This forum is great - I was in Home Expo yesterday and raved to a husband and wife (doing research for new construction in another state) about the knowledge of the participants and the expertise and information available. I'm not as nervous about the frameless option now. I've been looking at the KitchenCraft, Kraftmaid Venica, Hanssam, and Apple Valley Woodworks. I am also looking at the Kraftmaid (framed) with the slab door. I want to get the most bang for my buck, and at the same time want this kitchen to last until at least the kids are out of college (18 years - yikes). circuspeanut - I have been perplexed by the plywood box issue and think I understand the scribing issue. This is another topic I am going to discuss with my contractor. cheri127 - I will make note of what your installer did and ask my contractor about his plan. It is good to know a solution just in case the issue presents itself. caryscott - Thanks for the photos, it helps to see the cabinets with the filler. I spoke with the KitchenCraft people yesterday and they were very helpful. shannonplus2 - It seems that my ceilings are one height in the original part of the house and another in the addition added by the PO in the 1980's... I haven't measured where we will be relocating the kitchen, but I'm curious to see if the ceiling is uniform in that space.... We are on day 2 of the renovation and the contractor has already encountered unforseen "issues" having nothing to do with the kitchen..... If this keeps up, I will be constructing kitchen cabinets from cardboard boxes and using a hot-plate as my new stove.

The advantage of frameless cabinets is that you get more drawer space and cabinet openings are wider and therefore its easier to access what's inside. The down side is that you have to have fillers if you have corners with adjacent cabinets in order to clear the knobs/pulls (you can avoid this with a lazy susan). The advantage of framed cabinets is that you can inset, which is an upscale look, or partial overlay, which is very traditional. Framed cabinets used to be considered stronger and more durable than frameless, but with the materials available today, that's no longer the case. If you want a full overlay, framed or frameless will work but frameless will give you more storage space. I've been struggling with this for the last month because I'm getting ready to order my cabinets and having a small kitchen I need every inch of storage I can get but I need the period/dressier look I can get from inset. Arghhhh!

I would imagine the biggest difference is in the depth (up & down) of drawers since frameless don't have the stiles across. On my bank of Brookhaven (frameless) four drawers, the top drawer is shallowest at about 3.5" deep. The next two drawers are about 4" and the bottom is about 9.5" deep. They are 19.75" front to back, and on a 23" wide custom cab, the width is about 19 7/8", so I suppose a regular 24" cab would be 20 7/8" on the inside. I really can't vouch for the accuracy of the top drawer depth, but on the three drawer bank, the depth of the bottom two drawers is 10.25". The sides and back do not go all the way up, but that hasn't been a problem. Full extension drawers are definitely worth having. We don't have soft close which I don't regret. But full extension means full use, and I wish that I had that feature on every single drawer in the house. What a difference!

Alittleapple: This is a 15" cabinet. Angie DIY: A "kiloword." I'm still chuckling. jerzeegirl: Yes, it's InnerMost. We went with the furniture board. We're thinking about more InnerMost cabinets for our bedroom and would do the same. tea4all: Short on storage is the name of the game in our kitchen and why we wanted frameless. debrak_2008: Here's a few. I think if you click on one it will pop up a window for the entire album; I think.: Before (This is one of those true to life photos.): After: