Buying wardrobes and kitchen cabinetry in Foshan
Cabinetry is the category where Chinese factories have moved furthest upmarket, and the one where a specification error is hardest to fix after arrival.
Foshan makes cabinetry at every level, from flat-pack wardrobes to fitted kitchens indistinguishable from European product. What separates them is not the door you are looking at but the box behind it and the edge you cannot see.
Cabinetry is also unforgiving: a sofa that is 5 cm out is still a sofa, a kitchen that is 5 cm out is a joinery problem on site.
The carcass decides the product
Ask what the box is made of and how thick. 18 mm is the standard for carcass panels; 15 or 16 mm appears in cheaper work and shows as flexing shelves and racking under load. Backs should be at least 5 mm and preferably grooved into the sides rather than pinned on.
Material matters by room. Moisture-resistant board, usually identifiable by a green or blue dye, belongs in kitchens, laundries and bathrooms, and plain particleboard does not. For humid markets specify moisture-resistant throughout, including wardrobes.
Then specify the edge banding: PVC or ABS, 1 mm on visible edges, 0.4 mm minimum elsewhere, all edges banded including internal and rear. Laser or hot-air edge banding gives a seamless join and is worth asking for; glued banding with a visible line is normal at mid price and lifts first in steam.
Door fronts, in order of price
Melamine faced is the volume product: durable, cheap, limited in depth of finish. Good for wardrobes and rental-grade kitchens.
Acrylic and high-gloss looks expensive and scratches easily; specify a protective film on delivery and expect the film to stay on until installation.
PET and matt lacquer are the current mid-to-upper mainstream: anti-fingerprint matt finishes have improved dramatically and are what most European-look Chinese kitchens use.
Painted MDF gives the shaker and classical looks; ask about the paint system and the number of coats, because painted doors are where cheap finishing shows fastest.
Veneer and solid timber sit at the top and bring all the colour-matching questions that come with natural material.
Measurement, and the trap
Chinese cabinetry is designed around Chinese module sizes and Chinese appliance dimensions. European appliances assume 600 mm; American assume different again; and a kitchen designed on Chinese modules will not accept your client's oven without modification.
Give the factory your appliance schedule with model numbers before the design starts, not after. Specify carcass heights, plinth heights, worktop thickness and the finished floor level assumption. And confirm whether dimensions in the drawings are carcass or overall, because the two differ by the door thickness and that is the error that reaches site.
For fitted work, order one complete sample unit — one base cabinet with door, drawer and hardware — before the full order. It costs the price of one cabinet and it answers every question a drawing cannot.
Packing cabinetry
Flat-packed is standard and correct for freight, and it is where damage happens. Specify corner protection on every panel, individual wrapping of door fronts with the finished face protected, hardware bagged and labelled per unit, and assembly instructions in your language with your part numbers.
Insist that every carton is labelled with the unit code and the room, and that the packing list maps cartons to units. A kitchen arriving as ninety unlabelled cartons is a week of someone's life.
Order spare panels for the pieces most likely to be damaged — worktops, tall door fronts, glass shelves — at two to five per cent. Replacing one door front by air freight costs more than the spares for the whole order.
What to check at inspection
Assemble one unit at the factory in front of the inspector. Check that holes line up, that the door sits square with even gaps, that the drawer runs smoothly and that the edge banding is complete on hidden edges too.
Check colour consistency across doors from different production batches by laying several side by side under daylight, and check that the grain direction is consistent where the design assumes it.
Then photograph the assembled unit and keep it with the order file. It is the reference for the next container, and cabinetry is a category where you will almost certainly reorder.
