The edge that lifts

The face of a cabinet is what gets photographed. The edge is what gets used. Every time a shutter closes, a hip brushes it, or a cloth runs along the sink run, the band at the rim is doing the work. If that band is thin, poorly glued, or cut short of the corner, it will lift. Once it lifts, moisture has a path, and the repair is no longer a wipe.

This is not a secret of any one workshop. It is why a drawing should name the edge as well as the finish, and why a visit to see a sample should include turning the piece over.

Look at the corner

Run a finger around a sample shutter. The join at the corner should be tight enough that you do not catch a nail. A gap you can see in the shop will collect oil in a kitchen. On a veneer door the edge is also where the grain either turns honestly or is faked with a strip that yellows first.

Ask what happens at the sink and the hob. Those two stretches age faster than a wardrobe in a dry room. Putting the same edge everywhere is simpler. It is not always wiser.

Hardware that can be tuned

Hinges and drawer channels loosen. That is ordinary. What matters is whether they can be adjusted after installation, and whether the same people who fitted them will come back. A beautiful shutter that sits 4 millimetres out because nobody will own the hinge is not finished work.

Soft-close is a comfort. Adjustment is the part that keeps the gap even in the second year.

Who you call

If design, making and fitting are three different numbers on your phone, an edge that lifts becomes a tour of vendors. Ask, before you approve the drawing, who comes if a band lifts or a channel drops. The answer should be one team, not a chain.

We would rather you see a workshop edge in daylight than a rendered kitchen at night. The photograph is the easy part.