Cabinet making as an industry in the West has a fairly long history, but it really started to come into its own in the middle of the18th Century in Europe. Three famous English cabinet makers of the time (Thomas Sheraton, Thomas Chippendale and George Hepplewhite) popularized their ideas by publishing books on cabinet making, complete with compendiums of theirs and other cabinet makers’ designs. When the industrial revolution brought steam power tools and the first rudimentary assembly lines to the cabinet making industry, it resulted in a sudden growth of cabinet manufacturers who stepped in to meet the demands of the rising middle classes.

The excess of the Victorian era and the industrially manufactured furniture goods it produced, however, caused a backlash. Many people were repulsed by the mass production and consumption that the industrial revolution made possible, and began calling for a return to more traditional forms of cabinet making, as well as other home product manufacturing. This was the beginning of the so called “Arts and Crafts” movement, which focused on artisanal, handmade designs and techniques.  With both industrial and craftsman cabinet makers at work, several different styles of cabinet design came into being. The following are just some of the most popular design styles that can be seen in Western cabinet manufacturers today.

Rustic

Rustic cabinets tend to focus on the utilitarian aspects of furniture design and also aim to maintain the “natural” look of the materials used. The Rustic style is also referred to as the “log cabin” style or “log furniture style”. Wooden cabinets in this style will, for example, have tops with a “live edge” that lets you see the original contours of the tree that the wood came from. Whole logs, branches and pieces of tree bark are also used in the making of Rustic cabinets. Common woods used in Rustic cabinet designs include Fir, Cedar, Pine, and Spruce.

Scandinavian

This style of cabinet making is characterized by simple, minimalist designs, the use of mass production and a focus on functionality. The style relies heavily on the use of clean horizontal and vertical lines. Scandinavian cabinets tend to be sleek and include little or no ornamentation. Scandinavian cabinet making as it is known today began in the mid 1900s, mainly in the countries of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, as well as Finland.

French Provincial

French Provincial cabinets are almost the opposite of Scandinavian cabinets, which is to say their identifying characteristic is a highly ornate design. French Provincial cabinets make liberal use of stained or painted wood, so that the wood itself is not really identifiable. Corners and cabinet hardware is often golf leafed or gilded. Flat surfaces are decorated with ornate visual artwork and landscapes. The style is associated with the the French court and wealthy aristocrats and bourgeoisie.

Oriental

Oriental cabinet design, or Asian Design, is characterized by the use of traditionally Asian furniture building materials such as bamboo or rattan. The color red is frequently used in oriental cabinet design.

American Colonial

Early American Colonial style cabinets try to emphasize both materials and form. The most prominent types of woods used are usually deciduous hardwoods and woods that come from fruit/nut bearing trees, such as walnut trees and cherry trees.

Mission

This style of cabinets is characterized by flat panels and thick vertical and horizontal lines. Oak is the most common material used for Mission style cabinets. The earliest Mission style cabinet makers tended to prefer white oak, which they then stained and darkened through a technique called “fuming”. Mission style cabinet hardware is usually made from black iron and left clearly visible, as a kind of aesthetic accent. The Mission style of cabinetmaking, with its roots in rustic colonial settings, was one of the styles popularized and championed by the Arts and Crafts movement that emerged as a backlash to the industrial revolution and mass production.

Shaker

Shaker cabinets, like all shaker furniture, are characterized by their simplicity and functionality, as well as their sturdiness of design. Shaker cabinets tend to be very neatly symmetrical and make use of fruit wood materials primarily. The style of Shaker cabinet making reflects very clearly the rustic and egalitarian lifestyle of the religious sect that invented it.