I prefer slab for the same reason. It's easier to clean. I was raised by a mom who was always modern/contemporary. She could immediately point to ANY piece of furniture and tell you how much time would be wasted on dusting/cleaning. Shaker would be as far as it goes and never, ever white in the kitchen lol. I lean toward modern/contemporary. I think that has a lot to do with preferring slab cabinets. However, as an artist and someone tuned into aesthetics with literally EVERYTHING, I think it also depends on the amount of cabinets and whether they will be in an open vs enclosed space. The more ornate, the bigger the space should be I would think. And for a super clean look not only slab fronts but drawers instead of cabinets for which I'm inclined also. Just be sure to have longer, more visible but varied hardware or suffer a sea of white or almond or wood. I'm seeing more kitchens with mostley drawers and am soooo happy. The convenience of pulling out a 4 ft deep drawer to see ALL of my pots and pans at once. Stand back and scan your home as you walk into or face your kitchen and picture what color, and what pattern. I know what I'd do with a big kitchen. I'd split the difference. I'd do a different color and slab front bottoms with lots of drawers and have shaker uppers. Or if I had a flush wall of cabinets that houses a fridge and ovens. If there are a lot of uppers, make sure some have patterned glass to break it up or just open shelves (dusting always).

If you look at furniture made by Shakers, it has 5 piece for the doors and slab for the drawers. They liked simplicity and used 5 piece for the doors where it was useful to counter the dimensional changes of wood but not in drawer fronts which were small enough to make from a single board. Since they didn't have modern drawer glides, their furniture usually doesn't have the deep drawers that we have today. That was the look we wanted so we went for slab on the shorter drawers and 5-piece shaker doors and drawers higher than 8". Since our lowers are mainly drawers, that also makes for easier cleaning when something drips from the counter. Hi Pharoh, the old fridge died so it is now replaced with a magnetless stainless fridge. :) Lovely cabinets Circus peanut - like the way the arches in the trim match the range base.

Absolutely not - the uppers and the lowers don't have to match and usually don't - take a look at a bunch of the kitchens in the Finished Kitchens Blog.

Nidnay, Oops, I should not get on the computer after 8 PM. I had known at the time what you were talking about and then when I glanced back over the conversations this evening I saw the 17 1/4 " and because that is close to the height of what I calculated for the top dish drawer panel on mine, I just thought that is what it was and I had somehow missed it earlier. I actually later did ask you the size of your dish drawer just to compare with what I calculated with that silly Fisher Paykel worksheet. If you can, sometime can you tell me the dimension of that tall dish drawer which is likely the same size as the top one would be for me. So we are clear now. Sorry, I just had gone back over my calculations late this afternoon and that is what was on my mind. I really do appreciate the Houzz forum. It is such a help for people like me who often bite off more than they can chew when it comes to home improvements. But when you live in a 75 year old house there is always something to do.