Cabinet (furniture)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

Glass display cabinet.

Oriental cabinet.

A cabinet is usually a box-shaped piece of furniture with doors or drawers for storing miscellaneous items. Some cabinets stand alone while others are built into a wall or are attached to it like a medicine cabinet. Cabinets are typically made of wood or, now increasingly, of synthetic materials.

Cabinets are manufactured in two basic box constructions: frameless or face frame. In face frame cabinets, supporting frames attach to the front of the cabinet box. This frame is usually 1 1/2 inches wide and made from wood. Mounted on this face frame is the door. Frameless cabinets, on the other hand, have no supporting front frame. The doors attach directly to the insides of the cabinet box.^[1]

Cabinets usually have one or more doors on the front, which are mounted with door hardware, and occasionally a lock. Many cabinets have doors and drawers or only drawers. Short cabinets often have a finished surface on top that can be used for display, or as a working surface such as the countertops found in kitchens.

A cabinet intended for clothing storage is usually called a wardrobe or an armoire (or a closet if built in). In previous centuries, such a cabinet was also known as a linen-press. In British usage, a wardrobe was occasionally referred to as an oakley, because of the oak wood used in its construction. In India, a cabinet is often referred to as an almirah or almari.

[edit] Old cabinets

Cabinet in the Museum für Thüringer Volkskunde, Erfurt
Cupboard commissioned for the Concert Room of the Tuileries Palace
Colonial cabinet from Inés de Suárez
Cabinet in the Museum für Thüringer Volkskunde, Erfurt
Chinese lacquer cabinet on stand made for the European market (Honolulu Academy of Arts)