My guess is that the look is achieved by adding fillers and end panels to frameless boxes to achieve that look. Here is what one family did with Barker Cabinets. (Full Overlay doors)

Here is a link that might be useful:

It's done in lots of older Scandinavian furniture, but I haven't seen a cabinet line that would offer it. To work, the drawer boxes themselves would have to be shorter, so that the drawer itself sits inside the frame. And the box would have to be constructed with more than veneer or melamine taped edges I'd want a hardwood edging.

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Frameless inset is a very european look. Only the 18mm edge of the cabinet box is exposed, since it's frameless. The doors are virtually always slab. In the better examples, only the vertical cabinet box sides are exposed, the doors extend to cover the bottoms and tops, so it isn't 100% inset, but about 50%.
Extremely refined if well carried-out, IMO.
If you think about it, it provides a visual cue as to where the cabinets are divided, full overlay is an uninterrupted procession of doors masking the individual box's identities.
Casey

Thank you jgHG!!! I was scouring Google this morning trying to remember their name. I don't know how many different ways I tried to put in "frameless inset" Washington, no wait, it's Oregon, no Portland, wait no, it's Seattle. I knew it had a K but that was it. Phew, my brain can rest easy now.
I spoke to them when I was trying to decide on cabs. Great office, super friendly. We decided to go local to save on freight. We also have banded edges but I love their stuff. I always esp. liked this one:
http://www.houzz.com/photos/users/kerfdesign/p/20

Here is a link that might be useful: [Kerf frameless walnut cab[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/roberts-kitchen-modern-kitchen-seattle-phvw-vp~1188280)

The examples above are exposed edge boxes. I wouldn't call that inset. There is a way to achieve an inset look for both traditional and modern styles . Which style are you looking for?

The hardware manufacturers call it _frameless inset_ when you shop for the peculiar hinges that work with that door/box juxtaposition.
Casey

I'm pretty sure that my cabinets fit the frameless inset bill, but who knows. It was about looks for me. I had a piece of furniture that I really liked and a GC that was willing to build. My cabs were built as units with interior divisions to keep each unit completely separate. My sink run is 65.75": SB interior 25.5", PO interior 12", and a DB with a 25.25" interior. If they were all separate cabinets I think I would lose 1.5" of usable space in each drawer which probably isn't much in a large kitchen, but in my small one it was a consideration.

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This post was edited by cluelessincolorado on Thu, Jan 22, 15 at 12:07

Thanks everyone. Interesting to ponder, and the Barker photo looks good--as does the Scandinavian furniture, which led me to turn my head to the left, look at our sideboard and say "duh."

I'm interested in a more traditional, painted Shaker look, and it would certainly be nice to get an inset look without giving up any more width and height than necessary.

Isn't the Anderson one just wrapped cabinets?

We had our inset cabs custom made. I asked to have the stiles & rails as small as possible & still be strong. I also only have a toe kick at the sink. I have small feet but mt DH doesn't and it hasn't created a issue. My graduated drawers are deeper than the average stock cab.

" it would certainly be nice to get an inset look without giving up any more width and height than necessary. "

You don't have to give up all that much
1st- for agiven opening width the drawer boxes are identical between the two.
Then
-Few responsible frameless makers will be "combining" cabinets. Many restrict clear openings to 36" some go higher for drawers but be careful (I only will with better custom brands)- that means every time two cabinets are put together there is 1-1/2" in between.

Most decent inset makers will combine-between a total of 84 and -the largest I've done was 114"- depends on what you can get into the house. Every time a cabinet is combined there will be 1-1/2" between openings- same as on frameless. And you need less clearance when turning a corner with inset (1" extra) than with frameless (2.5" extra).

In terms of gained width in a kitchen you'd be lucky to gain a total between nothing and 2"

Where frameless "can" win is in height. But again depends on the maker. ON my better frameless you would gain an inch in height on the top over the same brands inset- but those have 6" top drawerheads and 4" toe kicks in frameless. That is not always the case.

For the lower drawers:
I regularly specify inset drawers with no intermediate rails- that is the openings all look like a cabinet with a drawer and door no matter how many drawers they have. So for the lower drawers the frameless gains 3/4" of height divided by how many drawers there are in the lower section (3DB =3/8" per and 4DB= 1/4" per drawer)

NOTE that "delete intermediate rail" requires using an upper semi or a full custom maker- but then that is also the likely case for your frameless inset.

so clueless, am i reading you right that your cabinets were custom made by your GC? pretty impressive work for a GC.

We are doing frameless inset cabinets with slab doors in our kitchen. We looked at Kerf but are going with a local custom cab maker. Since we don't have a lot of uppers, the frameless cabs offer a little more storage space. some examples from our inspiration file:

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[Modern Kitchen[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/modern-kitchen-ideas-phbr1-bp~t_709~s_2105) by Denver Design-Build Firms Design Platform

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[Modern Kitchen[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/modern-kitchen-ideas-phbr1-bp~t_709~s_2105) by Denver Design-Build Firms Design Platform

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[Transitional Kitchen[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/transitional-kitchen-ideas-phbr1-bp~t_709~s_2112) by San Francisco Architects & Building Designers Arcanum Architecture

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[Midcentury Kitchen[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/midcentury-modern-kitchen-ideas-phbr1-bp~t_709~s_2115) by Minneapolis Interior Designers & Decorators Design By Lisa

Thanks Jakuvall. I'm again reading a thread that references the "significantly smaller interiors" in inset vs. frameless and am trying to understand why that would be so. It makes sense in height when inset drawers have intermediate rails that full overlay cabinets don't, but it sounds like width isn't an issue since the cabinet box-plus-glide-hardware defines the width of drawers in both inset and frameless. Is that right? The difference being that in inset the cabinet box in exposed and finished while in frameless it's covered?

Yes the opening defines the drawer.
For the same dimensioned opening, height and width, framed overlay, framed inset, and frameless inset will have identical drawer boxes and clearance.

How much "cabinet" is between openings determines gain or loss.

Note regarding height- some frameless makers use stretchers between drawers- costing you 3/4" of vertical clearance. Some also place all roll outs on shelves (ugh).

we are looking for slab inset cabinets - I love kerf but we didn't have a midcentury home. we are in seattle. any resource suggestions?

I particularly love the bottom photo - white quarter sawn oak placed vertically, I believe. Please send any leads. Thanks!

Hi wM-- I haven't read back through this thread (heading outside to enjoy this rare sunshine!), but our contractor used Acorn Cabinets over on the east side. We've been happy with them, and they were very helpful in putting my ideas/plans into effect, changing things I and they did wrong (I had one small cabinet that should have been drawers so I switched that out; the pullout shelf for unloading grocery bags moved with the drawer when it should have stayed in until I needed it), as well as returning to move a corner pullout long after installation.