I suppose he will finish those in your house too. Get a real custom cabinet maker instead of parts assembler faux one.

Our kitchen designer told us that doing a shaker design on the small top drawers would not look good because the space inside the frame would be small and there wouldn't be proper space for a handle.

We went slab front for the top drawers, 5 piece for the two lower drawers and we think it looks better than it would have looked with the shaker design squeezed on to a small drawer. I have my pots in a drawer that has a drawer-in-drawer to hold the lids. My deepest pot is 8" and fits, even though the drawer for the pot lids takes some of the depth. If the biggest pot were taller, I'd probably have to get rid of the pot lid drawer-in-drawer.

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The pictures above are attractive. I would show those photos to confirm that is what he is suggesting. If he has any pictures of his work with what is being proposed, even better.

If you do a slide-in range like a Bosch Benchmark or 800 induction instead of the freestanding type pictured, you'll have more decretive backsplash options for the wall space behind it. And a more built in look.

You are giving up a lot of drawer space with the overlay design of your cabinets. Frameless or slim frame full overlay will get you wider drawer interiors for the same width cabinet base.

dan1888-We are doing a slide in range with a very specific inset feature above the range. We had special framing done to accommodate it. This is just how they draw it. We are doing a Kitchen Aid slide in to be specific.

Most drawer fronts are available in more than one rail width so if you wish to have a 5 piece upper drawer it's no problem. The upper drawers here are 6" in height.

Hi, OP, curious is there anything you liked from the posters yet? Some positive feedback will help Houzzers know your likes so they can help you better ;)

The Kitchen Abode Ltd.-How big are the lower two drawers? Interior height dimensions?

artistsharonva- I am still on the fence. I really would like to have all five piece drawer fronts but I also don’t want to give up too much space of the two lower cabinets. We are awaiting a call from the cabinet maker to go over it. His wife who draws everything out has been the go between and it’s making the process take longer. We have requested a phone conversation with him directly. I feel like we could get resolution once we talk with him and aren’t going back and forth over email.

slab fronts for the top drawers are fine.

I see. Thanks for sharing more about the situation.

Smart to have measured the tallest pan & request the interior measures while planning out your kitchen. You're obviously putting a lot of time into the details which will be very useful later.

If the drawer height for taller items in the drawer prevents you from getting the drawer fronts you prefer, maybe consider a base cabinet with a pullout on bottom only.

Maybe 2 smaller bases on outside with large drawers in the middle or just 1, 2 door base cabinet in middle or somewhere else in the kitchen you prefer. Or at least if there's a pantry cabinet or closet the tall items can go in.

I prefer diversity when it comes to storage items, because you never know down the road some really cool tall kitchen item will be added to your kitchen. Have a plan for extra room through out for future stuff, too.

Hopefully your cabinet guy can discuss directly soon , so you find the best solution for you.

I highly suggest having an on site review with the cabinet maker & whoever will be installing them once the design is done before ordering. The more people involve the more review time is warranted. It helps to keep everyone informed & updated to have a smoother install journey.

I need opinions on mixing slab drawer fronts and five piece drawer fronts being mixed in the kitchen.

Yes to mixing styles on drawer stacks.

If you're going with Shaker cabinets, I much prefer the top drawer to be a slab. Why? All-Shakers seems to be "too much". Top drawers tend to be the most shallow, and often the hardware doesn't work on a shallow-Shaker. It just "looks right" to have one slab drawer topping two Shaker-drawers.

I completely agree. We will see what he says. I had all slab drawer fronts in my old house and it didn’t bother me but I’m just concerned with the mixing of the two next to each other. The general census seems to be that it will look good so we will see. I will definitely update everyone no mater what I decide. Hopefully we can get it figured out by the end of tomorrow as far as designing and then have another on site meeting.

eta: the pic is a bit stretched out for some reason. If you click on it the picture is accurate.

I purposely went with slab drawers for my top drawers in my kitchen just because I liked that look

In my last kitchen I did slab on the top and shaker on the rest. I liked the look. In my new kitchen I was more radical in my mixing of slab and shaker. I have, for example columns of slab drawers and columns of shakers. (in badgergal's photo imagine the center stack being slab and the outside being shaker). I know that it's not for everyone, but it's my kitchen and I love it! And my kitchen is super custom, btw.

The issue is not the drawers. Either option is fine. The reduced rails 5 pc, or the plain slab. The issue is that a “custom cabinet maker” should be making and finishing his own product in house. He is appropriating the term and way padding his resume. He is a faux custom cabinet maker.

You are also adding yet another layer of potential miscommunication between you and your desired end result. With the wife in the mix too, even another layer. And that end result is highly questionable, given the fact that he didn’t even offer a reduced rail height to give you the 5pc small drawer.

What else does he not know exists in the custom cabinet world? Heck, you can get those options in many semi custom lines, along with a profiled slab drawer, and a 3 piece slab drawer. 4 drawer options. Not 1. In semi custom.

A custom cabinet guy should be more custom than a semi custom line. And more knowledgeable about what can and cannot be done. And he should not be a parts orderer, or house paint finisher. You are doing yourself and your project a disservice by choosing to work with a fraud. If he is cheap, there IS a reason. TANSTAAFL Caveat Emptor.

