Cabinet

A cabinet is a piece of furniture that appears usually box-shaped, either standing alone, or attached to a wall. They are typically made out of wood. It is a furniture used for storage of miscellaneous items. This usually has one or more doors on the front, mounted with a door handle, and occasionally a lock. Most also contain some drawers.

Some have furnished surfaces on top that can be used for display, or as a work area, such as countertops found in kitchens.

Setting up a cabinet is more often than not the topic of study in most woodworking classes. Not only is a cabinet useful, but also, one of the many woodcrafts where design and technique will be used well. Cabinet making involves various techniques such as creating appropriate joints, shelve systems, the use of finishing tools such as a wood routers to create decorative patterns and edgings, and many others.

As mentioned earlier, a cabinet may be self-standing, or built-in. A built-in cabinet is usually made for a relative position and it is fixed, on a floor, against a wall, or framed in an opening. For example, modern kitchen cabinets are examples of built-in cabinetry. Self-standing cabinets are more commonly available as mobile items and can be moved from place to place if required. Cabinets may be wall hung or suspended from the ceiling (an example is a medical cabinet, or a kitchen cabinet).

Most cabinets are built with either a face-frame or via frameless construction. A face-frame, as the word implies, is the frame attached in front of the cabinet which provides as a fixing point for doors, shelves and other external hardware for the cabinet. As this may provide strength to the front of the cabinet, this may also be considered as adding a visual feature for the overall style of the cabinet.

Frameless construction on the other hand, refers to the construction of cabinets by using flat panels of man-made sheet materials, such as plywood, chipboard, and fibre-boards. Visible surfaces are usually decorated with either timber veneer (thin covering), plastic laminate and other material. This may also be painted.

A cabinet consists of these parts: a base, compartment/s, and/or a top. A self-standing cabinet is supported by some sort of a base. This could either be a fully enclosed base, or a set of legs. At least one compartment may be present in a cabinet. Compartments may be open, or enclosed by one or more doors, or one or more drawers. Some may contain secret compartments, access to which is not very obvious. Most cabinets incorporate tops, as this encloses the compartments within. Some may serve no purpose at all, but others have a working surface - such as a kitchen cabinet.

Setting up a cabinet, however, is no easy task, as this requires much attention and skill. Some are bought already fully furnished, others are bought piece by piece, and some, are really made from scratch. Though cabinetmaking require a good deal of effort, the product will surely be of good use.