Door styles and finishes.

A five-piece door with a recessed centre panel and a square-edged frame. Shaker survives because the proportions are adjustable: a narrow rail reads contemporary, a wider one reads traditional, and the same door works in a 1920s bungalow and a new build. It is the safest choice on this list, in the useful sense rather than the dull one.

Frameless construction removes the face frame entirely, so the door covers the full front of the box. The practical gain is access: drawers run the full internal width, and there is no frame edge to reach past. The visual gain is the tight, consistent reveal across a long run, which is difficult to achieve any other way.

Work that does not correspond to any door style because the piece is designed from the room outward: curved returns, integrated seating, wall paneling that absorbs a doorway, storage built into an awkward roof pitch. This is where most of the design time goes, and where the difference between fitted and built-in actually shows.

Stained and clear finishes that leave the grain visible. Cherry, walnut and oak each move differently with light, and each ages differently: cherry darkens noticeably in the first year, walnut lightens slightly, oak stays close to where it started. We show samples in the actual room before committing, because showroom lighting is misleading about all three.