standard 03 Carcass sides typ. of 2 A plywood core with solid wood where it is handled or loaded. What holds a run square once it is scribed to a wall that is not. Across every cabinet run 04 Back panel A plywood core with solid wood where it is handled or loaded. What holds a run square once it is scribed to a wall that is not. Across every cabinet run 05 Base A plywood core with solid wood where it is handled or loaded. What holds a run square once it is scribed to a wall that is not. Across every cabinet run 06 Shelf & lighting Light built into the shelf rather than pointed at it — planned with the cabinetry, because afterwards there is nowhere for the wiring to go. Slat wall & lit shelves 07 Top & grain Faces are laid out so the grain reads across the whole elevation rather than stopping at each door. It is the difference between a run of cabinets and one piece of furniture. Menlo Park

Seven decisions, one cabinet. None of them shows in a finished photograph, and all of them are what the room feels like to use ten years from now.

02 The details, one by oneAnd where to look for them

D01 Structure

Cabinet box construction

A plywood core with solid wood where it is handled or loaded. What holds a run square once it is scribed to a wall that is not.

Across every cabinet run

See it on

Mill Valley Sunset SF Custom pantry Wall cabinets & built-in bench

D02 Craft

Grain matching

Faces are laid out so the grain reads across the whole elevation rather than stopping at each door. It is the difference between a run of cabinets and one piece of furniture.

Menlo Park

See it on

Saratoga Menlo Park 8' solid-core white oak doors

D03 Hardware

Soft-close hardware

Concealed hinges and full-extension runners, damped so nothing slams. The detail you notice every day for ten years and never photograph.

Fitted as standard

See it on

Menlo Park Oakland Showcase Custom pantry

D04 Craft

Flush inset cabinetry

Doors and drawers set inside the frame rather than over it. A consistent reveal all the way round is the hardest thing to hold, and the fastest way to read a shop’s tolerance.

Two-toned kitchen

See it on

Menlo Park Sunset Two-toned flush inset kitchen

D05 Structure

Integrated appliances

Working elements coordinated into the cabinetry elevation rather than set against it, so the room reads as one system.

Oakland · Sunset

See it on

Saratoga Oakland Sunset

D06 Craft

Hand-finished surfaces

Surfaces finished by hand at the last stage, where the difference is felt before it is seen.

Menlo Park

See it on

Menlo Park

D07 Hardware

Illuminated shelving

Light built into the shelf rather than pointed at it — planned with the cabinetry, because afterwards there is nowhere for the wiring to go.

Slat wall & lit shelves

See it on

Oakland Slat wall & illuminated shelves

These are the decisions that stay.

Long after the installation photographs are taken.

Start a project