"better" is all how you perceive it for yourself.

There's really not anything wrong with doing it either way, just a style. It may depend a little in the actual design of the specific cabinet.

Yeah, I know. I guess I was just looking for opinions on which people prefer for beaded inset. It's such a distinct look and I could just swear that double doors on inset cabinets would have a stile in the middle but as I'm looking at pictures on houzz.com I only see those with butt doors.

The big reason for doing it without a style would be the ease of having a wide opening. But if the cab is really big and the doors would be really large you might consider a stile. Either is acceptable.

DH made me 2 7' tall pantry cabinets that will have inset doors. One is 30" wide, the other is 34" wide. The one thing I regret is having him put a center stile in each of them. The cabinets are in my kitchen right now, still doorless. I didn't think ahead to how hard it would be to put some of my things through the narrow openings that those stiles created. If we had a do-over (not happening), they would have butt doors. I have some oversized items, such as crock pots, that I cannot fit easily through the openings, even though there is plenty of room inside once they are past the stile.

Fwiw, if I were you, I'd go for the butt doors, just so you'd have wide open access to the storage space when you open the doors : )

I use butt up to 33 inch opening (36 cabinet) always,
36 and 39" openings depends on proportion.
42 and up have a stile or are split to 3 (or 4) doors- a butt pair and a single making for one stile.

I recall you asking about a photo. Here's one of a wide cabinet with a stile from my install....

and a narrow one without...

sorry for the pic quality, the light was a bit dim. Oh and yes, it is an inner and outer bead. They just went in, so the final adjustments and finish details are missing.

I have both butt and stile beaded inset cabinet doors in my kitchen. I agree that it depends on the size of the cabinet and what you are planning to put in it. Definitely go for functionality.

First sorry so long:

Finally I found a post during a search on Google! Thank you Gooster for sharing both style cabinets depending on how wide the door is.

Right now I have stiles in the middle of my partial overlay cabinet doors (4 cabinets) and I dislike them.

One of the designers (who used my measurements and cannot give me an exact price yet) managed to design my kitchen with more cabinets that are less wide to have no stile in the middle of the doors and only have the cabinet above the sink with the stile which adds to the cost (gave me a ballpark cost as he needs his own measurements and then I realized he had one too many cabinets below and I told him that I must have given him a wrong measurement so I measured again using my new tape measurement. He has not gotten back to me and he is about 1 hour from me so he wants me to visit and figure out everything at his store and be sure before he comes by to do his measurements that possibly could change everything. His sales tax is half due to his location but then again I have to get my own installer and the stress that comes along with that.

The other cabinet designer came to my home to get accurate measurements and bought sample doors on both visits so far. This visit he brought me three whites in sample doors to compare in the lighting in my kitchen. He designed my kitchen with the larger 39" wide cabinets that I have now with the stiles in-between the doors and I told him I liked his design a lot but I did not like the stiles. I did like no blind cabinets and the fact that I would have mostly all drawers and one of the two corner Super Susan's is a half Super Susan to have a pan cabinet which I like. He also added a cabinet over the sink (with glass doors that look nice but I may remove the glass to keep the cost down and I do not have anything to show off right now) that is also wide with a stile.

He said that Shiloh's inset cabinets wider than 36" have a stile but recently they will let you pay more per cabinet to remove it but the cabinet will not be stable. Why does it cost more to remove a stile? Maybe it cost more because then the butt doors will be wider?

Should I do more cabinets to add a few more to the cost, leave the stiles as I like the look of inset or remove the stile and take a chance of less sturdy cabinets and pay a little more for the butt doors on the wider cabinets?

Why do other brands like Honey Brook Custom Cabinets, Inc. allow no stile in the middle of the doors as long as the cabinet is less than 42" and they say the cabinet is still sturdy? Of course there was a higher price difference between the cabinets but I have not had a chance to go back to the store to get an exact price. The other store was trying to push me towards the full overlay Hanssem Cabinets and telling me the custom cabinets in inset was $8,000 more. But now that he sees I have no interest in the Hanssem cabinets, he said he can keep the costs beaded down and for me to come back to the store to look at the inset cabinets on display that are painted BM Cloud White which I liked the color of and the look of.

I need to keep my costs down as I am redoing all the floors downstairs, adding recessed lights in my large home office, fixing the mess the other contractor did to my ceiling when he installed recessed lights at the end of 2011, most likely having to remove the popcorn in the ceiling due to the mess and holes the installer left, installing tile floors, replacing my cracked vinyl windows with warm windows and doors that will be costly and of course there is the new counters, hardware, under cabinet lighting possibility and installation costs. I then have to replace the 22 year old carpet upstairs with new flooring and replace those windows also next year. I need to replace three toilets... I can go on and on and I just got a new water heater that was a lot.

Would the door be unstable if I remove the stile? Should I make more doors. I prefer so far the designer that came to my house to measure and then came back yesterday with an installer to give me an accurate price. The other designer does not want to bother until I finalize a plan at his place with my measurements and not his and I would have to find my own installer.

This is why I was going to switch to full overlay due to not wanting stiles between my doors but I love the look of inset cabinets.

I can keep costs down by taking the glass out of the cabinet over the sink which I think I may do. I am still waiting for the install price. The designer selling the Shiloh Cabinets that was at my home yesterday has a corner cabinet with no Super Susan in it or Lazy Susan but that is fine with me as I will need a ladder either way and want to see everything and keep my costs down but at least I would have a full Super Susan and a half Super Susan. I have two Lazy Susan's in my kitchen right now.

I was sure I was going to go with Polar white but the soft white looked nice in my kitchen (and looked nice with my floor tiles I already bought that are 17.5" X 17.5" rectified) as I plan to go with LED lights in 3,000K temperature and 1,150 lumens made by TCP, The installer would like his electrician to install LED that are retrofit and include the ring but I like the temperature of the bulb I found as I find 2,700K temperature makes everything more yellow than I like and anything more white that 3,000K is too stark.

Lynn-I just ordered my Shiloh before Christmas. I have one cabinet 33" that is prepared for glass and it was only an extra ~$200 bucks. I checked glass at a local place and for seeded it will be less than $100. Just thought I'd throw that out there. We are on a budget also but I felt that wasn't so much that I'd have to cut it so we are keeping it. Other lines for the same thing were more like $800. Crazy different.

Sorry to hear about Panda. Pets are such a part of our lives, it's tough. :(

Thanks Autumn.4 for letting me know since when I priced glass at a cabinet store in 2011 it was about $600 to $800 more. Do you have any wide cabinets with stiles in the middle? Did you do inset or full overlay or some other tyle cabinet. I love the finishes on Shiloh Cabinets and how well they are made.

Which style door did you go with and which finish Autumn.4?

I do not think I can live with stiles in the middle of cabinets again. Maybe there will be more replies after the holidays.

The Shiloh Cabinet Seller will give me butt doors he says for the same price and now I am trying to decide between which white to go with. My kitchen is not that big and the stile int he middle will limit my use of the cabinet.

I had stiles and preferred the look and had no issue with function, but it is entirely a matter of personal taste.