European style modern high gloss kitchen cabinets are perfect if you want a sleek, minimalist look for modern kitchens. I know European kitchens for their ultra-sleek appeal, high gloss modern cabinets, slab style doors, and elegant looks, but they are also notorious for their ability to blend with minimalism and maximum efficiency.
Kitchens in England, Spain, and Italy had a tight fit and size for small living spaces and small kitchens. Apartments and flats in Europe are smaller than those in the United States, so they needed a compact size kitchen to accommodate the daily activities of its occupants. European cabinets and kitchens need to focus on functionality, efficiency, and a seamless look with no ornamentation. They are dynamic spaces that cater to the changing demands of users. They do not compromise the combination of beauty and functionality.
Modern European kitchen cabinets use functionality at the forefront of every design decision, including selecting kitchen cabinetry to use the kitchen thoroughly. Designers of European style cabinets developed ways of constructing cabinets with a flat surface (flat panel door) or as frameless cabinets, created finishing techniques, and used durable materials.
Using these critical design elements, you can decide whether the innovative, high-functional features of European-style kitchen cabinets are suitable for your home.
Europe’s kitchen cabinets owe much of their design to American counterparts while being distinguished by their sleek look and clean lines. As opposed to other kitchen cabinet styles, Euro style cabinets feature a more modern, industrial appearance yet represent the perfect marriage of minimalist design. I know these cabinets for their sleek design, seamless aesthetics, and flat surfaces. European-style kitchen cabinets are incredibly stylish and ultra-sophisticated. European-style kitchen cabinets have high aesthetic value and their simplicity of use. The features below may help you better understand these kitchen cabinet options.
Table of Contents
- Characteristics of European Style Kitchen Cabinets Design
- Finishes Available for European Kitchen Cabinets
- Modern European Style Kitchen Cabinets
- European Style Kitchen Cabinet Doors
- Frameless European Style Kitchen Cabinets
Characteristics of European Style Kitchen Cabinets Design
Neutral and Bold Colors
You have many styling options, such as various colors for your European-style cabinets, from a neutral color like taupe, gray, white, and black to bright colors like orange, green, and red. A popular choice for contemporary design considers the use of high gloss paints for high gloss finishes. You’ll see plenty of this design philosophy in a luxury kitchen, which incorporates other modern styles or modern designs.
Smooth Surfaces and Textures
Flat surfaces that are smooth with a highly polished feel are common elements that cater to the design sensibilities of European style kitchens. European style kitchen designers and manufacturers use high-gloss paints, metal cabinet hardware, vinyl, plastic, glass, natural materials (real wood), and the finest Italian materials. The smooth surfaces of European design kitchen cabinets can provide the impression of more space in a tiny small space of a new kitchen.
Sleek Appearance
European-style kitchen cabinets offer an ultra-sleek, sophisticated, and excellent appearance. Its forms are straightforward and streamlined, offering a modern look that is becoming popular in North America under many kitchen remodeling projects.
Straight lines: straight edges, angular lines, and linear forms characterize European kitchen cabinets. In contrast to traditional designs, the kitchen cabinets incorporate significant geometric features, such as highly stylized forms, rectangles, and beautiful lines.
Absence of ornamentation: European kitchen cabinets adhere to minimalist design ideals, placing a greater emphasis on efficiency over decoration. Excessive ornamentation is not typical. A frameless design is. Smooth surfaces are common without elaborating, such as cravings, ornate trims, raised panels, or crown moldings. Like contemporary designs, this kitchen cabinet style frequently uses basic cabinet door styles, such as the flat panel and the slab style door.
Simple, understated hardware: The European kitchen cabinet design is elegant and discreet. Simple, sensitive techniques are standard in cabinet pulls, knobs, and handles, which match the sleek impression of the European-style cabinet. The kitchen cabinet hardware is usually chrome and comes in polished or satin finishes. The kitchen cabinet component pieces have a design that helps with convenience, effectiveness, and comfort.
One of the most promising modern kitchen cabinet styles is beautiful natural stone slab doors. Sleek looks like this have heads turning and your guests talking. This form of kitchen cabinetry is intensely popular in luxury homes in Texas and other high-network jurisdictions. The cabinet surface provides a contemporary appearance that is scratch resistant depending on the different colors available, a mirror-like finish.
A Dallas-based retail store called The Stone Collection offers a large selection of affordable high quality hand-selected natural and engineered stone, with different shades and color options. They offer high-quality materials, helpful information, and a type of finish that matters to you. The company has competitive retail prices and a great customer service team. Their strong supply chain connections are the primary reason they can compete in the market for residential and commercial projects. So get your shopping cart ready with week lead times.
European kitchen cabinets have full-access frameless construction. They are synonymous with frameless architecture or complete covering design, giving your kitchen cabinetry a more continuous design and a more elegant look, which boosts practicality by providing extra storage space and making it easier to use.
