Choosing Cabinetry

by | Feb 8, 2020 | Home Remodeling

In 1961 at a small cabinet shop in Ashland, Alabama, a small group of skilled experts began to construct cabinets for supply to the local markets.  It was the Wellborn Cabinet Company. More than 50 years later a lot has changed but the commitment to quality at Wellborn Cabinet has remained the same. The family owned and operated company has grown to fill a 1.8 million square foot facility, enabling it to produce a wide range of quality cabinetry options for homeowners.

A combination of advanced technology and exceptional cabinetry craftsmanship, honed in by decades of experience has resulted in cabinets of unparalleled quality for kitchen remodeling projects. There are dozens of finishes, styles, materials and sizes to choose from based on your needs and preferences. In this guide, we will have a comprehensive Wellborn Cabinets review, helping you pick the right choice for your needs.

But before you even start picking your kitchen, basement or bathroom cabinets it is important to understand the things you should be looking for. So we have included a brief guide to take you through all the important decisions you need to make in choosing the right Wellborn cabinets for your home.

Choosing the Right Cabinetry

Cabinetry is a big factor in defining a space. Kitchen cabinets for example, make up a big part of the feel and look of the kitchen. Even more importantly, the cabinets you choose will determine the functional effectiveness of your kitchen, basement, or bathroom. You also need to think about your budget range.

All of these and many more issues need to be considered before you start shopping for your cabinets. Below we expound on this crucial decision-making process, detailing each important issue and the best approach to take on each one.

Kitchen Remodel Roeser Home Remodeling St. Louis

Kitchen Remodel Roeser Home Remodeling St. Louis

 

Wood Type

The wood used in making the cabinetry goes a long way in determining its style and quality. Wood is generally classified into two groups; soft and hard. Common hard wood types come from broad-leaf trees such as birch, maple, oak and hickory. Soft woods include popular, cedar and pine.

Because of their physical structure, hardwoods are often used in high-end furniture that is built to last for years. Soft wood furniture usually tends to be cheaper and not as hardy as hard wood cabinets. Wellborn Cabinet uses a range of materials to achieve specific styles and looks. Their main materials include:

  • Cherry: Cherry is often used in luxurious furniture. It has a distinctive red hue with small pin knots, pitch pockets and tiny dark streaks of gum. These features add to its uniqueness. Character Cherry, a variation of cherry, is a wood that emphasizes these distinctive features to enhance style. Cabinets made from cherry tend to darken finely in hue with age especially if exposed to sun light.
  • Maple: Maple is best known for its durability and shock resistance, making the wood especially good for kitchen cabinetry. The wood has a straight grain with various distinct marks including mineral streaks, curly grain patterns and bird’s eye marks. For a more dramatic flair, Character Maple is used because it has more noticeable knots, holes, and streaks.  Like cherry, maple can change colors over time.  But it usually turns more yellow.  Maple is commonly used for painted finishes because it is easy to shape and the grain is very fine so you don’t see it through the painted finish.
  • Oak: Although Oak is not as popular as it once was, it is a hard highly durable wood that tends to be more affordable then maple or cherry wood. Wellborn uses original American red oak with a straight grain.
  • Hickory: This hard wood varies in hue from light to dark red and sometimes almost black. Being one of the hardest and heaviest woods around, hickory produces strong and extremely durable cabinetry.
  • Medium Density Fiberboard (MDF): MDF consists of panels made from wood fibers and a wax resin binder. It is denser, stronger and more durable than traditional particle board.  It has become more popular in the past few years because of the affordability and the stability of the material to accept paint.
  • Laminate:  Laminate wood consists of an MDF or particle board core with a resin-saturated printed paper on top. The printed paper can produce the effect of real wood grain or a painted finish.  In the past few years, there has been a resurgence in laminated finished cabinets, but mostly in flat contemporary door styles.
  • Thermofoil: Although not as popular as compared to the 1990’s, thermofoil is not a type of wood; rather it is a plastic finish often applied to doors and drawer fronts. It is strong and scratch resistant.

