I think the raised panel looks more formal and the beadboard looks more casual, so I guess the choice should depend on which of those adjectives more accurately describes your lifestyle. I prefer the beadboard, but that's because we're a casual family.

Oh, and in one cabinet line we considered, the "rustic" cherry had knots visible here and there, and we loved it. Is that what your rustic cherry looks like? That would be gorgeous in the beadboard.

Hi holligator....

We tend to be much more casual than formal.

The rustic cherry does have some knotting - its one of the things we like about it too.

We were doing beadboard style too. The KD suggested flat drawer facings for the ease of cleaning and the placement of handles.( I did not want knobs either). It looks nice. There a a few kitchens in the FKB that have this look. G

I like the beadboard. How do you put handles on the original door choice? It's all roundy framed isn't it?

On the beadboard drawers, you could do handles that don't show the back, like cup pulls. Or handles that have a large backplate. Or perhaps pulls with little backplates behind each hole (I don't know if that's common on pulls but I know they're optional with some knobs). Fancy washers, kinda.

If you truly loved the beadboard, and will miss it, always wondering why you didn't get it again, then go with it..."If it ain't broke, why fix it..." But sometimes it's nice to go a route that's new and different if you can love it just as much. My husband doesn't want to ever feel like he's in our old house, so wants things different. That said, though, we're having about the same cabinet door style, just different wood in an entirely different looking kitchen. --How's that for waffling? I think it's just that this is such a personal decision that it will be tough for us to advise you. We want you both to be happy and thrilled with your choice, but can't know which will do that for you.

I like the top choice, but would do the doors with recessed panels like the drawers...But I'm not a raised panel sort of girl. I do love beadboard, too, but wouldn't want the years of keeping the gunk out of it. (-- I have 8 kids who will eventually bring home grandkids, so I have to be realistic...)

LOL -

Ok - we considered the non-beadboard drawer, but its very plain and since we have mostly drawers in our kitchen we thought it would feel bland, so.....

We are actually considering cup or bin pulls, but good thoughts, fori, on the handle style. As for the first door stlye, yeah its a bit rounded, but no so much that a handle wouldn't work (I asked the KD that same question - he showed us pictures of installations with the style with handles).

Rhome410 - yeah - I hear you about not wanting to recreate an old house, but we were only there for 11 months and never got to really enjoy it - maybe that's why we're good with having the same style again. I definitely hear you on the gunk issue - we have two boys and are a long way from grandparent hood. We keep an old toothbrush in the kitchen just for cleaning. The existing (yucky) kitchen has some grooving.

Another preference for beadboard- (that's what we just replaced, and I really liked it). That's what toothbrushes were invented for- right? I had a container of them under my sink- just was a matter of course, grab cloth, grab toothbrush, start wiping!

Ours were painted white, and we NEVER had handles! That's the way they were when we moved in, and somehow 11 years went by and I never did buy any. Depending on how wide the stile on top of your drawers is, cup pulls may be too big? Our drawers were solid, but with lots of drawers I understand you wanting them that way.

Hi raehelen -

we're actually hoping NOT to put the handles on the stiles of the drawers. Though we would probably put the handles on the doors on the stiles....I guess we could put the handles on the drawer stiles too...hmm, hmmm

Since these are full overlay cabinets we need handles. I think/hope will be ok screwing through the flat sections of the beaded panels. We hope we can find handles where the screw mount doesn't hit the beaded area.

Glad to have another vote for beadboard. I just wish I could find more pictures on the internet with handles on beaded drawers.

We have a plain shaker style door that looks much like yours without the beadboard. We are going with flat fronts on the small (top) drawers and panelled fronts on the big drawers. We decided that it looked less busy and gave us more options in pulls.

OK...going against the norm here!

We just put in cabinets that are very similar to your original choice. (in a maple with coffee glaze) I had never thought of them as formal (because we really are NOT, LOL) but I can now see how they could be seen that way.

Hmmmm, well to me the beadboard is more of a country look & it is just not to my taste. Not sure if it would be any more difficult to keep clean...seems like it would be though???

Really, either choice will be beautiful. Go with what you love! ~I am not much help, am I?~ ;-)

JoAnn

All opinions welcome.

As for the "country" feel of the breadboard, we're ok with that. It fits well with the rest of our furnishings/decoration style.

Its not overly country, just informal/casual/

I like the beadboard much better, and don't care for the style in the top picture -- too fussy, IMO.

Another fish swimming upstream...I much prefer your first picture. I actually think the drawer of the second is "too busy" in the middle where the handles will be and where your vision will be drawn to.

I think whichever one you ultimately choose will work with the rustic cherry. As a matter of fact, if you're concerned the first door is too formal, I think the rustic cherry would help to lessen its formality. A honed granite or quartz or even soapstone would also be less formal (IMO). But, I'd try to see all of them together before committing to the either door. Is your KD willing to order both doors in the wood & finish of your choice so you could see for yourself how they would each look?

However, if you keep coming back to the beadboard no matter what else you're looking at, then it may just be that the beadboard is the door for you.

HTH!

I like the first ones best too. Actually, like Rhome, I'd like them even better if the doors were recessed panel too instead of raised. That would be a nice compromise between busy and plain.

I really like beadboard used as paneling or a backsplash in a kitchen, but on the cabinets I tend to feel it's just a bit too busy. But keep in mind, tend to like plainer designs.

Thanks all....

The more I look at the first choice door the less I like it. I think part of it might be the color of the sample picture. We saw it in the shop in the natural rustic cherry and it looked really nice. Just goes to show how a different stain or color can make the same style "feel" so different.

I'll have to look and see if they have a similar stlye with a recessed door panel, though DW might think that look to simple.

