My comments on the F&P Dish Drawers are specific to my personal experience with them. When we remodeled our kitchen in 2005 we installed two dishwashers, an F&P Double Dish Drawer, and a Miele. I think the Miele cost about $200-$300 more. Even before we started using them, I was struck by how well-made the Miele is (s/s interior and washing arms, solid and heavy) vs. the F&P (plastic tub, flimsy plastic washing arm). With the F&P, you have to be careful about making sure nothing dips below the basket (e.g. a pot handle, or a cooking utensil), otherwise you'll have to re-run the dishwasher. Items on the fold-down shelves better be clean on the top side otherwise they may not get clean (the water may never get up there). With the Miele, I never have to think about making sure everything will get exposed to the one dishwashing arm at the bottom. I just load it up, and everything comes out squeaky clean. Plus, the F&P is much noisier than the Miele. So my comments are based my personal experience with the F&P and Miele, which may not be a fair comparison. But certainly from a performance, quality of construction, and reliability issue, the F&P doesn't come close.

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.

Hi erikanh, our kitchen in the "in progress" section of the fkb. DH is making some of our lighting fixtures and I refuse to call it done until they are up---so we've been at 95/98% for 3+ years (our cabinets were installed March-June 2005). Good thing we have classic cabinets. Otherwise the kitchen would probably be hopelessly out of date by the time I consider it "done". I think the FKB link brings you to my photobucket album which is not at all organized and often has multiple shots of one view---not really ready for prime time. layout and top wall: left side of top wall (toward eating area) and right side (toward mudroom) with baking center: Right wall: bottom wall: Left Wall from kitchen side and then back from dining room side (hutch doors are a pass through) The cabinet lines ended up looking squiggly when I shrunk the photos. Please be assured that our cabinets are really nice and straight : ) I know what it's like to fall in love with cabinetry. I first scoped out cabinets in a couple of local lumber yards in the early 90's. There was just one line of cabinet I really really liked and I put some literature in a folder. More than a decade passed and I checked out cabinets again in 2004. I was introduced to CP by a family member. I loved them and compared to some bathroom cabinets we had made by a cabinetmaker friend they seemed like a good value. After ordering the cabinets I found my old folder from 1991 and the cabinets I had loved then were CP! Obviously their sales method had changed (no longer in lumberyard kitchen showrooms) but my heart held steady without me knowing it. Lucky thing we waited so long because we're at a different point in our lives where we're willing to spend money on the infrastructure of a house we hope to still be living in in 40 years. Bottom right corner before reno:

I agree with everyone who is hesitant to put two on, unless the drawer is so incredibly wide and fully-loaded that two hands are necessary to pull it out (e.g. on my old built-in buffet drawers in my dining room...those can barely open when using two hands!). I think having a free hand in a kitchen is a good thing. I think I'm getting the Gilmore pulls from Restoration Hardware because I too like those different lengths. I'll put the 4" pulls on my wide drawers (they're about 24.5 or 25" wide, not including their frames around them) and the 6" pull on my integrated dishwasher front. The only beef I have with them is that they're SO COMMON (I see them on just about every picture, everywhere)! But then I also have to remember that most people who see them will be family, friends and neighbors and most of them won't know how common they are out here in cyberspace like the rest of us do - haha. Here's a pic of my husband holding up the 6" pull to our 25"-or-so-wide drawers (prior to drawer fronts being installed, so the drawers look strange, sorry!): ...and here's the 4" pull held up to same drawer: You can see the 6" bin pull sitting on the counter above our dishwasher in the following photo. Its front hasn't been put on yet but when it has, it will be a little wider (whatever standard width is for dishwashers):