Cabinet Trims
To continue our previous post on standard cabinet components, the following is a list of the nine most common cabinet trims and moldings:
Fillers – Fillers (also known as spacers) are painted or stained the same colour as the corresponding cabinets and are used whenever a cabinet needs to be spaced farther to the left or right of the next cabinet, wall, or appliance. This could be to center a sink base more squarely in a window, take up that extra two inches in a wall-to-wall space, allow a door to swing fully past its own frame or an adjoining handle, or to create a larger space for an appliance to occupy. It’s always a good idea to purchase a larger filler than you think you’ll need and then cut the width down to size. There are three subcategories of filler:
wall (for uppers): These fillers will correspond to the height of the upper they are spacing next to. In the case of QGC cabinets they are 30”, 36”, or 40” tall, ¾” thick, and 1”, 2”, 3”, or 6” wide.
base (for lowers): Base fillers will generally be 30” tall to correspond to the standard base cabinet height without the toekick. Some fillers will come with a built-in toekick return but this is not strictly essential. QGC base fillers are 30” tall, ¾” thick, and 1”, 2”, 3”, or 6” wide.
tall (for floor to ceiling cabinets): These fillers are used to space next to pantries and oven cabinets and will correspond to those cabinets’ heights. QGC tall fillers are 84”, 90”, and 94” high, ¾” thick, and 3” or 6” wide.
Skin Panels – Skin panels are thin veneers in the same colour as the cabinetry used to cover blemishes, unfinished sections, and assembly marks. They usually come pre-cut in the shape of the left or right side of base or pantry cabinets, wall cabinet sides, and larger sheets for the back sides of island or peninsula runs. QGC cabinets come prefinished on the sides which means if a client wants to assemble the cabinets using glue rather than staples or a nail gun they wouldn’t need the side panels. QGC assembly personnel use the staple gun.
Structural Panels – If a cabinet run ends on a dishwasher or other under-counter appliance, you need more support in a dead corner, or you have a 24” deep cabinet over your refrigerator you will need a structural panel. These panels will be ¾” thick plywood finished the same colour as your cabinets with a facade filler on the front edge. The refrigerator end panel extends from the floor to flush with the top of your fridge cabinet, and the base end panel or dishwasher panel will be the same height as your base cabinetry. In the case of the dishwasher this panel is necessary for your countertop to be attached to. For the fridge cabinet the refrigerator end panel is needed to provide support along the full depth of the cabinet so that heavy items to the front of the cabinet won’t pull it off of the wall. If your fridge cabinet is sandwiched between a wall and a pantry cabinet this panel is not necessary.
Toekicks – Toekick veneer panels are meant to run along the toekick section under the cabinets hiding the joins between the cabinets.
Scribe Molding – This 8’ x 3/4 strip of material is stained or painted the same colour as your cabinetry and goes up against a cabinet anyplace it visibly meets the wall.The cabinets are straight whereas drywall never is, so this molding is applied to hide the minor gapping.
Corner Molding – This L-shaped piece of trim is used to cover the join between the back of a cabinet and a back end panel on a peninsula or island. Without it you’d be able to see the unfinished plywood edge of the panel from the side of the cabinetry.
Crown Molding – This is one of the more optional finishing trim items. It’s applied to the top of the upper/wall cabinet between the cabinet doors and the ceiling to cover any gaps or to finish the look of the upper cabinets. The height of the crown molding will depend on the ceiling height as well as the size of the face reveal above the doors in the cabinet. When estimating the number of crown molding sticks to buy try and avoid seams or joins in the middle of a cabinet run. It’s hard to make a crown molding seam look good.
Starter Molding – There are two main reasons to use starter molding: the first is if you’re using upper/wall cabinets without a face reveal above the cabinet doors, and the second is to attain greater height off of the top of the cabinet. This strip is attached to the top of the wall cabinet box and then the crown molding is affixed to the front face of the starter molding. QGC does not use starter molding as our cabinets come equipped with a 1” face reveal.
Light Rails – These are an optional piece of decorative molding applied to the base of a wall cabinet often to hide under cabinet lighting. The most important thing to keep in mind when deciding whether or not to use this molding is that there must be 18” of room between the countertop and the bottom of the cabinet per code. QGC does not currently carry this item in matching trim.