I have a pullout cabinet (like a trash pullout w/o the cans) for my kitchen aid mixer. I have a regular cabinet with a rollout for my Margaritaville Frozen Concoction Maker. I'll put the coffee maker on that one too.

What about tall stockpots? Hard to imagine they would fit into a drawer.

I have this outside corner cabinet in the island where I keep the KA mixer, 3 large stockpots, the meat slicer, and a couple large roasters. All of these items are very seldom used. I'm talking maybe once a year. Toaster goes here only because I lift it right up on to the butcher block to use. It certainly would have fit in a drawer, but this made more sense.

I have some big & tall stock pots. They fit into the tall drawers. Just need to make sure you have some tall drawers.

I have some lower cabinets for large stockpots, very heavy, oversize and tall appliances ( i.e. 30 cup coffee maker, KA mixer, prof waffle maker) and some oversize serving pieces.

It's a good idea to have at least one or two lower cabinets. Believe me, you will use them! Cheers:)

I have some drawers that are so big that anything in our kitchen would fit in them. I also have a base cabinet, because I felt superstitious about having no base cabinets at all, when they were what I was used to, growing up. Think about the biggest few things in your kitchen (for me, a tall stockpot, our slow cooker) and design a drawer big enough or make sure you have a big old lazy susan that will take them-- and then do all lower drawers. I'll be putting roll-out shelves in that base cabinet one of these days.

I put mostly large items into my base cab super susan: wok, canning pressure cooker, stock pot, blender, crock pot, that size item. The turkey roaster goes in the hutch in the dining room. I have a smallish pantry on the bottom shelf of which I keep my KA mixer:

I have a couple of large salad bowls and they fit fine into a drawer:

A large Corningware casserole dish also goes in that drawer, but all I've found since re-stocking the kitchen is the lid for it. I have faith that eventually that big casserole dish will turn up and will go into this drawer with its lid.

I would recommend evaluating your kitchen belongings and identify those item which cannot be placed in a drawer. I'm quite sure you cook more often than your builder, so take his insistence with a grain of salt.

Still in the planning process, but I know I need a place for garbage and for my KA mixer - these can't be drawers. Cookie sheets and the like will either go in a toe-kick drawer or in the top cabinet over the oven and microwave. I have a breadmaker also, but I think that's going to go on a rollout in the cabinet pantry or possibly in the morgue drawer in our banquette. Everything else that I can think of right now will fit in a deep drawer, which I plan on having a good number of.

My tall non-drawer things are:

Trash - in pullout.

Air popper, blender, and tallest pressure cooker - in corner super susan; the susan shelves were spaced to accommodate them. The slow cookers are here too.

Ice cream machine and cake carriers - above fridge.

Cutting boards - under sink (plus a couple beside the susans in the corner cabinet).

Pitchers, vases, and the kids' Easter baskets - in upper cabinets.

The only lowers I have that are not drawers are the sink cabinets (one of them is actually a pullout), the trash cabinet (pullout), and the corner susan. The only cabinet storage I am kind of missing is the "pantry" cabinet that we used as a broom closet. I decided we needed a real pantry pullout so we could reach the food for a change, so the brooms now have to live on the back porch (the door is right next to the stove). I don't have a stand mixer; the food processor is in a drawer (so is the toaster at the moment).

Isn't pullout trash technically a drawer? Even my dishwasher is a drawer. I had the bottom of my sink cabinet a drawer, although it was behind doors.
:P

You're right, fori, that means my only non-drawers are the corner susan and one of the sink cabinets. :)

Mom23Es -- I take it you have gathered from all the posts that the all-drawer thing only works if you have some deep and wide drawers. If you think of them not as drawers but as cabinets where the innards come out to you instead of you having to go in after them, it makes sense. I have two 36" wide drawer units from Ikea (each has 2 shallow + 2 deep drawers) and it's astounding how much will fit into them.

I think it's people who haven't experienced all drawers playing chicken little.

