Cabinet finishes are a critical component of custom, high-performance cabinetry. At Adelphi Kitchens, we empower you to design fully custom cabinets for your clients, offering a wide selection of finishing options. Our durable and beautiful finishes are suitable for various residential and commercial applications. Our primary categories include wood staining, painting, and engineered solutions. You can also customize cabinets further with additional top coat and distressing services.
By finishing cabinets in our factory, we offer a high level of quality control. This process also adds convenience, eliminating the need to complete tasks on-site. Discover our premium kitchen finishes to find the ideal option for your residential client or commercial project.
High-Quality Factory Finishing
We operate a U.S.-based factory in Robesonia, Pennsylvania, where we manufacture and finish all cabinets. This location enables us to complete the work in controlled environments for proper application and curing. Our factory also allows us to offer a broader range of finishing options, including industrial top coats that can’t be applied on-site.
Wood Cabinet Stains and Full Cover Finishes
If your clients prefer a stained or painted look for their high-end residential projects, start by choosing one of our solid wood or wood veneer lines, including:
Stain Systems
We hand-wipe stains onto the exteriors of wood or veneers for our wood cabinet finishes. This process helps enhance the natural beauty and depth of the grain. Once we finish applying the stain, we may tone certain areas to achieve more consistent shades across the entire set of cabinets. Then we use a sealer coat, heat-dry it, and sand it smooth. Following these steps, we inspect and touch up cabinets before passing them through our varnishing booth and baking on the varnish.
Your chosen stain depends on the type of wood selected for the cabinets. Here’s an overview of the many wood options available:
Birch wood
This close-grained wood is typically light brown with pinkish or grayish undertones. The pattern is distinct but not prominent.
Hickory wood
Choose this wood for its beautiful visual character, featuring contrasting sapwood and heartwood.
Oak wood
The natural color of this wood ranges from light brown to grayish, and we utilize varied finishes, including stains and wired finishes, as well as fashion colors, on white oak wood.
Cherry wood
This stiff, strong wood has a natural reddish-brown color that darkens with age. Its grain features distinctive black marks that add character.
Maple wood
We use hard white maple for cabinet doors, which provides a clean white appearance with a tight grain.
Walnut wood
Choose this wood for its highly diverse grain patterns and unique color, which ranges from a light gray-brown to purplish hues. Like oak, this wood has several wired finish options.
Alder wood
This wood originates from the birch family and has a light color. As it ages, it develops pink-orange tints, creating a distinctive character.
We also offer a unique range of stains for our Brier Select line, which features a blend of white hardwoods. Our curated selection shows off the unique qualities of this line.
We can sometimes color-match stains to samples you send or use a dealer-supplied stain for a truly custom result. Our team can also finish dealer-supplied parts, like moldings, appliques, posts, legs, and corbels, creating a consistent look across all cabinetry components.
Full Cover Finishes
For projects requiring a paint-like finish, select one of our full-cover colors. We offer this option on high-density fiberboard (HDF) or paint-grade maple to provide the highest quality, longest-lasting results. You can specify which types of doors and drawers you want as long as the project doesn’t have glazing or distressing. If it does, or you don’t have a preference, we will choose the material based on your project. Meet the needs of your project with 25 full cover finish options, four of which are fashion colors.
We also allow you to select any Sherwin-Williams or Benjamin Moore color to create a truly tailored look for your clients. You can specify the color you want for your painted cabinet finishes by providing us with the color number and name.
Durable Engineered Finishes
In addition to the classic stained or paint-look cabinet finishes, we offer engineered cabinet finishes applied to high-density wood particle cores. These finishes provide high-performance and many unique looks, ranging from wood grain to high-gloss.
3D Laminates
To make our 3D laminate cabinets, PVC laminate membranes are pressed and wrapped around an engineered board core. These membranes provide consistent coloration and finish across the whole cabinet surface. At Adelphi Kitchens, we use 3D laminates to create our Euro-Contemporary line.
You can choose from various laminates, depending on the final look you want to achieve for your clients. Options range from solid colors in matte or gloss finishes to wood grain and textured 3D laminates. In addition to offering exceptional color consistency, these cabinets provide easy-to-clean surfaces, making them an excellent choice for high-traffic environments.
Textured Melamines
Achieve tactile realism that mirrors wood while maintaining the ease of maintenance of engineered finishes with textured melamines. We construct these cabinets using thermo-textured surface panels overlaid with high-resolution wood grain prints.
Depending on the level of texture you wish to achieve for a particular project, you can choose between two textured melamines. The first is Strata, which has a higher level of texture. The second is SelecTexture, which has more subtle embossing. This material resists scratches and impacts, offering long-lasting beauty in homes, commercial offices, and beyond. For each of the two surface finishes, you can choose nine color options to create the desired look for any project.
High-Gloss Acrylics and Nanotech
Our Level program includes acrylic, wired 2D laminates, and nanotech matte colors. We flat-laminate materials on top of the doors to create the desired look. Our acrylic doors use a colored layer of thermoplastic fused with a transparent acrylic top layer. This process produces an impact-resistant material in a range of color options. Wired laminates are made from a PVC material with a high gloss and unique pattern.
We use FENIX nanotechnology matte material to create opaque, anti-fingerprint surfaces. This finishing technique is ideal for high-traffic areas, such as kitchens. It makes a sleek look with practical benefits.
