Gloss vs Matte: Choosing Your Cabinet Door Finishes

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Cabinet door finishes

Maybe not the first thing you think about, but what kind of finish you have on your cabinets really can dramatically shift the style of your outdoor [or indoor] kitchen.A finish, if you haven’t heard the term before, is what goes over the material of your cabinets for protection and numerous other benefits, but also to allow you to choose the overall look you want for your kitchen.

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This may be the easiest or one of the more difficult decisions for your design, as it really sets the overall image. Depending on your preferences, and seeing as the gloss vs matte debate has been going on for as long as the options have been available, we’re going to look at the pros and cons of both. Through reading this, make sure that you remember that the finish that is best for you is very subjective.

What is going to make you happy is going to come from your personal style and a little research to make sure you’re happy to keep up with the maintenance. For me, it doesn’t matter how beautiful I find something, if it’s too demanding in its upkeep it turns me off almost straight away. This might not be the same for you though, which is fine. The good thing about everyone having different preferences is there is finishes to suit all of them.

High gloss 

A high gloss kitchen is a bit of a fan favourite indoors, but outdoors you might run into a bit of trouble. By reflecting light, these cabinets help to open up your space. So you can see why, especially in smaller kitchens, this gloss is quite popular.Available in a range of colours, and also allowing you to use darker colours without fearing it will soak up all the light in your room.

However, the lighter the colour the shinier it will appear to be, as paler colours naturally reflect more light than darker ones.Now a pro and con comes with this reflective quality. Your kitchen, unless you have absolutely nothing in it and have no windows, will almost never be one solid colour. The cabinets will also reflect the colours around it.

High Gloss

So, for example, if you put a bowl of fruit on your counter top and you have light shining from an open window or perhaps the overhead lighting, the fruits will cast a gentle colouration around themselves. Nothing too drastic, but you will be able to see it when walking past. Some people enjoy this, some people find it annoying. It’s more up to personal preferences, but I thought to mention it just in case.

With highly reflective surfaces do come a little downside. Fingerprints, dirt, smudges or scratches are much more noticeable on its surface. This isn’t too harsh of a con, because high gloss is also one of the easiest surfaces to clean. You could even run a soft cloth under some water and wipe it over to wash away imperfections and such.If you plan on having your kitchen to the sun, it's worth noting that the warranty for high gloss in direct sunlight is three years versus the ten years you can expect from a matte finish.   

Matte finish

Basically a gloss finish’s complete opposite.While high gloss is used more commonly in a modern setting, [it’s trendy right now to have completely flat doors, a gloss finish compliments this look quite well], the best way I could describe a matte finish to you, without using a picture, would be to ask you to picture a traditional style kitchen.  Don't think you can't use a matte finish on flat doors though.

You can see in the picture above that the doors are flat and with a matte finish, and [if we do say so ourselves] make for a pretty good looking kitchen. A matte finish does not reflect any light at all, which almost eliminates the issue a reflective surface faces with showing every imperfection.Well, not completely. Marks and fingerprints will show but because there isn’t basically a light shining behind it so they are far less noticeable.The absence of light also allows you a nice solid, continuous colour across your cabinets.

This finish does the opposite of gloss in terms of sunlight; a matte finish will absorb light instead of reflecting it. This leaves you with a calmer, muted look.It’s not to say this makes your kitchen look dull, having contrasting colours, or colour blocking can really allow a sleek, elegant edge to your outdoor space.In terms of cleaning, they don’t really allow for the TV commercial one swipe and be gone fingerprints and dirt like a higher gloss does, but they aren’t what I would call difficult to clean at all. Same technique, just wet a soft cloth and wipe over the cabinet. Or you can use a duster if it’s just some dirt that the wind has picked up. 

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We hope this helped a little. Your choice on gloss or matte or something in between relates very much to your personal style. To know more download our free kitchen design guide.

 

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