Since we had beadboard in the last kitchen I don't think it'll feel to busy, but that said we didn't have beadboard drawers. That kitchen had mostly doors, so the plainer drawer fronts didn't make the kitchen feel plain. Here we have mostly drawers, so its the reverse of that.

Here is the beadboard style with the plain front:

I just wish I had a picture of the last kitchen to show.....
but this is a sample picture from the cabinet companies website:

Gaaaaaaaaa..............choices.......and we're usually pretty good at making a decision and sticking with it.

Gaaaaaaaaa...choices...and we're usually pretty good at making a decision and sticking with it.

Davewg, it sounds like you've been hanging around here long enough that we're staring to rub off on you!

LOL, Alku05, its all good.

I do feel like I need to start CONTRIBUTING more to the threads rather than just asking questions all the time.

I'll add that to my to-do list.

O, go ahead and get the beadboard drawers. In that nice stain, they won't be too busy. And, so what if they get a little dirty in the grooves? That's like free glazing!

I've never really played with beadboard cabinets so maybe this is a dumb question, but it's relevant to attaching handles and pulls: Are they real beadboard, like tongue and groove slats? Or is it just a solid chunk with grooves in it? If it's the former, maybe there'd be problems with pulls, but if it's the latter, they'll be plenty solid for attaching hardware.

Hi Fori, excellent question.

The panels are solid wood with groves, so attaching handles shouldn't be a problem.

As for the free glazing, that's funny. We switched back to stained cabs after we saw a sample of glazed Ultracraft cabinets (in white and stain) using their new glazing method. My wife said it looked like someone took a brown magic marker and drew heavy lines on the cabinet.

The door we switched to is just what you were wondering about...flat panel in the center... Here are the 2 doors that I think are similar to your original choice. This may give you a better idea of what yours would look like:

Raised Panel (Artesia):

A larger view of the flat center panel:

Ahhh, buehl, as always very helpful.

That doorstyle does look quite good, and yes I do like it better than our original first choice.

What cabinet line are these from?

I looked back to Ultracraft and they do have some similar styles with both a recessed drawer and door. I'll try and look at them in a bit more detail tomorrow when I'm not so bleary eyed (of course working at 9:30pm doesn't help either).

Thanks again.

The doors are part of the Omega line: Omega Dynasty (Artesia) and Omega Dynasty II (Anson). The Omega custom line also has a door identical to Artesia--the Ashford. Dynasty & Dynasty II are Omega's semi-custom lines. (The Dynasty II has a full 1/4" furniture veneer center panel whereas Dynasty is all wood.)

The nice thing about the Omega line is that they carry many of their door styles in both the custom & semi-custom line so you can switch around for your best cost. My kitchen will have the Dynasty II door with mostly the semi-custom boxes but with a few custom when needed.

BTW...if you hear about Omega Embassy, Embassy is the same as Dynasty...just different name for different markets...same quality/construction, etc.

I don't know anything about Ultracraft, sorry!

Luv the beadboard with the flat panel top drawers - we have pretty well all drawers and the two large drawers are similar to a beadboard and the top narrow drawers are plain. I think it makes everything a little less busy, not boring at all, and then you don't have a problem with pull placement. I don't think I would put handles on the beadboard (if you choose that for top drawer) itself but rather on the top stile (is that what it's called) but then again that might interfere with the countertop?

I don't know if it's too late to add my two cents, but I just visited a friend at her new house and lo and behold, she has the beadboard drawers and doors, similar in color and glaze to Davewg's original post - and they look GREAT! Now, this kitchen is HUGE, so there was ALOT of beadboard - it was everywhere - BUT they used glass uppers almost exclusively, which helped make it not seem "busy" and the whole look was really quite lovely. I even told her that I wished I had my camera so I could post a picture for you...Oh wait...I might be able to do it. They just bought the house and I showed my DH the pics online since he didn't go over with me last night. In any event, if I can find the pics I'll see if I can somehow post them here. They used cup pulls right on the beadboard. It really looks great. GOOD LUCK!

Ahh, socalthreems, that would be FANTASTIC if you could post pictures or a link. If you don't want to publicize them here I can always send you a personal email address.

We are still at least several months from ordering, so there is plenty of time.

Our design doesn't have a ton of uppers, but we really liked the beadboard uppers in our last kitchen. Glass won't work for us - we're really bad about keeping our cabinets neat (DW wants everything hidden).

I definitely hear the preferences for the flat drawers, but given the number of drawers we have (and the various sizes (we have one 2 drawer stack (so large frontal area), several 3 drawer stacks and at least one four drawer stack) I think the kitchen would look to plain without the beadboard drawer front.

Thanks for the cabinet info, buehl. Our KD uses Ultracraft and Bertch custom (which is way beyond our price range). While we have a Dynasty dealer here (one of the local lumber yards) we really want to stay with the KD. He's done a fantastic job and he's a family friend not to mention one of the top KDs in the area.

I spent some time looking at the other Ultracraft styles, and none of them "call" to me the way beadboard does. I just wish I could find more pics of beadboard kitchens. It doesn't seem to be that popular a stlye (which appeals to me from a "uniqueness" perspective).

Ok, I'm bumping myself in the hope that socalthreems managed to find or take pics of her friends' bead-board kitchen.....

Well, I'm reviving this one again -

We ultimately decided to go with the bead-board door with a matching 5 piece front. Our design is mostly drawer bases.

We're going to panel the dishwasher and beverage fridge. Our KD pretty much insisted and he has NOT required us to do anything else we wanted to do. He felt so strongly about it we decided to go with it.

We wound up with Cherry with a Caramel finish (no glaze):
-- SORRY -- I could NOT get the picture to rotate and save.