What is an In-Frame Kitchen?

An in-frame kitchen is where the furniture doors are hung within a door frame - much like the internal doors in most homes.

The idea behind the frame is to create a structure which supports the doors weight and which the door can hang from - as opposed to a ‘Lay-On’ kitchen, where the door is ‘laid’ directly onto the front of the open cabinet - and attached directly to the cabinet with modern hinge systems.

With a ‘proper’ in frame (I say ‘proper’ because there are many in-frame ‘look a likes’ where the door is still secured with a modern hinge that attaches to the inside of the actual cabinet), sturdy butt hinges are commonly used and these are ‘chopped in’ or recessed which, besides the hinges screws, helps to give even more support to the door.

Besides supporting the weight of the door, the other advantages of hanging the doors in a ‘proper’ in-frame way is that the butt hinges allow doors to open a full 180 degrees allowing for better cupboard / cabinet access. Furthermore, a butt hinge doesn’t encroach on internal cabinet space - unlike the modern ‘concealed’ hinge systems.

Whilst the in-frame system is an old ‘tried and tested’ cabinet making technique, these days, its seen very much as a mark of quality - particularly within the high-end, bespoke manufactured kitchen market. Its because of this that many mass produced ‘off the shelf’ furniture ranges seek to emulate the look BUT using a modern concealed hinge…..which defeats the object of the doors frame and the whole in-frame approach!

Churchwood Design employ ‘chopped in’ / recessed butt hinges along with many other time honoured construction techniques such as dovetail jointed drawer boxes and 5 x piece door construction. This is done not just as a sign of quality, but also, to give its furniture creations a high degree of longevity where furniture can last for generations.