Custom Cabinet Construction

Phone: 207-667-4439 ( click to enlarge )	A Word About Cabinet Construction Fashionable Enclosures ( FE ) is one of the finest all wood cabinets built today. Did you know that most cabinet manufacturers use particle board and wood grained vinyl coatings? Believe it or not, most cabinet interiors are plastic coated particle board. Have you heard a cabinet salesperson say: "Oh these particle board cabinets are much better than plywood!"? Or may be he/she said: "With this vinyl coating on the shelves you don't have to use shelf paper!"? If you were told either of these popular fairy tales, I advise you to quickly walk away from that salesperson with your hand on your wallet. Fashionable Enclosures cabinets are furniture quality. Each piece is crafted like old world furniture using real wood and hardwood plywoods. The finish is baked on. The cabinets have a Limited Life Time Warranty. The finished look is incredible! The image on the left shows a top view looking down on an FE base cabinet. Before you buy cabinets, always look at an un-installed piece! Once a cabinet is installed it is often difficult or nearly impossible to visually discover poor construction methods or cheap materials until things break, delaminate, or pull apart. The areas of a cabinet that lack quality can temporarily be hidden by a talented installer, but a few years use will bring the poor quality ghost out of hiding. Look at the cabinet from every angle inside and out. DO NOT BASE YOUR BUYING DECISION ON WRITTEN CABINET SPECIFICATIONS OR HOW GOOD THE LITERATURE LOOKS! A good writer can make a feeble cabinet sound like the ultimate furniture. Examine the following areas with your own eyes. Study our pictures closely ( click them to enlarge ).
( click to enlarge )	ALWAYS remove the drawer and examine how the drawer slide is mounted!!! If you can not get the drawer out, have the seller remove it for you. Many cabinet companies use plastic mounts, staples, or tiny screws in this area. Often they use a drawer slide that looks like ours, but tack it in place or mount it in a plastic base. Look for STEEL mounting brackets, and substantially sized screws. Also check to see if the material the screw is mounted into will hold the screw for a long time. You don't want the drawer slide screwed into a thin 1/4" particle board back. FE uses a concealed undermount full extension ( entire drawer comes out ) drawer slide mounted on steel brackets screwed into horizontal plywood reinforcing rails and also mounted at the front into solid wood blocks and/or the solid wood face frame.
( click to enlarge )	The drawer box should be built from glued DOVETAILED HARDWOOD with a captive plywood bottom. The dovetails should be tightly fitted, glued together, and neat. NOT ALL DOVETAILS ARE THE SAME! Look at the joints closely. Always avoid torn, splintered, or missing joints. Feel the sides of the box for splinters or rough finish ( surface feels like sand paper ). A good hardwood drawer will be smooth and finished well to resist moisture and wear. Softwoods like sycamore, beech, or pine should be avoided. Birch hardwood is an excellent choice ( FE uses birch ). If you can easily scratch the drawer box with your thumbnail, it is a softwood that will not hold up well to long term use.
( click to enlarge )	The drawer heads should be mounted to the drawer box in such a way as to allow adjustment. You don't want cabinets with crooked drawer heads. The screws shown in our drawer ( see image to the left ), allow the drawer head to be adjusted after installation and before mounting drawer pulls. FE cabinet doors and drawers are set properly at the shop, but home adjustment is possible if required. Some fast-ship cabinet companies do not adjust their doors or drawers at the factory. These brands require hours of in-home adjustments. If you pay your installer to adjust your cabinets, you may have to pay an additional fee if there are a lot of adjustments. Most installers expect that only minor adjustments will be required, but some brands require major fine tuning of every cabinet ( which can take hours or days on other brands ).
( click to enlarge )	Check the cabinet face frame joints for a nice tight fit. Rub your hand on the surface to make sure the corners aren't splintering and that the finish is smooth. How strong is the frame? FE's face frame is 1 3/4" x 3/4" which is very strong!!! Some manufacturers use different types of wood on the frames than they do on the doors and sides of the cabinet. YOU WANT ALL THE SAME WOOD SPECIES ON THE EXTERIOR. Multiple wood species on the exterior will cause the cabinet to age to multiple colors. Example: If you ask for a pine cabinet, you don't want a maple frame. If the cabinet does not have a frame, it is a Euro-style box ( a frameless box ). The frameless cabinet is a weaker box. FE builds one of the best frameless all wood cabinets, too but FE prefers to offer the stronger framed cabinet.
( click to enlarge )	Look inside the cabinet. Is it wood or a plastic ( often wood grained ) coating over particle board? You might even have to take out a shelf and examine the edge to be sure what materials are being used. FE interiors are grade "A" birch plywood with a baked on finish. Even the adjustable shelves are made from 3/4" grade "A" birch plywood. All shelves should be adjustable and at least 3/4" thick. Stay away from plastic coatings which may peel. Particle board should be avoided. The surface should be free of patches and voids. You don't want torn or jagged cuts ( cuts made with a dull or incorrect tool ). Jagged edges will often splinter and get worse. Rough cuts will often attract and hold dirt. Any joints should be very tight. If the joints ( where the side meets the back or floor ) have gaps, something is wrong with the structure. If you see gobs of hot melt glue, they used an inferior short term glue. Avoid cabinets built using a lot of hot melt glue. FE only uses hot melt glue as a sound deadener in the bottom of the drawer box.
( click to enlarge )	If you are buying beaded inset cabinets, make sure the bead is actually cut into the frame and not an attached molding that will pull off. The doors and drawer heads should have a back bevel to avoid sticking.
( click to enlarge )	Shelves should be supported by metal. This shelf pin is unique. You will find it in all the base cabinets.
( click to enlarge )	The metal shelf pin has a plastic coating to make it less visible. The pin sits into a notch in the edge of the shelf. This helps give the shelf more stability.
	This shows the shelf support notch.
( click to enlarge )	The toe kick area should at least be finished to match the cabinet face. We also provide other types of toe kick options ( i.e. furniture base, feet, bun feet, etc.). If you don't ask for a special treatment, the base cabinet will come with a standard recessed sub-base and FE provides a loose matching toe kick cover to hide any shims.
( click to enlarge )	We are so proud of Fashionable Enclosures cabinets that we can show off any part of the box and feel good about the way it is made. Here we even show under the base cabinet ( sub-base toe area ) just to prove that care and skill is used throughout the entire box. Not many dealers would offer a view of the underside.

Cabinet specifications subject to change without notice.
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A Word About Cabinet Construction