Fitted kitchens

Framed, or frameless

A framed cabinet has a timber opening around each door. Frameless construction gives a more continuous line of fronts. The choice affects the proportions, storage and way the cabinetry is made.

Room for the way you cook

Appliances, preparation space and everyday storage belong in the first drawing. A measured plan sets out each run, the worktop and the space needed to open doors and drawers.

Timber at the joins

Board selection gives neighbouring fronts a considered rhythm. At corners and exposed ends, grain direction and the way the parts meet are part of the design.

The four boards

Compare appearance, working properties and suitable uses. Property figures are cited or labelled illustrative.

• European oak

  Quercus robur

  quarter-sawn

  Quarter-sawn so the medullary rays are cut along their length, which is what produces the silver fleck that flares and dies as you move. A mid honey-brown that darkens with light.

• American black walnut

  Juglans nigra

  crown-cut

  A rich brown heartwood with pale sapwood and varied figure. Black walnut is commonly described as semi-ring-porous; the transition in vessel size is gradual and the appearance varies between boards.¹¹

• European ash

  Fraxinus excelsior

  through-and-through

  The palest of the four, almost cream, and the one where the wood anatomy is plainly visible: the coarsest and most legible pore rows of the set, running long and straight.

• Olive ash

  Fraxinus excelsior

  through-and-through

  The same tree as the ash above, cut from the heart instead of the outer wood. An olive-to-chocolate streak wanders across the board while the pore rows run straight through it, which is what tells you the figure is the timber and not a print.

Working properties, cited and dated

The four finishes

Choose a finish for its feel, the wear it will receive and the repair it may need. Compare the four surfaces in the finish guide.

Hardwax oiled

The oil is in the wood, not on it. Grain slightly darkened and deepened, a broad low sheen, the pore rows still open and catching their own shadow. Nothing reflects in it. illustrative

Waxed

A soft bloom sitting above the surface rather than in it — the light scatters off the film before it reaches the timber. illustrative

Lacquered

A film, and you can see it is a film: a tight specular highlight that travels independently of the grain, pore rows filled and flattened, the arris reading as a hard bright line. illustrative

Fumed

An oiled surface over a much darker wood, because the colour is in the timber and not in the gloss. In oak the ray fleck now flares against something close to black, which is the best thing this finish does and the reason it is in the set. illustrative

How each finish wears and is repaired