Don't forget that you can get a 2-drawer base cabinet for taller things.

My largest thing is a lobster pot. Big, round, tall. I make vats o'soup in it. It fits just fine in one of my drawers.

I don't have an eight year old, but I have a lot of stuff. :)

I have one, single, stupid 30" regular base in over 220 linear feet of cabinetry. Since I built and installed then, I cannot wait until I can put in either drawers or a full-height cabinet.

Even under my farm sink I have a drawer.
In My experience, though, the wider the better. I have 2, 12" wide 3-drawer base cabinets I find absolutely worthless. My 36"ers are fab-u-lous! Now, some love those skinny babies, but not me.

Your GC doesn't cook, does he? Does he spend time rooting around in the back of those "traditional" cupboards? I am fairly certain the answer is NONONO!

I have almost all drawers and can fit everything in them, stock pots, Cuisinart, etc. I do, however, have a large pantry for food, KitchenAid, etc. and 2 areas for my cutting boards and cookie sheets. I love having the drawers and can't imagine why we put up with cabinets for all these years!

Coolers. At least that's my plan for my kitchen remodel. I don't have a garage or pantry so a plain Ikea base cabinet with adjustable shelves will be perfect for the assorted coolers that now sit next to my fridge. Also, I see paper towel storage in which case it isn't that it wouldn't fit in a drawer, but that drawer would be a wasted expense for paper towels.

I don't have any cabinets. I have all drawers and everything fits. The larger platters etc live in the pantry. The KA mixer might not fit but that lives on my counter.

I think drawers are new and scary to people who haven't experienced their awesomeness. Don't let a builder take away from what you want. Do you know what I would have ended up with had I listened to our builder on anything?! (they don't all fall into the same category, but I'm just saying!)

I think people are getting a bit dogmatic about this. I agree that drawers are better and I am doing all drawers except for one cabinet which will fit tall pots and trays. I am doing inset cabinets so my drawers will be a bit shallower to begin with. And I don't have a deep pantry that will fit mixers or the other things that people are saying can be stored elsewhere. And I can't afford to give up a top drawer to do a two-drawer base, given my space constraints. So in my view, saying that no drawers is the way to go presumes that one has good alternatives for the things that really will not fit. I think a more balanced view would be appropriate.

The Kitchen Aid Mixer (14.5"). That's the only thing that was too tall to fit in the stock Ikea deep drawers (10.5").
I also have a glass cake stand that would be too tall at about 12". It is in my over-fridge cabinet, which is my only wall cabinet.

Others have mentioned cutting boards and cookie sheets, broiler pans, etc. -- if you don't want them stacked flat. I have them on edge in a reach-in pantry cubby.

Of course if you have anything in tall bins, you'll need to plan for that by using full-height drawer fronts, or something similar. I'm talking about trash, recycling, pet food, etc.

It's been said, but like CEFreeman and others, tall drawers hold my tall stock pots. They would hold my heavy mixer, but my kitchen's on the compact side, so it stands on a 12" deep shelf that would have instead been a drawer if there'd been room.

What my one deliberately shelved cabinet works well for is shallow items that would be piled on top of each other if they were set horizontally. Baking sheets. Cutting boards. Cooling and baking racks. Lids. Etc. That's it. The simple vertical metal dividers we installed work excellently, and the items' top front edges are very accessible for grabbing. The only improvement I could make would be to have the shelf itself pull out--drawer without sides. :)

You're right nycbluedevil, a balanced view is the thing. I think what set people off was the builder's declaration that there are inevitably things that just won't fit in drawers (which are likely a fad with some silly homeowners) and therefore a well-grounded person will install some "traditional" cabinets. Couple this with the high probability that said builder doesn't actually spend much time in a kitchen as chief cook and bottle washer. He probably didn't mean all that, but it was easy to interpret it that way.

