What is Kerf?

Kerf is a design company based in Seattle, Wash., that has inspired a contemporary trend in cabinet construction. What gives Kerf’s designs their distinctive look is that they mostly focus on plywood and plastic laminates with exposed joints lap joints and a slightly unfinished look. The shelving often appears modular and comprised of varying sizes of cubby type spaces throughout the unit. The Kerf designs are uniquely inspired by a push for function’s marriage to materials and form.

Though kerf is an actual company still making original cabinetry designs, their style is being copied by many other manufacturers. The incorporation of Kerf designs usually attempt to present a juxtaposition of refined design against the exposed plywood. The materials are cheap, but a true Kerf design retains an element of refinement that is lacking in many of the knock-off reproductions available from other manufacturers.