Of the myriad of cabinet choices there are essentially three distinct styles:

• Arch
Personalized your style with arch cabinets. Cabinets with eyebrow and cathedral arch doors highlight a room and make a statement of classic traditional. The eyebrow is a subtle arch that can make a contemporary cabinet style go in a more traditional direction. Cathedral arch portrays more of a country casual feel and will add interest to wall cabinets in a kitchen or bath.
See Arch Cabinet Styles
• Raised Panel
Cabinets with a raised panel door style are typically associated with traditional styling. The beauty of raised panel door styles and drawer designs equate elegance. Raised panel style cabinet doors give a room detail design and can be highlighted with glaze finishes to show off the uniqueness or personalize a home. Raised panel cabinets can be classified as transitional or even contemporary when combined with other décor materials.
See Raised Panel Styles
• Flat Panel
Clean and simple lines, flat panel cabinets are the ever-popular contemporary. Straight lines create a sleek appearance for any room where cabinets are showcased. Create a contemporary or transitional style with limitless décor options. Flat panel style cabinets include Shaker, which can also be dressed in a casual setting or decorated in a more modern fashion.
See Flat Panel Styles

Well designed kitchen cabinets can make food preparation chores and clean-up much more efficient. In addition, the cabinets are the first thing a person notices when entering the kitchen, so their style and appearance play a big role in overall home decor.

• Stock
Stock cabinets are already built and require the shortest wait when installing. They are also the least expensive option. However, they are also the choice that will be the least tailored to your own specific needs. While stock cabinets should hold your supplies adequately, you might have special needs and interests that would make more individualistic cabinets desirable.
• Semi-Stock
Semi-custom cabinets do not require as long a wait as truly customized kitchen cabinets, but they are not built until the order is made. These cabinets can fit your spaces more precisely and feature options like a lazy susan. They generally take at least a month to be built.
• Custom
True custom cabinets are crafted according to the home owner's specific needs, and can take several months to be completed.

Solid wood is more costly than plywood which is more costly than particle board or other similar sheet goods that need to be specially protected from prolonged exposure to moisture. Solid wood is suitable for cabinet elements that show, such as face frames, doors, drawer fronts, etc. Among solid wood species used for door construction, cherry is more expensive than maple or oak.

• Solid Wood
Solid wood is almost never used for cabinet carcase construction. Plywood and high-quality particle board are more suitable than solid wood for any carcase component that is not shaped, such as shelves, cabinet sides, or drawer bottoms.
• Plywood
Typical plywood thickness in these applications varies from ?- to ¾-inch (with ¼-inch used often for drawer bottoms). Plywood shelves and higher-quality particle board that are stiffer than lower grades of particle board, also do not sag noticeably over time. Stiffness increases rapidly with shelf thickness; regardless of material choice, a ¾" shelf is 73% stiffer than a ?" shelf though only 20% thicker.
• Particle Board
Particle board resistance to sagging depends on the particular choice of resin that binds together its wood "particles." Plywood carcases may be assembled with screw and nail fasteners, whereas particle board is best assembled using glue or mechanical fasteners such as confirmat-cam assemblies designed for particle board applications. Plywood-carcase cabinets are more expensive than particle-board-carcase cabinets.

Cabinets may be either face-frame or frameless in construction. Face-frames typically consist of narrow strips of hardwood framing the cabinet box opening. Frameless cabinets utilize the carcase side, top, and bottom panels to serve same the same functions face-frames. The typical trade-offs are that face-frame cabinets are more durable and frameless utilize space more efficiently.

• Carcase
The carcase is the lest conspicuous element of construction, yet the most important. It determines the durability and stability of your cabinets. Most pre-fabricated kitchen cabinets you'll find at home improvement stores are made of particleboard, hot melt glue, and staples. You should plan on using a strong plywood for your carcase.
• Doors
Doors may be fabricated of solid material, either engineered wood or solid wood. Engineered wood panels may either be used as slabs or may be shaped to resemble frame-and-panel construction. In either case, engineered wood panels are generally painted, veneered, or laminated. Solid wood panels are typically formed of multiple boards of the selected wood species, jointed together using glue and may either be painted or finished. Solid wood construction offers the possibility of refinishing in case of damage or wear.
• Drawers & Trays
A functional design objective for cabinet interiors involves maximization of useful space and utility in the context of the kitchen workflow. Drawers and trays in lower cabinets permit access from above and avoid uncomfortable or painful crouching.

Cabinets may be finished with opaque paint or transparent finishes such as lacquer or varnish. A variety of decorative finishes is available. They include distressing, glazing, and toning. There are many aspects of the appearance of a finished wood surface that can be perceived, color being one. Another is sheen (referred to as satin, gloss, and gradations thereof). There are several others.

• Opaque
High pressure laminate (HPL) has become ubiquitous in the modern industrial world. HPL is formed of a resin and paper components under high pressure (ordinary wood does not sustain such pressures, and can readily be crushed to less than half its natural thickness in a hand operated arbor press). The high pressure confers a density and a resistance to damage simply because any utensil, tool, or other object that may come in contact with, or strike, the HPL will not impart a force greater than what was employed to form the HPL itself. In effect, the HPL has been "dented" in advance.
• Melamine
Melamine is a unique white-in-color chemical formulation which is advantageous for chemical and impact resistance not unlike HPL. Melamine coated boards are widely available in home centers for purposes such as shelving.
• Thermofoil
Thermofoil is a plastic coating applied to furniture-board which may have been milled, shaped, or routed so that it can assume a fairly complex profile (particularly when compared to HPL). As a laminate, grooves and edges conform to manufacturing requirements for minimum radius, as compared to a milled solid surface such as hardwood. Thermofoil can be made with a very glossy sheen. In this sense it is unique. The drawback is that thermofoil, which although durable is less resistant to impact damage than HPL, typically cannot be repaired.

Hardware is the term used for metal fittings incorporated into a cabinet extraneous of the wood or engineered wood substitute and the countertop. The most basic hardware consists of hinges and drawer/door pulls, although only hinges are an absolute necessity for a cabinet since pulls can be fashioned of wood or plastic, and drawer slides were traditionally fashioned of wood. In a modern kitchen it is highly unusual to use wood for a drawer slides owing to the much superior quality of ball-bearing metal drawer slides.

• Hinges
Installing new kitchen cabinet hinges makes for one of the easiest and least costly ways to give your kitchen a fresh, new look. Along with knobs, handles, and pulls, hinges add flair and personality to an otherwise plain cabinet appearance. Some common hinges are:
Flush door hinge: concealed behind door, only shows the barrel of the hinge
Ball Bearing Hinge: good for heavier door, these have permanent lubricant
Knuckle Hinge: a decorative knob or knuckle is visible when the cabinet is shut
Lift-Joint Hinge: allows door to be removed without unscrewing hinge
Loose-Pin Hinge: also allows easy removal of door by lifting hinge pin out
Lacqured Cabinet Hinge: decorative visible hinges, brass or black
Cabinet Pivot: attaches to top and bottom of door, concealed.
• Pulls
There is an overwhelming number of options for pulls. We'll work with you to select pulls that fit your kitchen design.
• Slides
Slides are manufactured hardware assemblies that enable cabinet components such as drawers to be extended from the carcase in smooth linear motions with minimum effort. The primary design parameters of any slide are its extension, weight rating, and position. Separately, durability and serviceability are important as are the smoothness of operation and the availability of features such as soft-close buffering. Slides are used not only for drawers but also for trays and pull-out cabinets of various designs.