Question for the cabinetmakers here that build frameless cabinets. What do you do for edge banding color on the front edge of the boxes?

Most of the places around here seem to band with raw wood and then spray the edge to match the fronts. That seems nuts to me from a labor standpoint. It would seem to make more sense to try to get banding in the color of the front and then just band it and be done with it.

Or, does anyone band to match the interior of the cabinet? (typically pre-finished maple around here). That would seem to be far easier in terms of matching and far less labor cost than trying to match the doors. But nobody I know seems to do it that way. It that a bad idea?

When did what was easiest become the deciding factor of what we do and how we build cabinets? Sure if the end result is the same but you aren’t asking that. You’re a custom cabinetmaker charging custom cabinet prices. Build a damn custom cabinet already!

I match the door because that's they way it should be. You can always prefinish your edgebanding and then apply it if you don't want to mask and spray.

Everyone around me does prefinished maple plywood with prefinish maple banding. To me, it looks better than a two tone box. Often with face frame cabinets, we hold the box into the door or drawer opening with 3/8” showing of the banded plywood. To me, that would look real silly if the banding matched the outside of the cabinets. As they say, opinions are like assholes.

I work mostly with solid wood, and don't build a lot of cabinets. So I am asking a logical question to understand why people use the approaches they do.

"Anonymous", I have no problem doing a lot of extra work if there is a good reason for it, but if not, I'll put those hours towards something worthwhile.

"Leo G" can you elaborate on why matching the edge banding to the door is "how it should be". It might be obvious to you, but it is not obvious to me.

Dan:

There is a point at which the inside of the cabinet ends and the outside of the cabinet begins. Where the plane of the interior surface terminates is as good a place as any, and as such, if you are doing full overlay frameless cabinets, this old fart thinks that the cabinet banding should match the doors.

Not doing this, at least to me, speaks to a mindset of mass production work rather than custom work, reminding me of dental and medical cabinets.

If it is custom work, then you could always ask the client, designer or architect what their preference is.

TonyF

Unless not understanding, you can still see the edges of the box in places with frameless so unless the interior and face colors are very close I dont see how you could leave the banding on the boxes a different color I guess unless they were very close. Clear maple interior and a dark face or white interiors you'd still see edge of the box in places?

It's the way I was taught, so it's right to me. Plus the gap between the door and the front of the cabinet lets you see the front edge which should be the color of the door.

Think of the front edge of a frameless box as the face frame. How would you finish the face frame?

When the cabinet has shelves, do you finish the front edge of the shelves to match the doors also?

I normally finished shelf front edges to match cabinet interior, but the customer has final say.

Good point Dan, and one I never thought of. To me, how Polish does it look when the cabinet box has one color banding, and the shelves have another? I’ve never had an issue with seeing the box when the doors and drawer fronts are closed, perhaps some people have less tight tolerances. A 3/32” gap just shows a dark shadow, so if it’s painted white or dark stain walnut, I personally never felt it was an issue. I feel it gives the box more of a solid wood feel, but that’s just my opinion. Good thread.

We have done many hundreds of homes containing thousands of cabinets over the last 28 years, so on this subject I have the luxury of a large sample set of customer opinions on which to rely. My opinion for many years was maple on maple, and customer non-reaction indicated they agreed. Then at some point there was a change, and customers started to complain. Just one at first, then another and another. So the question then had to be asked. The answers went from being 75/25 in favor of maple to being 75/25 in favor of door color. Now, the standard is door color.

Which brings up an equally important question; PVC or paint? PVC, when an adequate match is available, is unquestionably more durable. But there isn't always an adequate match, so in those cases we send the completed box to finish and they do the mask thing. In our experience, it's simpler than prefinishing the tape or flat stacking panels which both require more time and planning and introduces a deviation to the system which is worse than the additional labor.

Anyway, those are my thoughts on the subject.

DJS

NAAWS and AWS for commercial both state that the body edges match the face color and material unless otherwise specified. Fixed shelves are body color, adjustable shelves edge are interior color.

"Edgebanding matched to exposed surfaces."

Download FREE NAAWS 3.1 2020