The Shaker door, slimmed down: Why Skinny Shaker works so well

A slimmer frame gives the classic Shaker door a cleaner, lighter, more modern feel – while keeping all its warmth and craft.

Shaker doors have been around for a very long time indeed, and with good reason – they’re beautiful, timeless and they work in all kinds of looks from traditional farmhouse to contemporary eclectic.

Skinny Shaker is a newer idea: take the familiar framed Shaker door and slim the frame right down. The effect of that seemingly small change is surprisingly powerful; it completely changes the feel, giving the doors a cleaner, lighter feeling – you might say more ‘architectural’. But it still retains a lot of that human, handmade feel of the traditional Shaker.

Skinny Shaker is popping up in lots of kitchens at the moment –- but for Naked, our take on it is not about following a trend, but rather introducing a lovely option for proportion and line.

The style sits beautifully between a slab door and a traditional Shaker: cleaner and lighter than a full framed door, but with more shadow and craft than a completely flat front.

What changes when the frame gets slimmer?

Quite a lot, actually.

A standard Shaker door usually has a wider frame around the central panel. Skinny Shaker reduces that frame, which changes the proportions of the whole door so that the lines become finer, with a more delicate shadow. The overall effect is cleaner.

As Jayne Everett, Naked’s Head of Design, puts it, Skinny Shaker “looks a lot more modern than a normal Shaker”. It also changes where the handle sits, and works particularly well in sleeker kitchen designs where you do not want too many extra lines fighting with one another.

So it’s not a dramatic reinvention, but a small adjustment in proportion goes a long way.

Coleridge: Skinny Shaker in the kitchen

We used our Skinny Shaker in Coleridge: a modern, textural kitchen that combines unstained walnut, scalloped details, a freestanding island, rich colour and a handsome cocktail cabinet (pictured)

With all that going on, Coleridge is not trying to be a classic Shaker kitchen with a slimmer door. It’s more eclectic and layered. The Skinny Shaker gives the cabinetry a crispness that lets it sit comfortably with the walnut, the scalloping, the colour and the looser, furniture-like feeling of the island.

The door still has the craft and presence of a framed design, but it does not pull the whole room back into a traditional look – it works brilliantly with modern materials, bolder colour, stained timber and more architectural detailing.

Beyond the kitchen

With more and more homes being designed as a whole, we talk a lot about the ‘little threads’ running from room to room that give the house a coherent feel, without it all matching. It might be a colour that returns, a material, or a handle style.

Skinny Shaker is a great option for one of those recurring threads because it works so well beyond the kitchen. The same slimmer framed style can work beautifully in wardrobes, dressing rooms, utilities, boot rooms, pantries and fitted furniture. It can feel a little different in each setting but there’s a theme that ties it all together.

The Grove Park wardrobes (pictured) are a good example: bespoke Skinny Shaker used away from the kitchen, where it gives the joinery detail and softness, yet without making it feel busy.

A small frame with a lot of flexibility

Because every Naked kitchen is bespoke, Skinny Shaker can be painted, combined with timber, used in one part of a kitchen and not another, paired with different handles, or carried into other rooms.

We think that’s much more interesting than a trend, which is really just someone else’s look applied to your home.

Bespoke design, on the other hand, says: here is a useful idea, so where does it belong? How much of it do we need? What should it sit next to? Should it be the main element of the room, or just one thread within it?

Skinny Shaker is great for giving you options: it’s a softer alternative to a handleless Slab look, but can also give a more traditional scheme a cleaner, modern edge.

And it proves how much difference a small detail can make: a few millimetres can be all it takes to make a familiar design feel completely fresh.

Inspired? Whatever your style, we can cabinetry uniquely tailored to what you love and the way you live. Get started today.

See also:

Contemporary Shaker kitchens – how a traditional cabinet style can look very modern

What is a Shaker Kitchen?