What is a shaker kitchen?

Almost all of us have heard about the shaker style at some point. It represents a special concept in the production of furniture for the kitchen and the whole house. Household items created in this style are characterized by simple and elegant design, functionality and reliability. They have long become an example of classics that never go out of fashion, let's recall the history of their development in a little more detail.

A Brief History of shaker style cabinets

The basic principles for the production of furniture of this type were formed at the end of the 18th - to the beginning of the 19th century. Shaker-style developers are representatives of one of the directions of the Christian religion - the Society of Believers in the Second Coming of Christ. Their unofficial name was the word Shakers - a playful folk nickname that emphasizes the earnest behavior of the members of the Society during prayers and religious rites.

Believers in the Second Coming of Christ sought to live apart and simply. They avoided excessive pretentiousness and decorativeness in clothes and everyday life. The same applies to furniture as well. Instead of carving or expensive curly fittings - simple and effective solutions, functional richness with a minimalist design.

All items were created by hand and were samples of the highest quality. You can see the original furniture of those times in New York, on display in the Shakers' Lounge, located in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

In our time, the shaker style is far from being forgotten. It is actively used in the production of household items and interior design. The most famous examples are shaker doors and modern shaker-style cabinets. Let's try to figure out why furniture standards from the century before last are still so popular.
 

What are shaker-style cabinets?

This direction of furniture production is often used to create simple, roomy, and beautiful cabinets: floor and hanging, large and small. And most often equipment in shaker style can be found in the kitchen.

The uniting element of the entire furniture concept is the use of specially designed doors. A recessed panel with a rail profile edging that is flush with the cabinet surface, and simple and strict lines - these are the distinguishing features of shaker doors. The same principles apply in the production of interior and exterior doors.

The fact that the shaker style almost completely lacks decorative elements, carvings, various ornaments, and other decorations makes it attractive from several sides at once:

• minimalist design blends perfectly with the rest of the interior equipment without taking all the attention;
• it is unpretentious in cleaning and maintenance. Flat surfaces with a small number of recesses simply cannot get very dirty, their cleanliness can be monitored easily and naturally;
• geometric simplicity makes the interior with shaker-style furniture visually light and full of air.

Another essential advantage of this style is its timeless stance. Shaker-style cabinet doors and other interior items made in this design concept still look as attractive after about 250 years since their invention and development.
 

Modern kitchen-shaker: what are the advantages

Nowadays, the shaker style is most widely used in the production of kitchen furniture. As mentioned above, such furnishings are easy to keep clean, and you do not need to spend a lot of time cleaning.

They are less subject to wear and tear than designs with many decorative elements, protruding parts, or glass panels. Shaker kitchen cabinets can maintain a presentable appearance for a long time. And in the case of renovation of the premises, they can quite organically fit into the style of the new interior design. Unless they require light renovation, for example, painting in a different color or partial rearrangement.

Modern shaker kitchens are often light in color, which gives volume to the space even in a small room. This furniture is universal: it is suitable for arranging mini-kitchens in studio-type apartments, and for full-fledged kitchens in large houses.

What do shaker cabinets produced nowadays look like? They are very functional, they can be a storage of various small household items: dishes, and other kitchen utensils, and they can hide large household appliances inside: washing machines, refrigerators, freezers, etc.

In the photo above, we see the cottage's kitchen, equipped with shaker kitchen cabinets. Simple and beautiful lines and the white color of the furniture make the room voluminous and spacious while maintaining its full functionality and homeliness.

Despite the popularity of light pastel shades, shaker kitchen cabinets are often produced in natural wood colors. The structural material is either solid wood with a protective coating or MDF, pasted over with a special polymer film. This color scheme makes the room cozy and warm and is also perfect for equipping your favorite kitchen.

One of the main advantages of shaker-style kitchen furniture is its price. If you purchase simple white cabinets constructed from MDF, you can make the arrangement of the kitchen space relatively inexpensive.

For reasonable money, you get a modern shaker kitchen that looks great and meets all design and safety requirements.

Invented over 2 centuries ago, the shaker style was well thought out. It retains its appeal even now, becoming an example of a classic combination of beauty and functional richness, as well as the ability to fit into almost any interior.