Frameless Look?

[Ryan Stollewerk]

First time poster here and big fan of the forum. I'm a cabinet builder that only builds face frame cabinets. I have a project coming up where the customer wants the look of frameless with minimal reveals. I believe I can accomplish this by still building face frame but with skinnier rails and stiles. For example, where I would normally use a 2" stile and 1/2" overlay hinge, I would use 1" stile with a 3/4 overlay hinge. Can someone confirm if my thought process on this is correct? Thank you!

[Kevin Jenness]

You can certainly achieve the look you want with scaled down face frames, although you won't achieve the efficiency possible with machine banded carcass elements. If you want a minimal reveal you need to get your stiles down in the 13/16" range, or 1 5/8" for capping adjoining partitions. If you use standard baseplates you need to keep the stiles as close to flush with the partitions as possible.

[Bruce King]

I forgot what this hinge is called but it’s the type you need.
These doors are 1 inch thick.

[Jamie Buxton]

There are hinges made to do what you're describing. Check out Blum's 39C and 38N series. You can even get soft-close in those lines.

[Bruce King]

Don’t forget to get their thin shims and hinge limiter inserts.
These inserts are used where a cabinet door might hit a wall or an open drawer.
When designing the kitchen it’s best to use fillers by the walls to prevent doors hitting but it’s often overlooked. I don’t remember why they have shims available with adjustable hinges but they are real inexpensive so I got some.

[Kevin Jenness]

There actually are a number of hinge types that will allow a frameless look with face frames. The important thing as with most cabinet projects is to decide on the hardware and ideally have it in hand for mockup purposes prior to completing the design. The face mount compact hinges Jamie mentioned can give a wide overlay but they typically hold the door off the face frame by 1/8" or so, which may not be what you want. The panel mount hinges shown in Bruce's photo are typical for frameless boxes and can work for face frames but most models are limited to no more than a 3/4" overlay. Get hold of online catalogs from Blum, Grass or Salice and dive in so you understand the capabilities of the hardware. For what it's worth, the cabinet shop I used to work at usually uses Blum Clip Top hinges but they use Grass and Salice for special applications. It's simpler if you can stick to one product line.