Assemble your dishes and measure. It's really the only way to know what you need. Don't forget your glasses. Then find out the interior dimensions of those drawer stacks. Depending on manufacturer, they might not be DEEP enough.

(Mine are just what space was left between the dishwasher and the end but if I had been working with more space I would have definitely measured everything properly. You know, do as I say, not as I do. The usable interior of mine are 22.5" wide by 27" long with a usable height of 6.5". But I haven't put my dishes in yet due to a "helpful" 2 year old. Gads all my drawers are a mess...)

I'd love to have more space to make the drawers wider, but I'm constrained. I wouldn't make 2 banks of drawers at different widths, I think that would look odd. So it has to be 2 equal banks, or 1 wide bank with a narrow cabinet next to it. I did try laying out my everyday dishes on a board. I can fit the bowls and plates into a 22" drawer (20" interior width, but then I'd need another drawer for the cups and saucers. So I can make the narrow drawers work ok I think. But with the wider 30" drawers, I could fit the entire set into 1 drawer. Do they get extremely heavy when loaded? If I go with 4 drawers in each bank, the interior height of the drawers will be about 6". This seems deep enough to hold a stack of 8 dinner dishes, barely. Or if I put 3 in each bank, the bottom 2 drawers will be about 10 - 11" high (inside). Is that extra height usable? Would the drawers get too heavy if you filled them up high? My kids will be responsible for setting the table and emptying the DW, so I need the drawers to be a manageable size and weight for them.
All my dishes are pack up now, so it's really hard for me to figure some of this out. Thanks for sharing the wisdom of your experience.

Short width drawers waste space when used for dishes. Go for the wider size--36 is great, 30 is better than 24, etc. Get the strongest extension hardware so that the drawer can be fully extended when full. If possible, get even deeper drawers than 24 inches front to back.

How good is your back? One thing I hadn't thought about is the stacking of items in lower drawers. Haven't finished loading my new china drawers yet, but I realize already that some deep ones and some more shallow would be better than all deep. Here's why: If you are storing plates and bowls, the tendency is to layer 'em pyramid style. When you do this in upper cupboards, you can slide the lower plates or bowls out without removing the upper ones. But when lifting out of a drawer, you have to offload all the upper items in order to get to the lower ones. I keep hearing people say "don't stack items" in lowers and now I know why. But I can't let myself waste that space, can I? So I stack in my deep drawers and then offload, which requires some lifting instead of reaching. I use dinner plates more than salad plates, but I can't put them on the top of the stack. If the drawers were shallower, I'd have two stacks. Haven't figured out how to store the cups yet (still packed in boxes) but I already know there isn't any virtue in piling china cups very high, so how will I handle this? (Has anyone on GW worked up a removable tier for cup storage?)

I just measured--17 bone china plates with bumpers between take up about 7 inches of a 9 inch deep drawer which is below knee level in my bank of drawers. What would you do with those extra 2 inches? And if I had a mere 5 inch stack, would I stack something above? very likely. Yet, if nothing is above or if something that is easy to remove is placed above, I'm more likely to access those plates--which is a goal of the kitchen project--than if something awkward or heavy is placed above. Same with the other items in the drawer.

On the other hand, it's cheaper to have a few deep drawers than lots of shallow drawers and the deeper ones use the vertical space better, so there are some tradeoffs.

Also, don't let functional fixedness symie you. Okay to have dishes and other items stored in same place--candles? napkins? pan lids? hand towels? candy stash? They're YOUR drawers.

Everyone would find the candy stash if it was in the dish drawer.

:)

I'd have the shallower drawers. I'd stack plates on plates - that's it. maybe 2 bowls deep depending on the size of the bowls.

how about the 30" and the 15"? would your cups and saucers fit in a 15"? you don't have to put them all in there if you have a ton of them. put excess up on a higher shelf to get if you have a party of 50 people... put everyday glasses in 1 of the 15" drawers. if you have more than fills a drawer put up on the 'high' excess shelf. that might help limit kids from taking a clean glass 5 x a day too!

maybe in a lower drawer put 'plastic' glasses and bowls, plates etc.

We have one 30" wide dish drawer with two deep drawers and two shallow ones. We use the shallow drawers for silverware. We use the middle drawer for our entire set of the current season's plates (we go very casual in summer b/c we eat on the terrace a lot.) We use the bottom drawer for the crockpot, toaster, salad spinner, and mixing bowls. The deep drawers are 6" deep to the top of the sides. Though heavy, they open and close easily with two handles (wouldn't recommend one handle on this width). For us, it does work great for emptying the dishwasher and setting the table. We love it!

Incidentally, we do have upper cabinets in which we store our glasses and mugs and our off-season china.

If it were me, I'd go for the 30" and 15" combination. Deep or shallow drawers within the 30", could work equally well - just as long as you can fit most of the dishes you use on a typical day into one of the drawers. If the shallow drawers would prevent doing that (i.e., if you would have cereal bowls in one drawer, dinner plates in another, mugs in yet another, etc), I think you would find opening and closing all of the drawers to empty and set the table a little bit annoying.

HTH - can't wait to see your kitchen!!

I would agree with florantha with respect to thinking about your back. In addition to looking at the space needed, can you do a little mock-up of how it would feel to lift dinner plates out of something at that level? I know there was another thread here recently that referred to that-saying something like thigh high should be where you place items you use often. I thought I was going to place all my plates/bowls etc. that I use daily in the drawer of my island directly across from my DW, but when I tried that it didn't do my back any favors to lift heavy plates from that height (middle drawer: the bottom of the drawer is 18" from the floor). I ended up placing glasses, mugs, smaller bowls etc. in there, and putting my plates in an upper cabinet.

Thanks for all your responses. I think a stack of 4 shallower drawers makes the best sense. You have confirmed my concerns about "over-stacking" in the deeper drawers.
If I go with the 30" drawer width, I could put an entire set of dishes in the same drawer, including cups and saucers. I have 2 sets of dishes, so silver in the top, 1 set in each of the middle 2 drawers, and bottom drawer for the kids plasticware, and any overflow.The 15" side cabinet, I would use for serving pieces I think. I have one upper cabinet I can use for glasses and mugs. Wine glasses and barware will get stored in the new wine bar.
I guess that gives me more useful space than 8 drawers that are 22" wide. In that configuration, I'd use the 2 top drawers for silverware and accessories, 2 drawers for each set. and they I'd have the 2 bottom drawers for plastic ware and serving pieces. That's probably not enough space for serving pieces.

I just hope one loaded 30" drawer won't be too heavy or awkward. Drawer interior will be about 6" high, so I won't be tempted to over-stack. But a full set of dishes is still pretty darn heavy. I can't lift the box that they are all currently in. That's why I wondered if more smaller drawers might be better in some ways.
These are all under mount, full extension, soft close drawers. So maybe they should put 2 or 3 glides under each of these heavy drawers"?
The allowed weight load for a drawer is an important question for me to ask my cabinet maker. Thanks for the tip