Everyone's kitchen is different. Think of how different beagledoitbetter's kitchen is from Lavenderlass's. Beagles kitchen will have room for absolutely everything because they are building it from the ground up. Lavender is working in an old farm house with many quirks and is thinking hard and creatively about where things will go. There is nothing inherently wrong with traditional cabs, but generally speaking drawers are much easier for the chief cook and bottle washer to use. If a kitchen needs a traditional cabinet, it does, but it may not be your first choice. I, personally, don't miss kneeling down and unloading the bottom shelf of a cabinet to reach that thing I need in the back. I love pulling open the waist high dish drawer and finding the bowl at the back of the drawer that I want.

We are getting all drawers except 2 base cabinets. One for a mixer pull up. One base cabinet with roll out for my food processors. I doubt I will be able to fit my giant stock pot and slow cooker, but they can go in the pantry since I only rarely use them.

I was putting some thing away (I know, don't strain myself) and realized another nice benefit:

I nest bowls, plasticware, baking dishes, etc. When I'm crawling around on the floor looking to find something -- or put it away, it sure is easier to see what's hidden inside what in a drawer, vs. seeing only the largest, outside container on a shelf.

I think I've mentioned, I've even put a custom drawer I designed my own bad self under my farm sink. What the heck would doors do for me? Push-ups are good, but I prefer them in my yoga practice, now when seeking something in a cabinet! :)

We all know our kitchens are different. Hence the propensity to stalk photos! I know I was definitely responding to the know-it-all attitude of a GC.

I remember once discussing automatic litter boxes online, of which I had three (7 cats). I hadn't mentioned that detail, but was speaking of how cool they were. Others were interested, but some woman piped up that she "didn't know, but they sounded dangerous" and that she "wouldn't put her cats at risk with something like that".

Litter box fear based in ignorance = base drawer cabinet fear. Same genre. That's all. :)

I am mostly drawers in my base cabs. Some things I like so much better in drawers include:
1. My bag of potatoes. No escapees rolling to the back of a dark corner and rotting!
2. My tall stock pot (I had a custom cabinet maker and TOLD him the height I wanted).
3. My bread drawer--all in one place easy for everyone to make a lunch or snack.
4. My super deep drawer for storable containers and lids! Love, love it.

The only things I found a inappropriate for drawers were

1. my silver chest; I didn't want it up high because that's dangerous to pull it down. Also it's a little deep for the regular uppers. I wanted to just slide it out, not pick it up and out of a drawer.

2 my electric skillet. Would technically fit in my back corner pullouts, but it is such a space hog.

I had an area that was 18 inch lowers that worked well for shelves with those items. I did find other things to go in that cabinet, but they could have as easily gone in drawers.

I like my KitchenAid mixer out because I am more apt to use it.

I also have a base cabinet with dividers for trays. Some people put this divider cabinet in their uppers, especially above their refrigerator. I heard about that idea too late in the game but think it's smart.

Colorfast, one of my plans is to save for a over the fridge cabinet that's 18" high, but only 15" deep. I already store trays and stuff up there, but it's just a tad too narrow. 24" is too deep for me, so I'm going 15!

Maybe in a month or two -- oh.
And it'll be beaded inset! :)

to make it look symmetrical, the trash pull-out door is mirrored by another cabinet door. That one is vertically divided into 3 sections: one for paper grocery bags, one for baking trays, and one for large cutting boards, misc. serving trays, etc.
Then I have another one cabinet for the tall stuff, waffle maker, mixer, etc, as everyone else has said.

I found GW too late in the game to add more drawers to my lower cabs. Luckily my KD was a drawer guy so I have a bunch. There are two lower cabs that are not drawers for some reason though. He built the upper shelf shorter so I can store tall items. I put my kitchen aid mixer in the there and my crockpot. The other one I use to store serving platters. It is not ideal but if you were looking to keep one non drawer cab, make sure to have a shorter upper shelf. It does work great.

