A cabinet is usually a box-shaped piece of furniture

Furniture

Furniture is the mass noun for the movable objects intended to support various human activities such as seating and sleeping in beds, to hold objects at a convenient height for work using horizontal surfaces above the ground, or to store things...

 with doors or drawers for storing miscellaneous items. Some cabinets stand alone while others are built into a wall or are attached to it like a medicine cabinet. Cabinets are typically made of wood or, now increasingly, of synthetic materials.

Cabinets are manufactured in two basic box constructions: frameless or face frame. In face frame cabinets, supporting frames attach to the front of the cabinet box. This frame is usually 1 1/2 inches wide and made from wood. Mounted on this face frame is the door. Frameless cabinets, on the other hand, have no supporting front frame. The doors attach directly to the insides of the cabinet box.

Cabinets usually have one or more doors on the front, which are mounted with door hardware

Door furniture

Door furniture or Door hardware refers to any of the items that are attached to a door or a drawer to enhance its functionality or appearance....

, and occasionally a lock

Lock (device)

A lock is a mechanical or electronic fastening device that is released by a physical object or secret information , or combination of more than one of these....

. Many cabinets have doors and drawers or only drawers. Short cabinets often have a finished surface on top that can be used for display, or as a working surface such as the countertop

Countertop

Countertop usually refers to a horizontal worksurface in kitchens or other food preparation areas, bathrooms or lavatories, and workrooms in general. It is frequently installed upon and supported by cabinets...

s found in kitchens.

A cabinet intended for clothing storage is usually called a wardrobe

Wardrobe

A Wardrobe is a cabinet used for storing clothes.Wardrobe may also refer to:* Wardrobe , a full set of multiple clothing items* Wardrobe , part of royal administration in medieval England...

or an armoire (or a closet if built in). In previous centuries, such a cabinet was also known as a linen-press

Linen-press

Traditionally, a linen-press is a cabinet, usually of woods such as oak, walnut, or mahogany, and designed for storing sheets, table-napkins, clothing, and other textiles. Such Linen-presses were made chiefly in the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries and are now considered decorative examples of...

. In British usage, a wardrobe was occasionally referred to as an oakley

Oakley

Oakley may refer to:* Oakley, Inc., an eyewear manufacturer* Baron Oakley, a hereditary title-United Kingdom:*Oakley, Bedfordshire, England*Oakley, Buckinghamshire, England*Oakley, Dorset, England*Oakley, Fife, Scotland...

, because of the oak wood used in its construction. In India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

, a cabinet is often referred to as an almirah or almari.

See also

• Bathroom cabinet
  Bathroom cabinet
  A bathroom cabinet is a cabinet in a bathroom. It is often placed above a sink or toilet and is made to hold hygiene products, toiletries, and medications....
  
  
• Cabinet making
  Cabinet making
  Cabinet making is the practice of using various woodworking skills to create cabinets, shelving and furniture.Cabinet making involves techniques such as creating appropriate joints, dados, bevels, chamfers and shelving systems, the use of finishing tools such as routers to create decorative...
  
  
• Chifforobe
• Closet
  Closet
  A closet is a small and enclosed space, a cabinet, or a cupboard in a house or building used for general storage or hanging clothes. A closet for food storage is usually referred to as a pantry...
  
  
• Commode
  Commode
  A commode, commode with legs, or commode on legs is any of several pieces of furniture. The word commode comes from the French word for "convenient" or "suitable", which in turn comes from the Latin adjective commodus, with similar meanings.Originally, in French furniture, a commode introduced...
  
  
• Cupboard
  Cupboard
  A cupboard or press is a type of cabinet, often made of wood, used indoors to store household objects such as food, crockery, textiles and liquor, and protect them from dust,vermin and dirt....
  
  
• Hoosier cabinet
  Hoosier cabinet
  A Hoosier cabinet is a type of cupboard popular in the first decades of the 20th century. Named after the Hoosier Manufacturing Co. of New Castle, Indiana, they were also made by several other companies, most also located in Indiana....
  
  
• Linen-press
  Linen-press
  Traditionally, a linen-press is a cabinet, usually of woods such as oak, walnut, or mahogany, and designed for storing sheets, table-napkins, clothing, and other textiles. Such Linen-presses were made chiefly in the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries and are now considered decorative examples of...
  
  
• Nightstand
  Nightstand
  A nightstand, alternatively night table or bedside table, is a small table or cabinet designed to stand beside a bed or elsewhere in a bedroom. It serves the role of a coffee table during nighttime hours, at a persons bedside....
  
  
• Pantry
  Pantry
  A pantry is a room where food, provisions or dishes are stored and served in an ancillary capacity to the kitchen. The derivation of the word is from the same source as the Old French term paneterie; that is from pain, the French form of the Latin panis for bread.In a late medieval hall, there were...
  
  
• Wardrobe
  Wardrobe
  A Wardrobe is a cabinet used for storing clothes.Wardrobe may also refer to:* Wardrobe , a full set of multiple clothing items* Wardrobe , part of royal administration in medieval England...
  
  
• Under-cabinet lighting
  Under-Cabinet Lighting
  Under-cabinet lighting is typically added under a cabinet, shelf, or similar surface in order to produce localized lighting on a work surface. Under-cabinet lighting can also double as a night light.- Types of under-cabinet lighting :...
  
  
• Cabinet (room)
  Cabinet (room)
  A cabinet was one of a number of terms for a private room in the domestic architecture and that of palaces of early modern Europe, a room serving as a study or retreat, usually for a man. The cabinet would be furnished with books and works of art, and sited adjacent to his bedchamber, the...