Mine aren't in yet, but I went all drawers. I figure with doors and pullouts, I still have to open the doors, and then pull out something similar to a drawer - 2 steps. With drawers, just pull it out.

I suppose it depends on the maker, but I'd assume the drawers will have more storage space. and I LOOOVE the look of drawers under the cooktop!

drawers - definitely! unless under sink or to the Susan corner.

Cabinet makers love drawers because they cost more.
But I do prefer drawers, too: not just because they look beautiful, but I tend to keep them neater.

Our kitchen is being installed now but we went with drawers under cooktop (and everywhere else that made sense). I agree with above posts - more functional room.

I love drawers--have used them almost exclusively in my past 2 kitchens and am planning on them again in the new kitchen. That is one of the only things I feel confident about.

This post is perfect timing. I just ordered my cabinets and am doing all drawers on the lowers (except under sink) because of all the positive things I've read on this forum. I am doing (3) banks of two drawers and (5) banks of three drawers. I think it will work out really well.

I have doors with pull put drawers in my house now....I am in the middle of a remodel of an old house and will not use this configuration in this house...the drawers pull out and seems cramped because of doors....I am definetly going with as many drawers in the remodel as I can afford...makes for easier use and actually gives you more space...

I had doors with pull-out drawers in my old house--and had all of the issues that buehl lists above--things fell off, things got stuck, it was annoying to use them. IMO, they are, however, MUCH better than lower cabinets without pullouts.

In this kitchen (new house) we have all drawers. I love my drawers. My husband lovers my drawers. My teenaged son is less enthusiastic :-), but he likes drawers too. I have no idea what my daughter thinks (and she isn't here to ask).

I am so glad I designed this kitchen will all drawers--and that they are drawers rather than pullouts.

Well, I will be the dissenting vote here--kind of :-)

When I first started working on kitchen remodel plans, I was not planning on *any* drawers. I have a couple in our current kitchen and I don't like them at all for pots/pans, b/c you have to pick up a stack of pans in order to get to the bottom one. Frustrates me to no end! I also have chronic back/neck issues and struggling to maneuver stacks of heavy items does not help--and I'm not even "old"--yet. LOL (I have some cast iron skillets and Dutch oven, plus some Magnalite Dutch ovens and roaster, etc, along w/ the usual array of smaller pots and pans.)

In our previous house we had several ROTS and I really liked them, specifically for my pots/pans storage. They provided easy access to the items in the back. The sides were shallow enough to easily access the items on the bottom of the stack. I never had any problems w/ things falling over the sides. Now, this kitchen was very spacious, so I had plenty of room to fully open the doors to my ROTS. If your space is less roomy, I can see where it would be harder to justify using ROTS, b/c if you don't open the doors *fully*, you can end up banging the corners of the shelf itself on the cab doors. I still did that occasionally, but never noticed any damage to either the shelf or the door.

Now, that said, last summer we stayed at a place that had wide (approx. 32"-36"w) drawers in the island that were used for storage of everyday glassware, plates and bowls, conveniently located near the dishwasher. And I discovered that I actually like drawers, too, for *those* types of items.

So, in my upcoming remodel, I plan to do a mixture: ROTS for my pots/pans--and drawers for my most frequently used dinnerware (glasses, cereal/salad bowls, plates, etc).

And I'm looking forward to a happy marriage of the two :-)

Excellent summary by buehl!!

I'm another DRAWERS fan. My lowers consist of the under sink cab (doors), two lazy susans in corners and the rest are drawers. Six years later, I'm still as happy as a clam. Drawers are da bomb!

I had drawers under my cooktop in a kitchen long ago and swore if I ever got a chance to design my own kitchen I'd put in all drawers. Well baby, I did get that chance and I did put in all drawers. No comparison IMO. Get the drawers.

One caveat, as buehl notes, they are not adjustable. So make sure any tall items you own have somewhere to go. I have alternate storage including a walk in pantry, uppers with adjustable shelves and adjustable shelf storage in the adjacent utility room. So anything that is too tall for my drawers still has a home.

I love my drawers. They have cast iron stacked, and it's not a problem. BUT they're 48" wide. There's lots of room to get the hands in, shift things, etc. I originally thought I'd feel like Jbrig about it, but it turned out to be a non-issue for me. Doors wouldn't have fit, so I had no choice. :)

My mother has ROTS that are even wider. Besides the whole thing of the doors being in the way, etc., etc., the width the doors have to be makes them sag just a little (with extra hinging, etc., even so), so you have to lift and adjust to close them.