Mom23Es: I'll repeat the first advice I took to heart when I discovered these GW forums: There is no right answer, so observe how you really work in your kitchen. Plan where everything will go before you plan your cabinets. Do you have anything that won't fit in a deep drawer? Do you mind getting on your knees and searching the back of a traditional base cab? For me, the only things that won't fit in a deep drawer are things I only use a few times a year, and they can go in the root cellar pantry (dehydrator, big pressure cooker for canning, etc.). I use my mixer and food processor several times a week, so they stay on the counter. Even the crockpot fits in a drawer and is so much easier to get to than in a base cab. But that's how I use MY kitchen. How do you use yours?

I have mostly drawers except for a SuperSusan and two small cabinets. The Supersusan has my tall stock pots etc. The crock pot would fit into a drawer but I have lots of SS room. Most of these would fit in the taller drawer but there is only so much room.

The other cabinet - I almost converted to a drawer. It is only 9 inches wide - but so far, I have cutting boards on the first shelf (and yes, they could have gone into a drawer). The second shelf has my sink basket and the third has my mandolin and some grill items.

The other - our "Scotch" supply and extra travel mugs.

If I ever get a KA mixer - I will put on the counter or in one of the taller drawers.

The cabinets are just being installed, so I don't know yet. Other than under the sinks which will have pull outs for garbage and recycling, we only have two lowers w/o drawers. I have a lift for my KA mixer and the corner cabinet with the lazy suzan.

We had deep drawers for pots and pans at our old house and I loved them to death. Even our 8 quart stock pot fit.

I now have the benefit of a pantry, so if my crock pot and Cuisinart don't fit in a drawer I will store them in there. I had them put in tray storage racks above the oven for my cookie sheets and such.

My last kit I did 2 cabs with pullouts which I found inconvenient plus the sink cab. All the rest drawers. This time I did all drawers except the sink cab. Tall pots, slow cooker even cast iron is in drawers. I do have to put large cereal boxes on edge.

Thank you so much everyone! I didn't mean to create such a debate. I would like to change this particular cabinet to drawers because I'm struggling to find a place for my kitchen towels. I have plans for all of my drawers so far, but I'm so used to regular base cabinets that I'm worried that I'll miss something. Actually, in our current house, I'm more used to storing half of my kitchen in the basement! It's great to hear what does and does not fit well in drawers. So far I'm pretty sure I have a place for everything that was mentioned - well of the things that I own or ever intend to own.

I have a 25 year old kitchen that has primarily pull-outs (plus some drawers) a lazy susan, and no regular cabs. The pull-outs were a revelation to me when we moved in-- I still like them. I know a lot of people feel like they are wasting extra seconds opening the doors first, but... I feel like I have the time! And for the larger things like my most gigantic Le Creuset Dutch Oven, I like being able to reach at it from the side rather than directly above. That said, I will probably have primarily drawers in the new construction kitchen, but still thinking about one cab with pull-outs. I still think there are some advantages to them for certain things.

I have about 20 drawers. I have drawers only, and nothing else.

Deep drawers are not good for stacking heavy shallow things like frying pans.

For a number of shallow items I use a wall cabinet above the wall oven, and it holds things VERTICALLY. So they are not piled on top of each other, like they would be in a medium-depth drawer if the things were set horizontally. Baking sheets. Cutting boards. Cooling and baking racks. Lids. Some Pyrex plates and lids. There is no point in stacking large numbers of things horizontally, either in drawers OR in base cabinets.

We have almost all drawers. But on the island we have 3 cabinets and we also have a corner cabinet with full pullouts where I store my large crockpot (but it would actually fit in a drawer too). One of the island cabinets is where I store the KitchenAid mixer. But even my HUGE stockpot fit in our Ikea big drawers. I would never go back to cabinets. I LOVE having the drawers and I especially love how the look.

Drawer with stockpot:

Corner cab:

Gosh...
I didn't notice any debate at all! [LOL]

Builder priority: How can I do this job faster and move on to the next one?

Your priority: How can I more easily find, reach, take out and put back all the things I will use in my kitchen for as long as I cook here (or remodel again)?