Galaxy Horizon Valance Cabinets

Look at a typical sink wall. Two wall cabinets, one either side of the window, with their inside ends facing each other across the opening. A valance fixed between those ends, closing the top of the gap. Below, the sink base, usually right under the window. And along the top, the crown running across the valance to tie the run together.

Now think about where the light lands. The inside ends of the two uppers face across the window, so low morning or evening sun rakes straight along them. The valance faces into the room with the window behind and below it, so it is mostly lit from behind and from the side. The sink base and its doors are lit from above and in front whenever the sun is high. Each of those surfaces gets a different amount and angle of daylight, every day, for years.

It is worth quoting directly, because it is plain. The warranty lists colour change from "exposure to UV light, smoke, certain household cleaners, sunlight" among the things it does not treat as defects, and it says that colours "may darken or lighten over time". Its spec book adds that, for stained finishes, variations in colour between parts "are considered normal".

That is not unusual for a cabinet maker, and it is not a claim that this stain fades quickly. We have found no reports of this finish fading or yellowing in particular. It simply means that if the window wall ages differently from the rest of the kitchen, that is treated as how wood behaves rather than as a fault. The time to plan for it is before installation.

Before any of the long-term question, there is the daily one. A homeowner on Houzz with this finish and a partly sunny kitchen described it as looking "cold or dull" on overcast days and warm in the sun. A designer who sells it said it reads warm or cool depending on what surrounds it. Fabuwood’s own copy moves between "soft pink undertones" and "misty greys and silvery undertones".

All of that is concentrated on the window wall. At midday, with the sun high and outside, the valance sits in silhouette against a bright window and reads darker and greyer than the doors on the side walls. In the evening, with a low sun raking across the upper ends, those ends glow warm and pinkish. On a grey day the whole wall goes cooler and flatter.

None of this is a problem. It is the reason the finish is called adaptable. But it means the window wall is the right place to test the door sample ($35.00): stand it on the sill, and look at it at breakfast, at lunch and at dinner, before deciding.

If the window faces south or west and gets hours of direct sun, some simple steps reduce how much reaches the cabinets. They are general good practice for any wood near a window, not something Fabuwood requires.

• A window film that blocks ultraviolet. Clear UV-filtering films are made for exactly this and are close to invisible. Ask a glazier or film installer what suits your glass.
• A blind or shade, used when the sun is on the window. A roller or Roman blind that fits inside the window recess can sit behind the valance and be pulled down at the brightest time of day.
• Rotate what sits on the sill. Pots and bottles in front of the lower cabinet faces cast the same shadow every day. Moving them now and then avoids a sharp outline in the finish years later.
• Clean gently. The warranty also names certain household cleaners among causes of colour change, and the window wall is where cleaning sprays are used most. Mild soap and water, blotted dry, per Fabuwood’s care guidance.

The width to match is the opening between the two uppers, measured cabinet side to cabinet side, not the window itself. Where no width fits, the 96-inch straight tall valance can be cut down; ask us about the height and depth of each before you choose.

Whatever you choose, order it with the cabinets on either side. The valance sits between two uppers and is read as part of them, and Fabuwood’s warranty is clear that later parts "may not match … existing cabinets". A valance added a year after the kitchen, into a wall that has already had a year of sun, has two reasons to differ from its neighbours. The valance page lists these parts, and the wall cabinets either side are with the rest of the collection.

On most window walls the crown does not stop at the uppers; it carries on across the top of the valance, so the whole wall reads as one run. That turns the valance into part of the crown’s run as well, and it is a good place to use what the crown page on this collection covers about joints and grain.

Over the window is the one place a crown splice should never go, because it is the centre of the wall everyone looks at. So plan the crown so a single stick spans the window and the valance, with any joints out over the uppers either side, ideally above a cabinet seam. On a wide opening with a long straight tall valance, that may mean a full stick used almost entirely for one span, and the takeoff should allow for it.

Sort that stick with care. It sits over the valance and between the two uppers, so it is compared with three other parts at once, in the brightest light in the room. Choose it in daylight from the whole delivery. The crown molding page has the profiles.

Years on, if the window wall has shifted a little compared to the side walls, the fix is not to replace the valance on its own. A new valance would be a new production run in a wall that has aged, and it would stand out more than the gradual change did. It is usually better to leave the wall as a whole, since it has changed together.

Small knocks and wear on the valance or the upper ends are touched up with the touch-up kit ($62.40), which contains a fill stick, marker and scraper. Fabuwood does not make spray cans for stains. If there is a bigger problem, call us on (609) 900-3358 with photos taken in daylight, and we will talk through what is possible.

For the lighting side of the window wall, a light fitted behind the valance to light the sink, see the light rail page, and for the whole wall drawn out, our free design service shows it as an elevation.