Tekton Laminate
These doors utilize a high-pressure laminate applied to both the interior and exterior of the cabinet doors. We apply these laminates to Woodbrier, Whitebrier, or Ridgewood boxes, though Brier materials are recommended. Our standard available colors include options from the following categories:
- Solid matte colors
- Mesh and weave designs
- Soft textures
- Bright and bold colors
- Geometric patterns and varied visuals
- Stone looks
- Industrial concrete
- Wood looks
- Metallic looks
In addition to our standard options, you can choose from any Wilsonart laminate color. These finishing options are well-suited for high-traffic environments, ranging from commercial applications to residential installations in areas such as laundry rooms and bathrooms. The wide range of color and design options enables you to create a solution uniquely tailored to your clients’ tastes.
Create a Unique Look With Finish Customization
With Adelphi Kitchens, you have the freedom to completely customize cabinets to your client’s design preferences. These services apply to various paints and stains, enabling you to enhance a basic look and make it stand out.
Distressing
For clients seeking more depth and character in their cabinets, distressing can be an excellent option. It can help you create a cozy and inviting atmosphere within their homes. Here are the distressing services we offer:
- French cutting: Our teams use a small tool, such as a rasp, to expose the undercoat or natural wood beneath a full-cover finish. You may choose a stain undercoat or use this technique to reveal the natural wood color.
- Sand through: Heavy sanding on the edges and corners reveals the natural wood beneath a stained or full cover finish. This technique creates more irregular results and removes more material than French cutting or eased edges.
- Eased edges: We gently soften the finished edges of doors before finishing, creating the appearance of mild imperfections beneath the paint or stain. The effect is less prominent than French cutting or sanding, but can be combined with either technique for added visual impact.
- Dimensional distress: Striking the wood with blunted stones generates a dimensional effect in the cabinet door. The technique will create variation across cabinet items.
If you want an even more distressed look, we can employ heavy distressing techniques, such as sanding, awl holes, gouges, cracks, and dimensional distress. Depending on the look you want to achieve for your client, we can use each technique individually or combine them. We place these distressing techniques randomly across door panels to create a natural look.
Top Coat
Besides distressing, we can also help you customize cabinets for clients using various top coat options. Here are the techniques we use:
- Top coats: We can change our standard semi-gloss top coat to low-sheen, high-sheen, or ultra-flat options, allowing you to create either a matte or glossy look.
- Glazing: We apply a standard glaze in white, black, brown, mocha, or champagne to stains or paints. This wet glaze stands out on corners, raised panels, and non-straight edges, creating a gentle lightening or darkening effect on the underlying finish.
- Brush streaking: This technique is only applicable when using glazing. If you choose brush streaking, we will wipe the glaze off with a brush after application to make the color more prominent and create streaking across the doors’ flat surfaces.
- Highlighting: We use this technique to make the grain stand out. We add a colored grain filler to the wood before applying stain, which sticks in the pores and grain patterns. Then, once we add the stain, the contrasting grain filler creates a stark highlight.
- Striping: We hand-paint white, black, brown, copper, or silver on door panel edges and corners to highlight key architectural features and enhance contours. This technique can help frame doors and emphasize their profiles.
- Cerusing: This technique only applies to our white oak doors. We apply a white dry glaze to the wood grain to showcase the design and add visual interest to the cabinets.
- Fly-speck treatment: We apply white or black paint to a stained or full-finish cabinet surface using a small brush. This technique simulates age and character, replicating the minor blemishes that naturally occur on old furniture.
Specifying Finishes by Application
The application of the cabinets can significantly impact the chosen finishing process. Here are some general recommendations we have for home designers regarding which finishes suit each application:
- Kitchens: The high-heat environment with grease requires a durable yet beautiful solution. Many homeowners prefer wood cabinets for their kitchens, in which case hardwoods like maple or cherry are excellent choices. Kitchen cabinet wood finishes include painting or staining to protect the wood, preserving its long-lasting beauty.
- Bathrooms: Paints can help seal out moisture and prevent swelling in these rooms that often become humid. Laminates can also be a durable option with a seamless edge.
- Laundry rooms: Like bathrooms, these spaces have some moisture. Cabinets may also be used to store various chemicals. Textured melamines or 3D laminates can protect in both situations.
Those working on a commercial project have several unique considerations. You must plan for a higher volume of people than would be present in a residential environment. The best choices are often 3D laminates or acrylics. These solutions create nonporous surfaces that are easier to keep clean and can hold up to higher-traffic environments.
Why Choose Adelphi Kitchens?
We’re more than a standard cabinet manufacturer with limited options. With us, you can fully customize cabinets to meet the needs of each project. Our range of cabinet door finishes and finish customizations enables you to create a unique look in every space. As a designer, you can develop a varied portfolio and leave each client with a style that perfectly suits them.
Our family-owned company has over 80 years of experience in fine custom cabinetry. We produce 60 kitchens a week and complete the work one cabinet at a time. Despite our complete customization, we make cabinets quickly, with lead times averaging 8 weeks. Since our company’s inception, we have established partnerships with over 250 dealers across the nation.
We protect your reputation and your clients’ investments by offering warranty protection. A 10-year warranty covers all cabinets against defects in materials or work. The original purchaser can turn to us for repairs or replacements of cabinets, provided they remain at the original installation site.
Discuss Custom Cabinetry Solutions
We’re ready to work with you to create a custom cabinetry solution for your clients or a commercial project. Get in touch to discuss custom finishing options and become a dealer.