Related: The Work Triangle vs Work Zones in the Kitchen

The kind of cabinetry you want will determine what type of material is best for you. If you want strong and durable, go for hard woods like oak and hickory. If you want a dramatic effect, then distinctive woods such as hickory and cherry are the best options. For cheaper but durable cabinetry, medium density fiberboard and laminate woods are great choices.

 

Finish

The finish defines a cabinet’s style in a big way. With a particular finish, you can create the exact feel you want for your kitchen, basement, or bathroom. Wellborn cabinets come in a wide range of finishes consisting  of both painted and stained colors. There are hundreds of finishes & applied techniques to choose from, ranging from Thermofoil to glazes, to antiquing.

In choosing the right finish, you need to consider the overall style you want and how well it blends into your existing decor. Do you want luxurious or simple? Antique or vintage? Light or dark? Some of the Wellborn finishes include heirloom, vintage, antique, cottage and brush stroke.

Different finishes are achieved through various methods including painting, staining and glazes. You can take a look at our kitchen remodeling ideas section for more inspiration.  Certain woods such as cherry and hickory have a distinctive enough character that they can be left unfinished and will still look good.

Door Style

The cabinet doors are the most prominent aspect of your new cabinets, making them an important part of the entire design. Different styles will vary in price, with elaborate door styles attracting high price tags.

Wellborn has plenty of cabinet door styles to choose from. Whatever your taste; traditional, contemporary, or country; there is a style for you. Some of the door styles available from Wellborn include:

  • Recessed: This is on the opposite end of the raised panel door and is typically a more simple style. The simplicity of recessed doors ensures that they can match seamlessly with a variety of decor.  The Prairie Door is an example of this style.
  • Raised: If you want to give your cabinets some depth, then go for raised door types. Raised cabinet doors come in a variety of designs consisting of both simple and intricate detailing, depending on the room character you are going for. Raised cabinet doors are especially ideal for vintage, antique, and country decors.
  • Slab: Slab doors are flat, simple and a minimalist look. Slab doors are solid with no framing or panels. This style is ideal for contemporary or modern decor kitchens and bathrooms.

This is just a small sample of the many styles available. Others include inset, louvered, imperial, beadboard and thermofoil. Note that within these styles, there are multiple other sub styles with differing designs.

 

Features

Do not just look at the type of wood or style of a cabinet; also consider the functional features. For example, what sliding mechanism do the drawers use. Basic cabinets have 3/4 extension self closing side mount sliders.

But most cabinet drawers will have some sort of mechanism that makes it easy to open and close. Usually, drawers have slides mounted on the bottom and/or edges of the drawer.

Other features that come in handy include Lazy Susan turntables for deep cabinets, self-closing doors, drawers, silverware organizers, wine racks, and pull out shelves. The more extra accessory items a cabinet has, the more it will cost you.

 

Wellborn Cabinet Lines

In our reviews of Wellborn Cabinets, we are going to look at four popular product lines that we use; Home Concepts, Select Series & Premier Series.  They also provide a high-end Estate Collection.

 

Home Concepts

This is the entry level line of Wellborn Cabinets, ideal for home remodeling and new home construction. With Home Concepts cabinetry, you get high quality at an affordable price point. If you are remodeling on a tight budget, consider Home Concepts. There are plenty of design variations to choose from, ensuring that there is something for different tastes and needs.

Here is what you need to know about this line.

  • There are 10 different door styles to choose from. These styles feature different wood species including oak, maple, thermofoil, laminate and MDF. The most popular door styles are Maple York and Layton.  Both of these have a craftsman look and a recessed center panel.
  • Doors come with a veneered (rather than solid wood) center panel. While this may put off some homeowners, veneer has its benefits. It tend to be more consistent in color and graining.  Its also less likely to warp or crack as some types of wood do. Additionally, it can last just as long and age just as well as solid wood.
  • The Home Concepts line also provides options for all-furniture board and all-plywood cabinets, usually the furniture board tends to be priced better.
  • There are 9 different paint or stain options available.
  • The line offers a variety of cabinet sizes to choose from depending on your needs and preferences. Whether you are looking for a small kitchen or a full vanity cabinet for your bathroom, they are available. Remember to have the exact measurements for your space before deciding on the cabinet size. This ensures there will be no issues during installation.
  • Plenty of accessories to choose from depending on which type of cabinet you want. You can have pullouts, pantry racks, sliding shelves, wastebaskets rack, charging bases, and so on.
  • Cabinets in the Home Concepts series come with a one year limited warranty.

