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Kitchen Cabinet Buying Guides

Providing valuable insight on what units are available, including handleless, flat-pack, and ready-made options, these kitchen cabinets buying guides can help you decide what cupboards are right for your home. From making the most of available space and achieving accessible storage, to ensuring you have selected the right carcasses, these guides to kitchen units are the best place to start when embarking on a new kitchen update and will explain the benefits of choosing each type. Explore our kitchen buying guides for even more advice on how to maximise cabinets and transform every aspect of a space.

What are the different types of kitchen cabinets?

Handleless

Handleless croft-grey cupboards come pre-notched to make it quick and simple to transform slab or shaker design. Various sizes and colours are available to help create a custom look – all of which can accommodate a trim that can be used to create a linear design.

Read our Handleless Kitchen Cabinets Buying Guide

Ready-assembled

Our ready-made cupboards come pre-assembled and pre-fitted with accessories to make light work of fitting. This cabinetry offers the widest selection of colours and sizes, making it easy to create a bespoke design. Curved units are available to create a flowing look.

Read our Ready Assembled Kitchen Cabinets Buying Guide

Flat-pack

Constructed from the same robust materials as our ready-made options, our high-quality, flat-pack cupboards are cost-effective. They come in separate parts to build on-site, so they are a practical option for compact spaces or properties that are hard to access.

Read our Flat Pack Kitchen Cabinets Buying Guide

What are the benefits of kitchen cabinets from Howdens?

Which? Best Buy

In May 2023, our rigid cabinets have been awarded a Which? Best Buy. Which? said that the cabinets are solidly built, with an excellent rating given for the strength of the drawers and hinges. They found that Howdens customers were least likely to have problems after their units were installed.
Made in the UK

Every cabinet we make is made using quality materials that are sourced from sustainably-managed forests in the UK. We also manufacture them at factories in Runcorn, Cheshire and Howden, East Yorkshire – reducing our carbon footprint.

Why Howdens

Custom cabinetry

As the foundation of every cooking space, we know it's important to get your cabinetry right. That's why we have included a wide choice of colours, sizes, and styles to suit any space within our collection. Featuring large service voids and adjustable legs, our units are easy for trade professionals to fit too, so you can get your new layout up and running faster.

25-year cabinet guarantee

All of our cabinetry is made from high-quality materials and stress-tested rigorously by a dedicated facility to ensure they are built to last. As a result, we offer a 25-year guarantee on all of our cupboards, to give total peace of mind.

See guarantees and accreditations
Antibacterial properties

All our cabinets are made from MFC, which has natural antibacterial properties. It prevents bacteria from multiplying and is proven to reduce bacteria over 24 hours, without compromising the colour and performance of the unit.

Things to consider when planning kitchen cabinets

Our cabinets (Natural Oak) - kitchen brochure

Configurations

Both our flat-pack and handleless cupboards come with a selected range of layouts, such as wall, base and corner units. For a fully customised approach, choose our pre-assembled furniture, which offers more than 200 options.

Howdens Trends 2020 Oak Trim Accent 8 RT

Size varieties

Our cupboards come in a range of widths, depths, and heights to create a custom layout. Our handleless and flat-pack options offer the most popular sizes, meanwhile, our pre-made cabinetry offers more options for a unique fit.

Cupboard colours

There are different colours available to achieve a cohesive look - inside and out. White can be selected for all cupboard options, while natural oak and new croft-grey shade are available with ready-assembled and handleless units only.

Features to look out for

Space for supply

With a 72mm gap in all our units, there is plenty of space to house plumbing, gas, and electric supplies. This also means installation is easier – especially when there are uneven walls or within awkward spaces.

Hinge openings

Hinges play a huge part in making items simpler to reach. Our wall and base units all come with 110-degree hinges, and there is also a wider 170-degree option available, which offers easier access - good for multi-generational homes.

See cabinet hinges

Soft-close options

Most of our ready-assembled units come with soft-close fixtures, making them smoother to use and noise-reducing - a great addition in open-plan rooms. They are also supplied as standard on upgrade drawers.

See soft-close cabinet hinges