Kitchen showrooms are emporiums of grand illusion. The floors always
glisten, countertops are uncluttered by coffemakers and the cabinets — wow! The cabinets are always perfect. No scratches, no dings, none of the 3-year-old's favorite stickers, no dishes cramming shelves. The cabinets are stained in the latest colors endorsed by shelter-magazines, floated under 16-foot ceilings (so you'll never notice how tall they're not) and lit by several thousand watts of halogen. When the doors swing shut with resounding thumps and the drawers slide to a firm stop, you're sold. Too bad. You think you bought furniture that will last a lifetime, but you probably got dressed-up orange crates that will last barely a decade.
Top-quality kitchen cabinets are made like good furniture, but even the most devoted watchers of the Food Channel don't know what to look for. Worse, what to look for is usually hidden. So we ordered up a finely crafted — but unassembled — base cabinet made by a small family-owned company that has only one line of cabinetry — the good stuff. Print out the following pages, and take them along the next time you go kitchen cabinet shopping.
