I have shaker style doors with slab drawers. I'm not real fond of the look of shaker style rails on the smaller drawer fronts and having all slab drawers just keeps things looking less busy. I do have mix of doors and drawers on the bottom, though, and IMHO, that makes a difference. If I were going with all drawers on the bottom cabinets, I likely would have chosen the five-piece drawer fronts.

i upgraded to 5 PC drawers as i have almost all drawers and really like the 5pc over the slab.
if you search finished kitchens, many people here have slab drawers so you should be able to get an idea.
if you really aren't a fan of slab, then possibly there is another door that is close in design but has the 5 PC option?

I have shaker with slab drawers. Love the look.

In my last kit I did not want all the added pieces to my drawers & I found beaded openings with inset cabs & slab drawers looked fine. In my present kit I did the same. It is a very simple shaker look. Some people prefer the stiles around the drawers.

Most brands offer upgrades for individual drawer heads to 5 pc- at least every single brand I've ever worked with (2 dozen plus) It's just often listed as a modification.
Many adjust the size of rails on shorter drawers so as not to crowd the panel.

If you decide on a 5 piece drawer-front instead of the slab, you can shrink the thickness of the rails on the top drawer. This will allow enough room so that the hardware doesn't look crowded.

The vertical pieces are the stiles, and the horizontal pieces are the rails. Make the stiles the same thickeness as the drawer-fronts below. Make the rails skinnier so that there is more flat area for the hardware.

On mine, the stiles and rails of the larger drawers below (and the two cabinets) are 2.5". On the smaller top drawer the rails are 1.5" while the stiles remain the same at 2.5".

All my drawers have the 5-piece design, but I've seen pictures of kitchens that have the 5-piece design only on the lower drawers and cabs, and have the flat panel for the top drawer.

I have both drawer styles in my shaker style beaded inset cabs. I put the slab ones as the top drawer only on the 'working' side of kitchen, and the 5pc drawers in the more open area. It does not look odd; it actually looks very nice, i think. Since its a small kitchen, I tried to delineate the areas using things like diff drawers, fancier baseboards in appropriate areas, etc.

This post was edited by Mags438 on Mon, Dec 1, 14 at 23:55

My cabinets go in next week so I can't show a pic just yet but we also did slab top drawers. I would have done more slab if I could have... I love the simple look!

I did slab top drawers as well. I thought that the hardware would look too crowded on a five-piece top drawer.

I also have slab top drawers on my shaker style cabinets. We considered all slab but we were in the same boat as you...all lower drawers for the most part and didn't want it to look disjointed with slab on the bottom, shaker stiles/rails on the top. We're all done now but here's a pic from "during" showing the top slab drawers on my pots/pans drawers and my garbage pull-out.

I have shaker cab doors and all slab drawers. I love the look, especially on the smaller top drawers.

My grandmother's 1920's kitchen had Shaker doors on top. Her base cabinets were all drawers and all slab fronts. And I never thought it looked weird.

Upside is that all slab front drawers are much easier to dust & keep clean.

Another person with shaker and slab. I love the look as well.

This edge detail really classes up shaker style drawers.
Casey
I updated the link with a different article, and tested it to see that it works. SFW!

Here is a link that might be useful: How to make cock-beading

This post was edited by sombreuil_mongrel on Wed, Dec 3, 14 at 23:51

I specified slab drawers and shaker doors. Here is what my kitchen looks like. That little drawer at the bottom of the oven/microwave stack was the source of great consternation. Should it be slab or shaker. We decided it should be slab to match the other drawers (rather than shaker to match the other white cabinets).

This post was edited by jerzeegirl on Tue, Dec 2, 14 at 17:55

Casey, your link is broken. I considered Googling the term to see what you are talking about, but then saner heads prevailed as I figured I would get a bunch of NSFW images.

I must be the only one with shaker drawer fronts. LOL I went a little overboard, and guess I didn't know any better when I replaced my drawer fronts. still love them though! But the hardware is "crowded".

All of mine are Shaker-like. Unlike Casey, my hardware was installed on the top, not in the inset part. I only used pulls throughout. It is too dark to add a picture. Bottom line, there are many options, and all look good.

@laura What did you decide for the top drawer? Shaker or slab? Happy?