Design guide: Cabinetry in FFXIV

If you’ve wandered around the Design section here on the Girly Geek Blog at any point, you’ve probably noticed that I have a soft spot for designing kitchens in Final Fantasy XIV. I don’t know what it is; maybe the fact that so much of it has to come from imagination.

This is especially true for cabinetry—there aren’t really any good furnishings for it, so often, it ends up being a thoughtful overlay of multiple different furnishings.

So today, let’s go over a few of my favourite tips and tricks for creating realistic cabinetry in FFXIV.

Consider your slots.

I know I’ve said this a lot over the course of this month, but it really is essential to building your dream kitchen—and anything else you want to build, too! Knowing how many slots you have available helps you decide how many you can allocate to a kitchen, which determines how complex you can get both in terms of cabinet detail and quantity.

For example, I typically find that kitchen cabinetry takes upward of 30 slots. And my recent Cali mod kitchen build was almost 40 for relatively simple cabinets!

Decide on your design style.

This is where I love to find some real-life inspiration—it makes designing realistic-looking kitchen cabinetry so much easier. Though not all styles will be totally doable (I’ve yet to find a way to do high-gloss, for example), many of them will be at least mostly doable—so find styles you love and see how you could do them.

For example, arranging white rectangular partitions can make a lovely modern look, whereas layering Hingan bookshelves and wood slat partitions is a perfect technique for shaker-style doors.

Know what you'll need to build around.

You’ve probably got an idea of what you’d like to have in your kitchen—things like an oven, a sink, or a fridge. When you’re planning your cabinetry, be sure to consider how you’ll work around these things, because the right planning can help you minimize the number of slots you’ll need to use!

And don't forget the details!

When it comes to cabinetry, I always find it’s better to add more detail if you can. After all, the more your visitors can see, the less they’ll need to imagine. Think about how you want to incorporate things like spaces between your doors and drawers, hardware, and even colours.

For example, using a darker colour on another furnishing behind a door gives the impression of depth—and handles communicate how you envision a particular door being used.