Galaxy Indigo 4 Drawer Base Cabinets

The three sizes are GI DB15-4 at $780.00, GI DB18-4 at $799.50 and GI DB21-4 at $832.00. Each has four five-piece fronts about 7½″ tall, with solid-wood frames around ⅜″ MDF centre panels, painted and factory-finished. Every front has four outside edges plus the inner profile around its recessed panel, so a single box presents sixteen outside edges between knee and ankle.

Paint is thinnest on an edge and takes the hardest knocks there: a pot handle, a vacuum head, a shoe. On a white front a small chip shows the pale primer and wood beneath and hardly anyone notices. On a flat slate navy the same chip shows as a pale fleck, easy to see from standing height. It is the one real maintenance difference between this finish and a white one, and most of the advice below comes back to it.

Navy is not a hide-everything colour, and it is not a show-everything colour either. It sits in the middle, with a pattern that is worth knowing in advance.

The takeaway: navy is easy on the everyday handling marks that make white kitchens look tired, and hard on anything pale, whether dust, flour, mineral spots or chips. A four-drawer bank in a baking corner will need wiping more often than one beside the range.

A shaker front is a frame around a panel set slightly back, so the top edge of each bottom rail forms a small inward ledge. A four-drawer bank has four of these stacked one above another, plus the top edge of every front. Dust and crumbs settle on them, and on navy they collect into a pale line you notice when the light comes in low from a window.

Clean them the dry way first. Run a soft, dry microfiber cloth or a clean soft paintbrush along each ledge once a week, so dust never gets damp enough to smear. Only wipe with a damp cloth afterwards, and never the other way round.

Indigo is a low matte-satin sheen, not a gloss, and the biggest risk to a low sheen is polishing it by accident. Rub one spot hard and it turns shinier than the rest of the front, and on a dark colour that patch catches the light from across the room.

1. Dry-dust the ledges and edges first.
2. Wipe with a soft cloth dampened in warm water and a drop of mild dish soap, wrung out until it is barely wet.
3. Wipe along the length of the rail or stile, never in circles, and do not concentrate on one spot.
4. Dry straight away with a second cloth, paying most attention to the bottom edge of each front, where water runs down and sits.

Keep melamine sponges (the "magic eraser" type) away from this finish. They are a fine abrasive and burnish a matte paint in one pass. Also avoid ammonia and bleach cleaners, abrasive pads and wax-based furniture polish. Our cabinet care guide covers the full routine, and the matte finishes guide explains why low-sheen paint marks this way.

Fabuwood sells a matched Galaxy Indigo touch-up kit at $62.40. It is designed for the chip problem above: a pale fleck on an edge or corner, a nick from a pot handle, a scratch through to the primer. Clean the spot, let it dry, and build the colour up in thin coats with the tip of the brush, letting each coat dry before the next. A dab that is too heavy leaves a raised blob that catches light worse than the chip did.

It is not for a scrape across the middle of a panel, water damage along a bottom edge, or a front that has been knocked out of shape. Those are replacement-part questions, and whether a part is available in this finish is something to confirm with your designer rather than assume.

The top three drawers of this box take little abuse. The bottom one, a few inches above the toe kick, is where the wear happens. A little care with placement prevents most of it.

• Keep it away from the pet bowls, the mop and bucket corner, and the spot where school bags get dropped. Those are the three most common sources of edge chips at ankle height.
• At the end of a run beside a walkway, give it a finished side: a GI SK BASE skin at $62.40 or a GI BEP end panel at $149.50. Hips and bags catch an exposed end, and a panel takes that wear instead of the box.
• Next to a dishwasher, let the steam clear before you wipe. A warm, wet bottom edge is where paint is most easily marked.
• Choose pulls that stand at least an inch off the front, so fingernails and rings grip the metal rather than the paint.

The Blum runners help too. The soft-close stops each front a fraction short and settles it, so the fronts do not slam against the frame the way unsprung drawers do. That impact is what chips painted edges on older cabinets.

Only the top drawer of each box usually needs an insert. At 15″ and 18″, the GI CD-15/18 cutlery tray is $201.50; the 15″ also takes GI DCD-15 BLUM, an inner drawer on its own runners, at $354.25. The 18″ adds GI KCUP-18 ($224.25) and GI DCD-18 BLUM ($429.00). The 21″ takes GI CD-21/24 ($273.00), GI KCUP-21/24 ($266.50) or GI DCD-21 BLUM ($468.00). A tray also keeps metal utensils from rattling against the drawer box, which counts for more in a narrow box that gets opened constantly. Everything else in the finish is on the cabinet accessories page.

Add the touch-up kit when you order the cabinets, not after the first chip. It comes matched to this finish, and a chip fixed the week it happens is almost invisible. Galaxy ships pre-assembled in about 2 weeks. When the boxes arrive, photograph the edges of each front before installation so any shipping mark is documented.

If you have not seen the colour in person yet, the door sample is $35.00 and final sale. The rest of the run starts from the base cabinet lineup or the Galaxy Indigo collection, and the design service will draw it for you.