Why Choose Glass Front Kitchen Cabinets?

Glass front cabinets are a stylish addition to any kitchen design. They can divide up a large room and create a display area for items you love. As with anything, there are pros and cons to choosing glass front cabinets. Let’s explore their good and bad points and then decide if they would be a wise investment for your kitchen remodel. 

PROS

Brightness

Glass reflects light, which brightens up dark rooms. Glass front cabinets also create an illusion of depth, especially if they’re backed with a mirror, enlarging your kitchen design. Placing glass front cabinets near windows gives the double benefit of light and a reflected view.

Display

Glass front cabinets provide the perfect place to store and show off beautiful items such as crockery or crystal. Curate items, leaving the most attractive at the front. A thick cabinet frame means you can hide smaller things you don’t want to display on the bottom shelf. Frosted or colored glass would also open up your kitchen design without necessarily showing cabinets’ contents. 

Lighting

Planning for the inside of glass front kitchen cabinets in your lighting design makes your display look its best. As well as illuminating your treasures, it adds another layer of warmth and interest to your kitchen lighting design.

Break up Monotony

While solid cabinet doors can be beautiful, too many tend to look monotonous. Glass fronts balance dark or white finished wood beautifully and break up an expanse of upper cabinets, especially in a large kitchen design. You can replace one, every other, or all upper cabinet fronts, depending on your preferences.

Changeable

Make the most of your glass front cabinets, creating seasonal displays and decorating for the holidays. You can also paint, tile or paper the back panel inside the cabinets to change up your color scheme.

Create a Space

Peninsula cabinets with glass fronts are an excellent way of making a border between a living and kitchen area without looking too harsh. It lights up the adjacent space while defining the two areas. 

Dust

As well as dust, there is grease from cooking in kitchens. Glass cabinets are a nod to the trend of open shelving to create an airy atmosphere in your kitchen without the stress of frequent dusting and wiping down shelves.

Visibility

It might sound obvious but seeing everything through glass makes it so much easier to access the contents of your kitchen cabinets. It also makes it handy for guests to find what they’re looking for.

CONS

High Maintenance

If you’re curating items to display, you must be prepared to keep them tidy. Frosted glass is forgiving, but the main purpose of glass cabinets is to show what’s inside. Re-consider glass fronts if you need a lot of storage space and won’t be able to dedicate space to neatly displayed items. Likewise, if you don’t have the time or interest to arrange your possessions behind the glass, then it’s not for you.

Expense

The glass needs to be high quality to withstand kitchen use. Only the most durable glass door can be used multiple times a day.  Like any touch of luxury, adding glass to your kitchen cabinets comes at a cost, especially if you decide on decorative glass. Glazing is a skill that takes time, so factor that in when planning a kitchen remodel.

Dirt

Kitchen cabinets collect a lot of dirt and grime.  If your glass front cabinet is near your stove, this is especially true, so you’ll need a good glass cleaner. The frames must be carefully wiped too as dust collects in corners and crevices. Even if the glass cabinet doors are away from the cooking area they’ll get covered in fingerprints, so regular polishing is necessary.

Children and pets

Glass used on lower cabinetry needs to be protected from children and pets as well as feet. Keep it to either end of an island where people don’t sit. If you really want to use glass in a peninsula, consider acrylic as a safer option for a busy family.

Take a look at our kitchen remodeling gallery for examples of glass front cabinetry or visit our showroom today. Our experienced kitchen design experts would be happy to take you through our wide range of glass front cabinets to add the wow factor to your kitchen cabinetry.