Maybe you want to try another cabinet guy.. “He gets the doors elsewhere and does not make those.” This is troubling

Are your lowers inset or full overlay? That too makes a difference.

Mine are European boxes with full overlay. 5 piece on all drawers. Fully custom.

Help me out. I don’t understand why a slab vs a 5 piece drawer front on top impacts the storage space within the two lower drawers?

i will say I have 5 piece drawer fronts on all our drawers and we have plenty of room for pots and pans.

Kazmon - usually the top drawer is more narrow at 5" to do a 5 piece drawer usual a custom cabinet maker will go to 6" taking space from the bottom drawers.

IMHO need a new cabinet maker sans "Wife who draws" and who makes all his own cabinets. This sounds like a guy buying pieces and slapping them together while his wife plays with some home design program...

Got it Jane - Thanks

I know you didn’t ask about this, but a wood hood should be wider then the cooktop to prevent the combustible material from being directly over the heat element. Also, I think a 36” width would look better proportionally.

I generally design with slab drawer fronts or 5-piece only on deep drawers.

I have the slab upper fronts over the 5 piece lower drawer fronts and it looks completely normal to me.

Maybe my cabinetmaker is an outlier, but from my single kitchen remodeling experience I have to respectfully disagree with the fact that they have to make their own drawer fronts.

My kitchen is customized to the point that I was pushing the cabinetmaker on 1/8 inch at the end of the design process. When they installed in my home, one of the installers was telling me about the construction process on my customizations. Everything fitted beautifully, including the doors. I have inset doors on the main kitchen and overlay doors on the refrigerator wall since I did not want to lose space from insetting the custom panel refrigerator. From a very early conversation that I had with the cabinetmaker, they get their unfinished doors from a respected 3rd party and finish them on site themselves. As far as I am concerned, if both are of high quality and the cabinetmaker takes responsibility for it all, it should cause no concern at all.

I have the slab upper fronts over the 5 piece lower drawer fronts and it looks completely normal to me.

Here is the link.
[scrappy25 part 1[(https://www.houzz.com/discussions/scrappy25-renovation-part-1-layout-evolution-and-cabinets-dsvw-vd~2817830)

Also, note the dishwasher door (inset in a frame), in picture below. It is underneath the small kitchen window. The cabinetmaker built the frame around the door to retain the inset appearance but they act as a one piece dishwasher door.

Kristin Petro Interiors, Inc.- I have also asked about this from the cabinet maker and am awaiting a response.

Jane- I understand where you are coming from with this and with the doors not being made by him. This is who our builder uses and I have seen and felt many of cabinets he's made since my husband is related to and works for our builder as the estimator. The quality of the cabinets is great. Hopefully we can get it ironed out today but we wont approve anything until we are absolutely happy.

Does he finish them in a clean room with conversion varnish? Or does he leave the finishing for the painter on site?

There is only two factors as to whether a drawer front is slab or 5 piece. The first is the look you wish to achieve. The 2nd is whether or not the height of the drawer front is sufficient to accommodate the chosen profile. This will vary depending upon whether the style is recessed or raised panel in conjunction with the width of the rails. Your cabinet maker or KD should know these parameters, explain them to you and advise you accordingly.

Ask to see a spec sheet on the drawer fronts. If you're going with a flat panel door, the taller drawer fronts may be a raised panel, which holds up better against the stress on a large drawer front.

Custom cabinet makers will use suppliers like Conestoga for doors and drawer fronts. They can make them and ship them, faster, cheaper and better than you can in most shops. Ask him to show you an example of a door and a 5-piece drawer front.

Finish is also important, find out about that before you put down any money. A clean room and conversion varnish is imperative. And insist on a pay schedule that's 30% upfront, 30% right before delivery and %40 upon completion. Two of the nightmares that show up on this forum are bad finish on a custom cabinet and the contractor's been paid but won't finish the installation or fix a problem.

Sophie Wheeler- He does the painting as well. We pick the color. All paint is Sherwin Williams except our lowers we chose another brand due to wanting a specific color.

Carolina Kitchen & Bath- The billing and financials is all through our builder. Our builder is family and my husband works for him. This is our second build with him so if something is not correct it will be dealt with swiftly.

Alyssa, does he finish it in a clean environment or on site? Did your builder supply the cabinets for the last build and were they finished in the same way he's proposing to finish these?

Carolina Kitchen & Bath- Clean environment. Our builder used a different cabinet company back then but that was many years ago.

Hire a real KD. Not some schlub who fakes it. You’ve got issues in design and execution here. It won’t get better. It will only get worse.

I do not understand how the design of the drawer front or door has any affect on how much stuff you can store inside the cabinet.

If you want a drawer height that does not match an available drawer-front height from the place he's getting the door/drawer front, ask him about the possibility of custom.

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I'm a fan of slab for the top drawer, too. Here is how my cabinets look with this: uppers are inset, lower cabinets are European frameless with full overlay. Shaker except for the top drawers.

I'm not as hung up on spray painting with conversion varnish as Sophie is. I know that most of the very highest end cabinets in the UK are hand painted on-site. I assume they must hold up well as people pay the sun and the moon for these cabinets, but I don't know. My own old cabinets that were hand painted with oil-based enamel, certainly held up well.