A progress photo, if you're curious. This was before we started hanging doors. Right before the curse words began to fly - you can see three of the drawers installed in the corner in question...

The "before..."

I don't quite understand or I'm not seeing the problem....how did the drawer open before you painted the cabs and why can't you put it back the same way?

The old hardware was shallow enough for clearance. The new hardware catzmeow ordered is not.

I had the identical situation in our kitchen's past incarnation. I notched out the side edge of the drawer front so that it just cleared the adjacent pull. We had relatively thin pulls, so the notch wasn't too big, and tucked back in the corner like that, it was very discreet when the drawer was closed. In fact, in over 25 years, I'm not sure if anyone ever noticed it...

Also forgot to say, I remember your thread a while back when you were getting started with all the hard decisions, and I recall you'll be selling this house before too long.

I think the changes you've made are looking good, it will look fresh and new, without sinking a ton of money you'll never get back. We think about the same issue. Removing the old soffit sure made a big difference, too! Can't wait to see it finished, with new countertops and crown installed. Hang in there!

mudhouse - that is a really good idea! Hmm, that actually might be perfect! The drawer fronts themselves are 3/4" thick, and they are actually mounted onto a 3/8" thick piece of ply that makes up the front of the box, so there's a lot of thickness there.

I do like those Amerock handles. I will check to see if they are in stock at my big box so I can measure them and get an idea of how much countersink I'd actually have to do. Really brilliant idea, thank you!

Also, today by chance I found a bail pull that says it has a 3/4" projection when the handle is in the down position. I've emailed the company because I want confirmation before I make a purchase, but that might also work if I can't make the countersink work!

Okay, deep breath. Maybe this isn't a total disaster.

Here's another suggestion.
How about shifting the drawer front 1/8" or so to allow it to clear the adjacent drawer's pull?
We had to do this for the drawers you see in this picture in order for the top drawer to clear the cabinet recessed into the right side wall.

willtv, actually, that was my first thought - let's just fix the clearance on the cabinet, put it the way it should have been in the first place. I thought maybe when we pull the countertops up to replace them, (substrate is damaged) we could just add a spacer piece there. But after looking at the way everything is built (like crap), I think we'd make a big mess in the long run. This house is going on the market within a year or so, so we're trying to be cautious where we put our time and money.

I like your open corner wall cab on the end there. I've always wanted one of those!

Catz, just to clarify, we didn't move the cabinet. We disconnected the drawer fronts from the drawer boxes and shifted them.
Failing our solution, I think that Mudhouse's idea is a good fix.
BTW, the open corner cabinet was added at the suggestion of our cabinet maker. We didn't want the upper cabinet to come all the way to the end of the countertop for fear of making the already narrow pantry area look too enclosed. At the same time leaving the upper cab short of the end of the counter would just look wrong. This, to us, was the perfect solution. It makes the space seem more open and that's always a plus.

I had a similar problem, my contractor cut off part of the "stem" of the knob so it laid closer to the door allowing the drawer to open. Hope something like this will work for you.

will - Ah, that makes more sense! I'd definitely do that with the drawer fronts if I could shift the cabinet doors as well. I'll look to see. We have 1/2" overlay doors, but we're using variable overlay hinges, so we might have room to increase the clearance to 1" if we shift everything over 1/4". I'll look at it tonight and see if we still have room for the hinges to get a good bite into the wood. Thanks for the clarification!

ilene - thanks for the suggestion! We aren't working with a contractor for this part, but I know one and I bet he could cut the handles for us if we go that route.

Thank you everyone for the great suggestions. Sometimes you just need a fresh set of eyes to fix a problem. I was having a hard time seeing past my own frustration! (Partially at myself for not measuring the clearance!)

I will post an update when we decide what to do. We're going to work on it this weekend.

Sorry to wander off, and I'm so glad you have a number of good options now! Willtv's idea of shifting the drawer fronts is a really slick idea, never thought of that!

I love that we can all put our heads together and come up with so many different ideas, all of which would work nicely. Can't wait to unleash you folks on our old wonky kitchen...

What about a slightly recessed pull? Since you only need seven of them, it might not be as big of a chore as you think to have these routed out. I ended up doing that for a BA vanity where I had a corner with two drawers too.

Do a google search on recessed handle pulls (maybe something like the photo), pocket door pulls, bull ring pulls, and finger pulls, you might find something that works for you. If you decide to cut off or recess stems, you might not be able to grasp the handle entirely with your fingers. There are other threads that discuss this issue.