The term kitchen cabinet has specific political roots going back to 1831 when then President Andrew Jackson had a collection of ‘unofficial' political advisors (versus the ‘parlor' cabinet) whom he consulted after expelling six members of his official Cabinet.

Today of course we recognize the term kitchen cabinet to be a cabinet that is in our kitchen that holds such items as dishes, glasses, pots and pans as well as food items. Other built in cabinets in kitchens might hold large appliances (dishwashers, garbage disposals) and depending on the design of your kitchen, may have places for vacuum cleaners, brooms, wastepaper baskets and a plethora of other items. Often when entering a kitchen we find that stoves, ovens, refrigerators and other larger appliances are integrated into the cabinets.

Modern kitchen cabinets are made from a variety of products, including laminates, hard woods, soft woods, aluminum and other metals and are typically the basis for the overall design for the kitchen. Often, especially when building new homes, the designer will showcase the kitchen and typically works with the home buyer to determine how the kitchen will be used before determining the kitchen cabinet layouts.

Two Way Galley Kitchens (double file) with opposite walls holding stove and sink (and cabinets) and the other holding the refrigerator and additional cabinet space. Lesser used "L" kitchens have cabinets that may be on adjacent walls, with a work area in the center and a table on a third wall, or "U" shaped kitchens with cabinets on 3 walls, and a sink at the base. Modern kitchens (unlike in prior years) are much more informal spaces and allow people to eat in them. There are many types of kitchen cabinets: A built in cabinet as the name implies is immovable and is attached to a wall (and may even be a floor to ceiling cabinet). Because a built in cabinet takes more labor, time and skill, they are typically much more expensive than a freestanding cabinet would be. Kitchen cabinets may be frameless (no frame around the front of the cabinet) or it may have a face frame which is typically an aesthetic preference of the owner of the cabinet. Today, we have choices of stock cabinets (those that are mass produced and available at most home building supply stores), semi custom made cabinets (those that are partially designed with some matching characteristics) which allow the purchaser to select door type (i.e. wood, glass, laminate, etc), or fully custom made. If you use a lot of spices, you may opt to have your spice racks built into the doors of these special designed cabinets. The possibilities for kitchen cabinets are endless, only limited by your own desires and imagination.