types of glass for kitchen cabinets

6 Popular Types of Glass for Kitchen Cabinets

Glass cabinets can add a welcome touch of class to your kitchen design, including traditional kitchen styles up to ultra-modern designs that make the displays appealing.

Depending on the specifications of the glass cabinet, the glass will vary in weight, thicknesses, texture, and appearance.

Luckily, this means that you can mix and match to find the perfect complement to your style.

Types of Glass for Kitchen Cabinets

There are several different types of glass for kitchen cabinets, including transparent glass, textured glass, frosted glass, seeded glass, leaded glass, sumiglass, and many more. You can put glass in the upper cabinets, lower cabinets, or both in your kitchen, depending on your individual design and the style you want to achieve.

Maybe you’re upgrading your kitchen cabinets, or you’re remodeling and trying to figure out which look you want to go for. Whatever the case, we’ll help you narrow down the perfect type of kitchen glass to go in your cabinets that you’ll love for years to come.

Where to Put Your Glass Cabinet Doors

Before you decide on the type of glass, you want to decide where you want to put your new glass cabinet doors.

They’re most common on the upper levels of your cabinets for several very practical reasons, including:

  • Heavier pans and pots in the lower cabinets aren’t very decorative
  • The glass is easier to see
  • Lower cabinets are more prone to bangs and bumps while running a higher risk of damage

Good Placement for Upper Glass Cabinetry

Whether you choose to have pure upper glass cabinets or not is a personal choice you’ll make for your kitchen.

However, many people choose to go for the less is more approach to it, and they choose to designate a few cabinets as accent pieces with glass doors.

A few common areas include:

  • Cabinets that frame the kitchen sink or stove
  • Corner cabinets
  • End cabinets
  • Peninsula cabinets
  • Smaller top cabinets between the upper cabinets and the ceiling

Good Placement for Lower Glass Cabinetry

You will occasionally find lower cabinets that have glass doors on them if they face out into other rooms as you’d get with buffets or kitchen bars.

It’s a good idea to consider a much more durable material like plexiglass for your bottom cabinets. This is still very attractive while having the durability that glass doesn’t offer, and it’s better equipped to come unscathed through damage.

Popular Types of Glass for Cabinets

There are a few popular options available when you look for glass for your kitchen cabinets, and we picked out the top six choices below for you to consider and compare.

1. Strong and Sturdy Option – Transparent Glass

Transparent glass is very popular because it comes with different variances while being more affordable. It can be elegant and decorative while suiting a huge range of kitchen styles since it allows you to display your contents.

If you want this choice, it should be a flat-paneled, toughened glass and simply appealing to help guard against easy smashing.

2. Classy Option – Textured Glass

Textured glass comes in many different patterns and designs, including pebbled, floral, wavy, ribbed, reeded, aquatic, fluted, yacare, rain, and arctic.

It can be more translucent depending on the density you pick out, and it offers an older look because it was popular in traditional kitchen cabinets.

The patterns add a nice aesthetic appearance to your kitchen, and you can design to any style you want.

3. Distorted View Option – Frosted Glass

Frosted glass will lend you a very distorted view that lets you see shapes and colors through it without seeing what is actually inside.

It gets the translucent quality from grit or sandblasting that gives it a clean, cool, and sleek look that elegantly matches a modern kitchen cabinet’s sleek stainless steel finish.

It’s common to use this type of glass to partially hide the contents of your cabinets, and you can easily mount a puck light on the cabinet to light up the glass from inside. Also, it’s great at masking splashes and fingerprints.

4. Artsy and Seamless Option – Leaded Glass

Leaded glass is nice if you have a more modern kitchen design, and it features hundreds of small pieces that join to give it an appealing look.

It’s nicknamed crystal glass due to the makeup and looks, and it has a heavy metal with a tint that makes the glass look like an art project.

You can easily design leaded glass to suit your own preferences in terms of art glass, color, and placement, and you can easily add a backlight to make it look more attractive.

5. Stylish Option – Sumiglass

This glass gets made from several layers of compressed materials that have two or more panes to give it a very decorative look and feel.

It’s a solid choice for your kitchen because it offers high-class glass equipment, and it features advanced and exclusive technology that ensures it forms a permanent bond between each attached glass pane.

You can design it to your preferences and pick from a wide range of colors, and this gives each cabinet a very stylish look.

6. Vintage Option – Seeded Glass

Seeded glass is very visually similar to textured glass with a more vintage look, and it’s been in use for decades. You’ll get touches of big, average, or tiny bubbles in the glass, and this is where it got its name.

This type of glass is a great fit for more modern kitchen designs, and it lets you see the colors and shapes behind the glass without seeing everything. You can mount puck lights at the top of the cabinet to make it look even more attractive.

Why You Should Use Patterned Over Clear Glass on Kitchen Cabinets

When you want to compromise between solid cabinets and open shelving, glass is a great way to meet in the middle.

They allow you to showcase anything you have inside them while protecting your plates or cups from dust and debris. However, you have more choices available than just transparent glass.

The different kinds of glass are more decorative and come with other benefits than you’d get from clear glass.

This type of glass has a treatment to make them not as transparent, and we’ve picked out the biggest reasons you’ll want to consider them below.

Increased Privacy Levels

A lot of times, people like to have 100% transparent cabinets because they allow them to display their china or utensils clearly, and it’s popular amongst people who are very organized.

If you’re not completely organized, the transparent glass will be a chore for maintaining the appearance.

A translucent cabinet door still allows you to see the general shape and color of your items, but they can be slightly disorganized, and no one will know.

More Decorative Appeal

Unlike transparent glass, frosted glass will distribute light evenly. So, you can use it for any glass cabinet you like as decorations or embossments without worrying about having shaded areas.

When you have the correct installation with this glass, it’ll make your space elegant enough to survive outgoing trends for years.

Bottom Line

There are several different types of glass that you can pick out for your kitchen cabinets, and it’s easy to find one that goes perfectly well with your decor.

We gave you six options with the looks they’d complement the best, so you can use this guide to narrow down your choices and get a gorgeous finished kitchen.

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