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61tinkerbell

Beaded or non beaded inset doors?

14 years ago

The little details are what drives me crazy!! knobs & pulls, colors, and now the doors!

I like both... heard that the beaded one can be a dust catcher, harder to clean than the flat straight edge, but aside from that.. please vote, beaded or unbeaded!

Flat, unbeaded profile

From Drop Box

VS. Beaded profile

From Drop Box

Thanks

Comments (8)

  • 14 years ago

    Your question about molding is really not an inset door question, so the title is misleading.
    The kind of beaded inside edge molding you picture is an applied molding, and as such it is a pricey option. If you settled for an ordinary molded edge that could be cut in one piece with the door sticking, it costs nothing extra.
    The unmolded square edge is seen on shaker and craftsman styles where plainness is an article of faith.
    Casey

  • 14 years ago

    Casey, yes.. title is miss leading, guess I should have finished my coffee before posting! LOL I'm not sure if I have the right pictures of the beaded door, and I'm not sure I understand the molded edge you are referring to...?

  • 14 years ago

    I wanted a simple shaker door and we ended up with a beaded door. We ALSO had an option of having a bead on the molding part. I opted to not have the bead on the molding part of the door. let me know if you want a pic. of our cabinets. Here is the type of cabinet we went with.

    Here is a link that might be useful:

  • 14 years ago

    Talk about beading, I have bead board doors on my cabinets. I love them and they are no harder to clean than anything else. It's all about styling and what appeals to you.

  • 14 years ago

    That little bead changes the look of that door a lot. I personally like it, but it will add substantial cost and tends to move you away from true shaker.

  • 14 years ago

    I prefer the flat version, but that's because I have a Craftsman kitchen where it fits right in.

    I will say that I believe the plain flat version actually collects more dust than the beaded -- flat edge versus rounded has a bigger "ledge" for gravity to work its magic, like settling flour when baking. I do have to wipe them weekly or more often.

    In terms of which is better, it's purely a matter of your taste, budget, and style preferences for your space. The beaded picture you show looks like it's beaded AND glazed, is that correct? Are you considering glazing?

    The trimmed shaker can look quite different depending on whether it's glazed or not. Here's an unglazed version:

    PS: just to follow up on Casey, I think that technically, the term "beaded inset" refers to this, where the bead is set into the opening rather than the door panel -- another interesting option:
    {{!gwi}}

  • 14 years ago

    We have beaded inset with the molding around the panel in our kitchen and we have the plain doors (with no bead and no molding around the panel in our bathroom.)

    The molding piece around the panel does help a lot for keeping dust (regular dust and dust from flour, etc.) from accumulating on the ledge below the panel (more of a problem with the flat ledge of our bathroom cabinets.) BUT I find that the bead around the frames of the doors and drawers leave gaps that do accumulate dust and drips. I have to be fairly vigilant about going around with a microfiber cloth and wiping the crevices so that dust, etc. doesn't accumulate too much.

    Here's a close up of our kitchen cabinets:

  • 14 years ago

    "Sticking profiles" are molded into the pieces of the door or drawer as the wood is being machined, and as such require no additional work after assembly. Whereas any kind of applied molding, like your flush bead, or a raised molding profile, requires that extra step in the assembly, which is why there's a large price jump. It's all hand work at that point in the process, a guy with a chop saw and a "pinner" (tiny nail gun) fitting and attaching the molding.
    A bead such as that cannot be made on a production line from the solid wood of the sticking, and can only be done afterward.
    Now, I as a small-shop builder _can_ do integral beads like that if asked, but it's a totally handwork task, one joint at a time.
    Casey