Concealed hinges: Since the European style Kitchen cabinet manufacturers do not use frames, they use concealed soft close hinges as a mechanism for the kitchen cabinet doors.
Synthetic materials: European design kitchen cabinets often use synthetic fibers including plywood, particleboard, (MDF) medium density fiberboard, engineered woods, or engineered woods for cabinet box or carcase construction, instead of traditional materials such as solid woods. Although the finishing is unique and incorporates manufactured components such as high-gloss paints, polyurethane, laminates, glass, and plastics, they are also impressive.
Modern RTA cabinets are soft-close and come in a variety of materials from solid wood or plywood, compared to the 1990s when they had flimsy and other materials.
Increased functionality and ease of use: Designers of the European-style kitchen cabinets focused on the user’s needs, prioritizing functionality above efficiency. They provide optimum functionality with the help of efficient storage solutions that maximize organization and capacity. There are no difficult-to-reach kitchen cabinet edges, and opening cabinet doors is a breeze. They also included wire baskets and other integrated elements, making it easier to search for things.
Finishes Available for European Kitchen Cabinets
Euro-style kitchen cabinets use contemporary alternate resources to manufacture a seamless design and super sleek aesthetic, rather than enabling the natural look of solid wood to show out. Material finishes are frequently synthetic and heavily treated, as previously stated.
European-style kitchen cabinets have a “high gloss” appearance. Its highly reflecting appearance results from a labor-intensive procedure, including various finishing methods. Brushing on layers of a glossy finish, spray painting using a compressor, applying lacquering, polyurethane, and laminating are among the procedures used to create high gloss European-style kitchen cabinets. European-style kitchen cabinets usually get several coats of the finishing substance followed by polishing, similar to the process used in vehicle manufacture.
Duco paints, lacquer, acrylic, polyurethane, laminates, and foils are among the materials that a manufacturer can use to get an incredibly polished, lustrous surface of the European design kitchen cabinets. Below are some of the most common high-gloss finishes seen in European kitchen cabinetry.
Thermofoil
Thermofoil is a heat-bonded, exceptionally hard-wearing slick plastic/vinyl layer used for contemporary cabinet doors.
A cabinet with a thermofoil covering will require very little maintenance and no additional special covering. In addition, thermofoils are moisture-resistant, making them suitable for a busy kitchen. Foils are ideal for achieving the current high-gloss effect that many customers seeking a contemporary European design desire.
Melamine
Melamine is a sort of lamination that is useful for a variety of patterns and wood grains. It is also robust, waterproof similar to thermofoils, and scratch-resistant, making it ideal for a rugged kitchen cabinet.
Melamine is just the name of one of its layers used to decorate modern kitchen cabinets. Paper layers are wet with melamine resin and then pressed together to form a solid surface. The outcome is an appealing and adaptable surface when attached to a high-quality cabinet.
Lacquer Paint
High gloss lacquer paint helps create a reflective shine on kitchen cabinets, though you can also employ specialized lacquers to achieve an attractive matte finish for your kitchen design.
Lacquer does not have a color of its own, but it offers a robust coating for a layer of paint beneath it. I gently apply each coat of paint and lacquer in a temperature-controlled facility to produce a high-quality, long-lasting lacquer finish.
Acrylic Cabinets
Most property owners prefer using acrylic cabinets in a gray and white kitchen. It is a lacquer-like finish, which offers a high gloss finish to European-style kitchen cabinets, a completely smooth finish, and a mirror-like appearance. The paint is non-toxic, and its manufacturers use acrylic acid to produce the product. There are two types of acrylic doors in kitchen cabinetry finishes, including acrylic facing doors and solid acrylic doors.
The manufacturers of solid acrylic doors use acrylic to develop the product, giving them a richer appearance and even color. However, they are costly. Acrylic facing doors are cheaper as they have a coating of material rather than being entirely composed.
The application process of acrylic finish on kitchen cabinet doors is a time-consuming technique that entails gluing a sheet of acrylic to a substrate like MDF or medium-density fiberboard, then coating it with an insulating shell and capping the edges.
Duco Paint Cabinets
The Duco finish is a finishing process that provides kitchen cabinetry a slick finish, ideal for the clean look of European kitchen designs. Except for acrylic, which gives the appearance of a mirror, the Duco paint finish helps create glossy kitchen cabinets.
With only a coat of transparent paint, this style of finish hides the inherent graining of the wooden base. Duco paint finishes come in various sheens, ranging from flat to satin to semi-gloss to high gloss. I sprayed the paint onto the material to use a compressor during the application procedure. Acrylic enamel paint, alkyd paints, and water-based paints are among the paint types used for Duco finishes.
