Frame & panel drawer fronts?

[Nathan Hoffman]

I was wondering the other day why a frame and panel design is used on cabinet doors, but solid wood is usually preferred for drawer fronts. (I know we all have seen frame & panels used as drawer fronts, but many purists howl at the sight.) Why is this? In our kitchen, we have a lot of drawers, and some of the fronts are as large as the smaller doors, so it must not be a size issue. And with euro hardware and overlay doors, it doesn't seem like wood movement is the issue either. Can anyone shed some light on this/ give opinions? Thanks.

[Jeff Sudmeier]

This is a good question, I have never really thought of it. The kitchen in my parent's apartment has panel door and drawer fronts. They are made with bead board panels. We needed something cheap, but well built and decent looking. I think they look great and really tie into eachother.

I would be interested as well to hear why solid wood is perfered over raised panels for drawers...

[Jamie Buxton]

I think folks have become accustomed to solid drawer fronts because for smaller drawers the panel part of a frame and panel front shrinks to a very small thing. And after they're using solid for the small drawers, they use solid for the larger ones too.

I have to admit that it sometimes looks odd to me too.

[Greg Heppeard]

Depending on drawer front size, the rails and stiles could be very small and also the panel could be too small to run thru your shaper or router table safely. Also you need to have a flat surface on the panel that does not look too small when finished. I've made a few rp drawer fronts, but most were for drawers that were at least 6" deep.

[Nathan Hoffman]

I agree that the solid fronts can look odd, but I've never seen an older piece of fine furniture with raised panel fronts. Has anyone else?

[Jim Becker]

In my kitchen, I did the top drawers solid, but the lower drawers are "frame and panel" in appearance, at least. (the rails and stiles are applied to a 1/2" flat substrate) You can see that in the cabinet in the lower left of this picture next to the range: