I am at the design stage for a new kitchen. The upper cabinets will have shaker style frame and panel with a simple raised panel. The lower cabinets are mainly 3-draws to accommodate pots, pans and mixing bowls. The lower drawers are about 9 and 10 inches and the top about 6 inches (which will be consistent throughout). I am thinking the larger ones will look nice with a frame and panel front to match the upper doors, but the top drawer is too small for that treatment. I have seen gallery photos where the top drawer is just the raised panel. In others, the drawer front is plain.
I am also new to this so there may be other ideas. I would appreciate any ideas!
Thanks!
Replies
Hastings ,
I do a lot of frame & panel drawer faces and with overlay faces , I make the opening 5-3/4" tall . I use 2" rails and usually 2-3/4" stiles on the faces , the face comes out to 7" tall , you can make them shorter or change the overlay , but this creates a panel that is 3" tall , with the grain running up and down . It gets tricky to finish a smaller panel .
To me a solid face over F & P looks like a mistake or looks as though they don't match imo .
good luck dusty
Is it a face frame cabinet with full overlay drawer fronts? With 3/4" overlay and a 6" upper drawer opening, the height of the drawer front would be 7 1/2". I would make the drawer front 9 1/2" high (2 7/16" rails and stiles) and then rip 1" from the top and bottom resulting in rails that are half the width of the stiles. This provides for a larger panel.
This works great for me with a 5" upper drawer height and a 6 1/2" finished drawer front height.
Bill
Bill,Thanks fro your help. I agree with Dusty as well but wasn't sure what people considered normal!FYI, I will be using two face frames. The first face frame is normal and has overlay doors and drawers. The second face frame is decorative and fills the "gaps" giving all the doors and drawers an inset appearance.Hastings
I am attaching a picture of some doors/drawers that I just completed. The top drawer fronts have the technique that I described. Bill
Oops. Wrong Picture. Correct one now attached.
Bill
Thanks for the picture; it's really helpful.
I've downloaded it for reference.Hastings
For smaller drawer fronts, I'll draw them up (to scale) before deciding how to actually build them. Depending on the type of panel (raised or flat) you're using, a shallow drawer front may look a little goofy. If that happens, there's a third option.
I did these doors and fake drawer front for a bathroom vanity about a year ago. The doors have raised panels but the fake drawer front just wasn't big enough for a true raised panel to work. Since neither the customer (nor I) liked the flat slab look for the fake drawer front, I used a box core router bit to cut the shape of a panel. We all thought that it came out pretty well.
I just finished a kitchen. I used really simple shaker style frame and flat panel cabinet doors and plain slab drawer fronts. I think they look nice together. Cabinet doors are 2-1/2 inch stiles and top rail, the bottom rail is 2-3/4 inch. The photo is not so great, but you can see the two together.
This forum post is now archived. Commenting has been disabled