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wikachick

Shaker Cabinet Drawer Design

wikachick
15 years ago

Hi all,

I've decided to put cherry frameless Shaker cabinets in my kitchen. The lower cabs will all be drawers. My cabinet guy suggested that I have the first drawer in each row be a slab drawer, with the lower drawers Shaker. He said having all Shaker-style drawers, especially smaller ones, will look too busy. Any thoughts on this? Thanks!!

Comments (30)

  • november
    15 years ago

    I was afraid shaker drawers would look busy, so we got all slab drawers (but not all of our lowers are drawers, like yours). I really like the look of the slab drawers. Ours are inset, and it's a very clean look.

  • 3katz4me
    15 years ago

    That's how mine are done - smaller drawers are slab - larger drawers are shaker. I think that's good advice.

  • piegirltoo
    15 years ago

    Mine are like gibby3000's. Don't forget that you'll be dressing them up with beautiful hardware!

  • jaymielo
    15 years ago

    Another agreer (is that a word?) Our cabinetmaker also noted that the shaker drawers are often hard to afix with a know, especially if you want to use a pull, because you have to "get your hand around" the shaker border.

  • Cloud Swift
    15 years ago

    On mine only the drawers that are more than 8" high are 5 piece. The smaller drawers are slab. BTW, I think slab on the smaller drawers is typical Shaker. I have a book with pictures of Shaker furniture and the small drawers are slab. The Shakers only used 5 piece on drawers and doors that were large enough that 5 piece was easier/more practical than slab.

    We have a lot of drawers so all 5 piece would have looked busy.

  • paul_ma
    15 years ago

    Mine are all paneled, and I don't think they look busy at all. I don't especially like the look of the mixed slab/panel.

    Here is a pic. I will have some new pictures where the kitchen is finished as soon as the camera recharges.

  • rhome410
    15 years ago

    Another one chiming in with a situation like Gibby3000's. Slab on the top drawer, 5pc on the larger ones underneath.

  • california_dreamer
    15 years ago

    I also have slab for the smaller drawers, 5 pc on the larger ones. So on a 4 stack of drawers, the top 3 are slab and the deep one on the bottom is 5 pc.
    On a 3 stack, the top one is slab and the lower 2 are 5 pc.

  • mavmomma
    15 years ago

    Slab vs five piece is a personal preference. Slab is less expensive. Some people who know that do prefer the five-piece look because they think the slab approach looks like "I didn't have enough money to do this right."

    That said, I have a mix of slab and five piece in my own kitchen. :)

    "Busy look" just depends on how many drawers are on that wall and what size -- it's very subjective. It's certainly not always true that it would look busy.

    If you do a mix, you will want to install pulls on the rails of the five-piece cabinets, so that they project the same distance as the pulls on the slabs. Else when viewed from the side, they will be uneven.

  • grannysmith18
    15 years ago

    If I were doing Shaker I would do all 5 piece - I've gone into homes with mixed slab & five piece and thought exactly what mavmomma said, that they didn't do it right or didn't want to spend the money. This was, of course, in the days of yore before I started working on redoing my own kitchen and before I started reading & studying up on kitchens like I'm preparing for my orals. I know better now!

    Having said that, I still prefer the uniform all shaker look. I think it might have a lot to do with the width of the perimeter pieces. If the 4 perimeter pieces are on the wide side they'd look ridiculous on a narrow drawer front; there would be just a tiny slit for the center piece. However if they're narrowish, I think they'd look great on every front.

  • skypathway
    15 years ago

    Mine are paneled like Paul Ma's drawers. I don't find it busy. The panels on the drawers flow with the panels on the doors. I find mixing slab with paneled seems uncohesive. Before I found this site, I previously thought they were poorly planned and possibly it may look like a cheaper solution if there appear to be other cheap elements in the kitchen (I say "appear" because until you price out kitchens, one doesn't realize how even the lowest cost solution these days is extremely expensive). I can see this is a very personal decision. Frankly, before I found this TKO site, I didn't realize that slab drawers were a popular alternative choice.

    Sky

  • patti823
    15 years ago

    All of my drawers are slab front. The price was the same for panels or not, I just preferred the cleaner, contemporary look. I've seen it done many ways, so there is no right or wrong, they both look nice. I would get what you want.

  • paul_ma
    15 years ago

    The widths of the rails and stiles on my drawers do vary with the size of the drawer. They don't look at all odd on the smaller drawers.

    Various manufacturers may handle this in differing ways. So you probably need to see what *your* cabinets would look like.

  • flatcoat2004
    15 years ago

    I carefully specified all drawerfronts to be 5-piece. I wasn't going for the more contemporary slab-front look. Since all my lowers are 3-drawer stacks except for under the sink (and the dishwasher panel), I don't think it looks especially busy.

