Exterior cabinet doors and drawers

Abstract

An outdoors cabinet includes a door and a drawer which when closed prevent liquids from windy rain or counter top spills from entering into the cabinet or drawer. The door includes a frame having a back-side face which includes a groove at a top thereof. Similarly, the drawer includes a front-panel having a back-side which also includes a groove at a top thereof. When the door and/or drawer is closed shut against the cabinet's exterior surface, the frame and/or front-panel overlaps the cabinet's exterior surface about the door, and their respective grooves project through the cabinet's exterior surface into the cabinet. Configured in this way, when the door and/or drawer is closed shut against the cabinet's exterior surface, the door's and/or drawer's grooves respectively prevent liquids from windy rain or counter top spills from entering the cabinet or the drawer.

Description

[0001] This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 60 / 634,673 filed on Dec. 10, 2004.BACKGROUND [0002] 1. Technical Field [0003] The present invention relates generally to household type cabinets, and, more particularly, to such cabinets as adapted for outdoor use. [0004] 2. Description of Background Art [0005] There exists a well-established trade for fabricating kitchen and bathroom cabinets both by custom cabinet-making shops and highly mechanized standard cabinet fabrication facilities. Presently, cabinet manufacturers predominantly use natural wood and wood-derivative products such as plywood, veneered multi-density fiber board (“MDF”) and pressboard for indoor cabinets. [0006] Conventional interior cabinet designs are not readily transferable for outdoor use because additional design considerations must be given to rain diversion and stability in wind. [0007] Outdoor kitchens heretofore have been built using stainless-steel doors and drawers,...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0021] Briefly, disclosed herein is a cabinet which is adapted for use outdoors and locatable on a supported structure, and resembles a conventional interior cabinet. The disclosure also includes a door and a drawer for the cabinet which when closed shut are adapted for preventing liquids from windy rain or counter top spills from entering into the cabinet or the drawer.

[0022] The disclosed door includes a frame formed by frame pieces which enclose a center panel. The frame pieces and the center panel are formed from a maintenance-free material that needs no painting or superficial maintenance. When the door is closed shut against the cabinet's exterior surface, the frame overlaps the exterior surface of the cabinet about the door. Also, the door has a back-side face at a top thereof that includes a groove which, when the door is closed shut against the cabinet's exterior surface, projects through the exterior surface into the cabinet and extends horizontally across the door's back-side face. Configured in this way, when the door is closed shut against the cabinet's exterior surface, the

Problems solved by technology

Conventional interior cabinet designs are not readily transferable for outdoor use because additional design considerations must be given to rain diversion and stability in wind.

These steel cabinets are expensive and bulky.

Furthermore, they consume much more space than would be required by more conventional cabinet designs.

The weight characteristics of stainless steel cabinets alone preclude their use for outdoor kitchens located on supported structures such as second-story decks.

There also presently exist cabinets that are made from injection-molded plastic, but they are hollow in structure and have rounded edges and corners due to constraints imposed by injection molding.

Such cabinets are being sold only for storage cabinets because they just lack an appearance that mimics interior cabinet designs.

Such cabinets also lack exposed drawers.

The problem with such cabinet doors is that if the veneer is punctured,

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