I'm considering doing frameless/fulloverlay on the main kitchen and inset in the breakfast hutch/snack area. I want more storage in the kitchen proper and the hutch to look like a piece of furniture. So, I'm definitely interested in what everyones opinion is on mixing sytles.

There is really no fundamental difference in strength between framed and framless cabinets. Poorly-built frameless cabinets will be less sturdy than well-built face-framed cabinets, and well-built frameless cabinets will be more sturdy than poorly built face-framed cabinets. Regarding your statement: I see that the small frame in the kitchen reduces very slightly the useable space in terms of installing drawers or pullout shelves, but it's not a significant difference. Some GW poster put together a comparison between frameless and face-framed and the differrence is alot more than than you would think at first. (Anyone got the link ?) For illustration purposes they compared a 12" wide base cabinet in the two styles, and assumed 3/4" thick box construction, 1/2" thick drawer boxes, 1/2" wide side mounted slides, and 2 inch face frames. With frameless the drawers ended up with an usable internel width of 12 - 2 x (3/4 + 1/2 + 1/2) = 8 1/2" vs for face-framed the drawers ended up with an usable internel width of 12 - 2 x (2 + 1/2 + 1/2) = 6" So if you want the full-overlay look, my opinion is you should go with frameless cabinets. Also regarding your daughter slamming the doors, I have seen posts about something called "blumotion for doors" which attach to the hinges (which I believe must be blum brand) which eases the door closed.

fern4- Oh good, I have worried in a few places that I said something out of place on this forum. But I don't know what I would do without it! I like the sound of your drawers in the stack with no face frame. I talked to a local cabinetmaker and he is quoting me on inset doors but with overlay drawers. I think like fern4 I might drop the exposed hinges - I like the idea of the blum soft close and really I am not sure it is essential for me as I am going to have mainly drawers and it is a small kitchen so I would only be losing a few exposed hinges. This whole cabinet thing is so difficult - and then there is the price to consider!

I have inset in my main house. We are doing a new kitchen in a vacation house. My husband kept saying he loves inset and wanted to put it in the vacation condo. I think he likes the look. I convinced him to go full overlay. Mainly for cost. I like the look of full overlay as well. Inset has less space and I do bang the edges of the frame and can see that when I pull a pot out of a few cabinets. When I was doing my kitchen here, the one with inset, a KD strongly advised me not to do it. She said she had inset and had redone the kitchen to get rid of them. I do find that I have to adjust the hinges a lot. All of that being said, I do like the look and am not sorry I did it in my home kitchen. Looking forward to seeing how I like the full overlay in condo kitchen, though.