    (very very unfinished installation ...)

  • don_chuwish
    15 years ago

    If they are to be slab and fairly close side by side, it's important to make the fronts from the same board so that the grain continues. Like with fine furniture:

    http://www.thosmoser.com/image.php?file_id=2646

    See the top two rows of drawers? Such a nice touch that won't happen with mass produced cabs.

    - D

  • igloochic
    15 years ago

    I went with a pretty wide five piece panel (3" wide) so I had room for all of my gorgeous knobs on the doors, which meant that on drawers, either I alter the size of the trim cut or I go with slab on the smaller drawers. 3" wide trim on a 7" drawer leaves you about an eyebrow width to put a handle in...quite silly looking (perhaps that's what he means by "busy") so I ended up with the mix as well.

  • don_chuwish
    15 years ago

    heheh, I'm just picturing someone with 1" thick eyebrows sticking their face in the panel to measure...

  • ci_lantro
    15 years ago

    I prefer slab fronts because the bottom panel edge is a grub collector & a pain to keep clean.

    From an aesthetic point of view, if you're using a natural finish, the slab fronts really are the place to showcase the beautiful wood grains. As don_chuwish pointed out, a lot of attention needs to be paid to how the boards are cut, with an eye to continuity of grain across the run of cabinets.

  • wikachick
    Original Author
    15 years ago

    Heehee don chuwish! (You can borrow my husband's eyebrows). Swear to all that is good and beautiful, you people are the best! Thanks to all for the great info. Special thanks to those who posted photos. Cloud swift, your cabinets are beautiful, and your countertops are gorgeous, too. What are they? Paul ma, your kitchen is fabulous; your drawers next to the range helped me make up my mind. Mavmomma, your advice about the pulls was invaluable. In fact, it spawned a whole new thread! Anyway, I've decided to go with all 5-piece drawers--to me, mixing 5-piece with slab drawers look better on framed cabinets, and, as paul ma's kitchen proved to me, all 5-piece will be fine. Thanks again to everyone.

  • plants4
    15 years ago

    There's another thing you can do with the slab fronts besides make the grain continue and that's have the wood on the slab line up the same way as with the 5-piece even though it isn't inset. So, if you look at it you see a "framed" wood grain that looks like the Shaker front. Obviously if it's painted there would be no point in doing this.

  • Cloud Swift
    15 years ago

    wikachick, the cabinets are DeWils frameless line. The countertops are azul do mar, a quartzite from Brazil.

    Our stiles and rails are about 2 1/4" and our smallest drawer is 4 1/4" high. We have a number of drawers that are about 5".

  • pharaoh
    15 years ago

    In my shaker doors, I used a 4.5" rail/style. Because the doors are exaggerated , I made all the drawers flat with continuous grain.

    here is an example.

  • antiquesilver
    15 years ago

    The cabinet maker & I agreed that 5 piece drawers would be too much on my inset cabinets. They were kept inset, but used only the panel w/o rails & stiles. Instead of being flush with the front, the drawers are allowed to recess 1/4" or whatever matches the other cabinet panels, making them look framed by the cabinet partitions.


    Recessed Drawers

    Upper cabinets

    I hope this makes sense. It's late & it's been a very long day!

  • antiquesilver
    15 years ago

    Duh....I just re-read the OP & realized it is discussing FRAMELESS cabinets & mine are framed. Sorry.

  • raehelen
    15 years ago

    Antiquesilver,

    That's OK, loved how you and your cabinet maker came up with such a wonderful solution! Genius!

    I'm going to put those photos in my files, cuz I think it's such a brilliant idea!

  • mygar
    15 years ago

    Pharaoh,
    Out of curiosity, what is that small piece of wood at the top of your drawer stack that is not part of the drawer?

  • pharaoh
    15 years ago

    Mygar, you caught our boo boo!

    We planned and built our entire kitchen including the red birch cabs. After we had installed the apron front sink (elkay) i found a julien like sink at a much better price. So I took out the brand new (unused) elkay and put in the new sink. Well this new sink has a curved protruding front!
    This kept the top two drawers from opening.

    We rebuilt the top two drawers to be shorter. Filled the dead space with a filler piece that you caught :)

    The nice thing about DIY is that such mistakes can be corrected (although not easily) and make for a great story afterward. bring a smile to my face every time someone notices it. Some have said that it may be a secret compartment :)

  • mygar
    15 years ago

    Tee hee! Sorry, pharaoh.

    I see the sink now and understand what you are saying. I thought it was a secret compartment....go go gadget!

    You should put a knob on it to make people think it is a "special pullout". :)

  • ljsandler
    15 years ago

    My cabinet style is not shaker but I had each drawer stack have the first drawer a slab style, then the next two drawers five piece. I love the look! I also put different hardware on the first drawer.