When choosing Wellborn Cabinet Dealers, make sure you get those that provide as much variety as possible. This will give you more freedom of choice over what cabinet to buy.

Select Series

The Select Series offers a variety of mid-range cabinets for homeowners carrying out a remodeling or new home construction project. In this series, you will find the perfect combination of style and affordability. You get to enjoy luxury at a price you can afford. These cabinets are pricier than those in the Home Concepts Series, but they come with added customization options and a wider variety of design, style, and wood.

Here are the main features of the Select Series.

  • Buyers of the select series are offered a semi-custom option, where they are afforded some flexibility in design. Although you cannot get an entire cabinet custom made, you can get customized options for certain aspects of the design.
  • A wide variety of stains and paints with a glaze option. Whatever your style preference is or whichever decor you would love for your home, you will find the perfect cabinet in the Select Series.
  • Furniture board and plywood construction options are available.
  • A wide variety of cabinet sizes and accessories to suit your every need.
  • The warranty coverage for Select Series cabinets is much more comprehensive than that of the Home Concepts cabinets. With Select Series cabinets you get a lifetime limited warranty. This provides the assurance that the cabinets are durable and should anything ever happen, there is coverage in place to protect you.
  • Most of the cabinets come with a wood grain printed MDF back with 1/8 of an inch in thickness. All-plywood Select cabinets have a laminated plywood back measuring 3/16 of an inch in thickness.

The select series is for that customer looking for an upgrade in cabinet style without spending too much money. The cabinets are closer to luxury than Home Concepts with only a modest increase in price. Depending on your needs, you can get cabinets for any room including the kitchen, bathroom, basement, bar, or bedroom.

Premier Series

This is the ultimate-luxury series for customers who want great style, quality, and can spend more to get it. The selection in design and style is extremely extensive ensuring that even the most unique of preferences are catered to.

  • Customers are offered a plethora of custom options to increase design flexibility.
  • There are more than 30,000 styles to choose from with a dizzying array of finish, wood, and color combinations. This provides customers with the freedom to buy exactly what they want instead of settling for their second or third choices.
  • Exceptional quality with master workmanship being employed at every stage of production. To back this quality, Wellborn Cabinet Inc provides a lifetime limited warranty for Premier Series cabinets.
  • Cabinets have a 5/8-inch dovetail drawer design to ensure durability. Furthermore, drawers are designed with a soft close mechanism.

Wellborn Premier cabinets are a mixture of style, fashion, quality, and art. They may be some of the priciest among the three lines but they are more than worth it. For these cabinets; quality, reliability, and durability are without question top notch.

Estate Series

The Wellborn Estate Collection is without a doubt, the cabinet line that give you the most flexibility with customizing the cabinetry to fit your needs.  They have the “You Draw It” program that allows clients to bring any concept that can be drawn and turn it into reality.  A truly unique offering that will allow you to transform your space into whatever your heart desires.

The Estate Collection provides “Color Inspire”, which allows for a greater offering of colors from Sherwin Williams, Valspar, and even Benjamin Moore.  It gives clients the full opportunity to get exactly the look and finish that they desire.

 

Lastly, this line of cabinets also has the best warranty that Wellborn offers, which is a Lifetime Limited Warranty.

Quality Assurance and Environmental Protection

The experts at American-made Wellborn Cabinet are obsessed with quality. Over the years, an immense amount of work and skills have been poured into crafting the Wellborn name into a brand known for its strict insistence on nothing but the best.

According to the company, there are more than a hundred employees in the Quality Control Team, with over 30 quality control checkpoints. This ensures that every piece of furniture produced meets the highest standards.

In regards to the environment, Wellborn does not take a back seat. They are proactive in implementing environmentally friendly practices within their production and sales process. This includes working with similarly environment-minded suppliers, using the best technology to reduce pollution and striving to be as green as possible in the materials they use.

So whether you buy a Home Concepts, Select, Premier or Estate cabinet, you can be sure that behind it is a team that cares deeply about quality and the environment.