The problem with narrower drawers--that is, dividing the space into two sets, rather than one big drawer, whether it's 36" or 48", is that you not only lose the 1.5"+ where the actual cabinetry is in the middle, you lose the small spaces between where handles overlap, or where you put your steamer basket, or whatever.

This is true for all drawers and cupboards, but when you're dealing with more, smaller items, sometimes you gain organization. For pots you just gain wasted space. My divisions are only where they were exactly necessary, structurally, e.g., between the corner units and the regular runs, and next to the appliances.

Since ours are still new, we haven't experienced the problems mentioned, but I do notice the extra motions and the need to make sure the doors are open all the way before pulling out the rollout.

If I could timetravel back, I would definitely do drawers instead of rollouts.

"...b/c you have to pick up a stack of pans in order to get to the bottom one..."

This statement is true of any pot & pan (or other) storage...it's not restricted to drawers. If you don't have enough room to fit all your pots & pans in the drawer OR ROTS unstacked, then you will have this issue. If you have enough room, no stacking needed!

If you want a single layer, then measure your pots/pans and get drawers to fit...don't just take what's "standard" or default. Even w/ROTS you'll have to order extra ROTS to do this...so you need to plan storage no matter what you decide on!

I'm a compromiser. I loved having OPEN roll out shelves...aka shallow drawers but in deep "spaces" under my rangetop. Nothing could be easier to use....the benefits of roll-outs AND drawers. Provided that there was enough room to not have to stack the front row, they were easy enough to keep neat looking under the rangetop. I put my crustier, older stuff toward the back, where I did stack skillets. In the front of both drawer.trays where it was seen...the nice new matching pots and pans in a single layer. Of course, the look is a bit more "user-friendly kitchen" than impeccable showplace...not unlike having a pot-rack.

I was surprised to read that ROTS cost more than drawers. In our design with Aristokraft cabinets, KD suggested two cabinets with ROTS instead of drawers to save money. With aristokraft ROTS are about 20% less than drawers. I was considering it to save money and for flexiblility as everthing else would be drawers. HD also told me ROTS are always cheaper than drawers.

Does it just depend on the brand? Since I have never had either I'm afraid to commit to all drawers.

I have mostly lower drawers in my recently renovated kitchen. I have not yet moved in, but do think they are more convenient than cabinets. In my old kitchen I had to stack things on a cabinet and remove all the front ones to get to the utensils behind. My cabinet maker wanted to do cabinets because you lose some space with drawers, and drawers were more expensive for me. But I put my foot down. Now I am not sure if the large utensils will fit in the drawers! I would say go for majority of drawers but do leave 2-3 lower cabinets if you have a large kitchen especially if you use tall utensils.

Thanks to discussions like this one, I changed my kitchen layout to have all drawers on the lowers, except for the sink base. Originally my contractor/designer had put lower cabinets-it cost less but when I saw it I asked him to change to drawers. I am SOOOOOOOO tired of reaching down into my lower cabinets for pots/pans, and having them fall over all and bangbangbang against each other, and having to lift front items out to get things in back. Cannot wait to have drawers! I also am getting a deep(er) shelved pantry to put some of the large or cumbersome kitchen items that may not work in a drawer. Really looking forward to the change.

Ann

There are several places I have lower cabs that I like them--corner susan, tray cab, under both sinks, and one cab I had specially made to hold my giant stockpots. None of these has rollouts, but they all work great for their purposes.

I do wish I had elected to have drawers in the bottom of my pantry cabs, but it never occurred to me during the planning process. I was more concerned with form than function, and I thought the doors looked nice in my drawings. Oh well. I may still have roll-outs retrofitted there.

I do love, love, love the rest of my drawers, though, and I will NEVER store pots and pans (other than my giant stockpots) in anything but drawers again.

Drawers!!! I have two deep drawers under my cooktop and simply LOVE them. I am planning to get my cabinet guy to turn the false shallow drawer front at the top into a functional shallow drawer too, now that I know there is room under the cooktop to do that. My pots and pans all sit in the drawers, with their lids on. No digging around or unstacking anything is never needed. It is so nice to have all of my pots so organized.