This paint finish is more often associated with furniture manufacture, but you can also use it to create a uniformly colored kitchen cabinet top. If you want to stick with paint but look at high-gloss laminated kitchen cabinetry, this finishing procedure is a superb choice. In addition, this is a low-cost solution to change the appearance of old wooden cabinetry for a more contemporary look. The overall result of the Duco paint finish would be an even level surface and a clean appearance that gives kitchens a premium and elegant feel.
Modern European Style Kitchen Cabinets
Most of the essential characteristics of contemporary and European design kitchen cabinets coincide – minimal decoration, smooth surfaces, synthetic materials, and elegant hardware, to name a few. However, adding historical influence for a pleasant and authentic home-like feel in Contemporary European design kitchens adds an extra dimension.
They frequently used wood as part of the color palette in European kitchens to bring warmth and natural friendliness to the harsh atmosphere and extremely modern setting.
Contemporary European kitchen cabinets provide a more wood-like look than super high gloss cabinets and solid hues associated with a modern style influence. Off-white whites, taupe, grays, and shades of brown are examples of primary, solid neutral colors used rather than vivid, vibrant hues. With this Contemporary European design of kitchen cabinets, horizontal graining pattern laminates are a timeless choice.
European Style Kitchen Cabinet Doors
Unlike conventional designs, which sometimes include ornamental embellishments like moldings, carving, raised panels, or trims, European-style kitchen cabinets get a primary, smooth surface void of any decoration.
Slab-style doors are perhaps the most frequent kitchen cabinet door style used primarily for Euro-style kitchen cabinets. Slab-style cabinet doors are the most straightforward and primary type of kitchen cabinet door that is accessible. As the name suggests, a solid, unadorned piece of “slab” or flat wood distinguishes the doors. There are no apparent embellishments, frames, edgings, trimmings, decorative moldings, or panels among its design.
Slab form doors are prevalent in contemporary kitchen cabinet design, but they are the characteristic feature of European design cabinets. Slab-style entries have simplicity and frameless appeal, creating sleek and minimalist European-style kitchen cabinets.
Slab-style doors are especially ideal for high gloss finishing because they provide a level surface to exhibit a reflective surface finish, even though there are no moldings or trimmings to impede the unique finishing. In addition, there are several European-style kitchen cabinet options. Many European-style kitchen cabinet finishes, such as veneers, acrylic, and laminates, are best suited for slab-style doors because the ground is sleek and won’t push the material to its constraints.
Frameless European Style Kitchen Cabinets
The unframed architecture of European-style kitchen cabinets is yet another distinguishing feature that sets them apart in overall look from other kitchen cabinet styles. The smooth appearance of frameless kitchen cabinetry offers a highly sleek design appeal and a seamless transition among kitchen cabinetries.
“Stiles,” or vertical parts of either the rounded shape and “rails,” or horizontal components of the face frame, are part of a typical kitchen cabinet structure. The front element of the cabinet, where the door connects, comprises rails and stiles. Cabinet’s body panels remain inset and fastened to the fence and stile. The “face-frame” construction method is a conventional step in kitchen cabinets.
For frameless kitchen cabinet construction, side panels get used instead of stiles and rails. Hinges connect the cabinet door to the body panels immediately. Because this technique of cabinet building doesn’t require a cabinet frame, stability comes from a more robust cabinet skeleton or box construction.
“Full overlay” doors are standard in frameless kitchen cabinets. We know cabinet doors that directly affix to the edges of the cabinet box or carcase construction as full overlay doors. Concealed hinges are typical in this cabinet building style. By covering or disguising the cabinet, full overlay doors offer a seamless design.
Because it provides a range of positive implications, the European frameless cabinet style is elegant and practical. It offers maximum accessibility and storage space. Since no cabinet front frames obstruct storage, “full access” kitchen cabinets are frameless ones.
Framed kitchen cabinets offer durability, and unframed kitchen cabinets provide significantly more storage. It lacks vertical stiles or partitions, making storing objects such as full-size tableware and kitchen tools difficult.
Since there are no cabinet pieces or members that take up space, drawer boxes are significantly bigger. Last, frameless kitchen cabinets have a more modern appearance. Frameless kitchen cabinetry blends in better with one another, allowing a smooth change among different aspects of the room and supporting a more inclusive approach ideal for the elegance of European-style kitchens.
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John Thompson, Writer and Commentator, EvolutDesign.com
Soldier, writer, researcher, consultant, and bon vivant, John Thompson is the author of numerous columns, op-eds, reports, briefs, short stories and books as the “Felicity Files” and “Spirit Over Steel: A Chronology of the Second World War” (version III). Often found hunched over his computer, or in his garden, and now often found doing both. His diverse talent has led him to work in industries and projects such as energy, security and home construction and renovation.
