You’re choosing semi custom cabinets because they fit your budget yet still give you the look you want, but you want just a wee bit more nuance in your new kitchen design? Go for glaze.

A glaze can give your semi custom cabinets a very different look, no matter which door style you’ve fallen in love with. And if you’re the only one choosing that particular door style with that particular glaze, you have custom cabinets—for a semi custom cabinet price.

Wait! It gets even better, because a glaze is not simply a one-size-fits all approach to customizing your cabinet finish. There are several different types of glazes.

The hand-wiped glaze

With the hand-wiped glaze technique, we quite literally apply the glaze by hand, wiping it over the stain or paint of your cabinets. This gives the whole door a hint of color, with more glaze (and therefore color) in the edges and corners of the cabinet door, where the glaze is harder to wipe away.

The heirloom finish

Heirloom finishes are hand-wiped onto the cabinet doors as we just described above, but then the finish is distressed to give your semi custom cabinets the appearance of age. We sand down the cabinets doors in places that would naturally get wear and tear over time. If you want your kitchen to have a lived-in and much-loved look, consider the heirloom finish.

Pencil glazes

Pencil glazes are not applied like the glazes described above, with glaze wiped on and rubbed off. Instead, pencil glazes are applied in a very deliberate way. It’s kind of like drawing details on to the edges and corners of the kitchen cabinet doors and drawers. The look is much sharper compared to the hand-wiped glazes.

Brushed glazes

If you prefer a sharper, more symmetrical look, consider brushed glazes. As with the pencil glaze, a brushed glaze is applied in a deliberate way, brushed on to the cabinet doors in long strokes so you get consistent vertical brushwork detailing.

To learn more about glazes and finishes, you can read about the many ways we can customize your semi custom cabinets, including custom color paint matching and stains. You can also see an online version of our door style and finish guide, where you can see samples of our stains and glazes.