What’s The Difference Between Frameless and Face Frame Cabinetry?

What is the difference between framed and frameless cabinets?

It’s what sits on the front of the box. A framed cabinet has a face frame: rails and stiles of solid wood, about an inch and a half wide, fixed to the front edge like a picture frame. The doors hang on that frame. A frameless cabinet has none. The front edge of the box is banded, and the doors hang on the box sides and cover almost all of it.

Both are real cabinetmaking, and both are built to order. The choice changes how the kitchen looks, how much fits inside, and which door styles you can have.

What are the pros and cons of framed cabinets?

• Pro: rigid. The frame squares and stiffens the front of every box, which helps on long runs and in older homes where walls are not straight.
• Pro: inset doors. A door set inside its frame, flush with the front, is only possible on framed cabinets. Inset is the most traditional look there is.
• Pro: overlay choices. On framed cabinets the door can overlap the frame by 1¼, 1, ¾ or ½ inch, from nearly-full coverage to a classic look with plenty of frame showing. The hinge overlay chart shows which hinge each one takes.
• Con: less room inside. The frame narrows every opening, so drawers are a little smaller and wide items are harder to get past the lip.
• Con: more lines. The frame shows between doors, which reads as traditional. In a modern kitchen that can look busy.

What are the pros and cons of frameless cabinets?

• Pro: more storage. With no frame in the way, each opening is the full width of the box, and drawers are as large as the cabinet allows.
• Pro: clean lines. Doors run nearly edge to edge with small, even gaps. It’s the natural choice for slab doors and modern kitchens.
• Pro: easy to reach. No lip at the front, so pans and small appliances slide straight out.
• Con: no inset. Frameless cabinets take full-overlay doors only.
• Con: precision matters. The gaps between doors are small and even, so the boxes have to be square and the install level. Doors can be adjusted after install, but they can’t hide a crooked box. More on that in how the door reveal works.

How does Crafted Cabinetry build each one?

Both are all plywood. Neither uses particle board anywhere.

• Frameless: ¾-inch 9-ply plywood tops, bottoms, sides and shelves, with a wood edge band that matches the inside of the box.
• Framed: ½-inch 9-ply plywood sides, top, bottom and a full back, behind a solid face frame that carries much of the load. Shelves are ¾-inch plywood with edge-banded fronts. You can upgrade the boxes to ¾-inch.
• Both: dovetailed drawers with ⅝-inch solid hardwood sides, on concealed, undermount, full-extension soft-close slides, and soft-close hinges.

Every cabinet is cut to your sizes in 1/16-inch increments and delivered fully assembled, whichever you choose.

Which should I choose?

• Choose framed if you want inset doors, a traditional or transitional kitchen, or cabinets going into an older house with uneven walls.
• Choose frameless if you want slab or modern shaker doors, the most storage in the space, or wide drawers for pots and pans.

If you’re unsure, start from the door style you want. Inset decides it for framed; a clean slab look almost always points to frameless. Your designer will show you both in your own layout before anything is built.

Frequently asked questions

Related reading

• Plywood vs particle board vs MDF: which cabinet box material lasts