Advice on raised panel drawer fronts

[Jeff Monson]

I'm just starting a kitchen reface, I need some help with dimensions for drawer fronts. The existing cabinets are frameless cabinets, I've decided raised panels for the drawer fronts will look the best to match up with all the raised panel doors. Being a framless kitchen I think this is my only option for the drawer fronts.

I have 6" of height to deal with on all the upper drawers, the stiles I will leave a 2.25" to keep a symetrical look with the doors below. But my calculations leave me with 1.5" rails and a 3 5/8" panel.

2 questions,

1. Will 1.5" rails look ok?
2. What cutter can I order for the center panel? It will be a cove cut panel and I would imagine it will be a router bit I will need.

[J.R. Rutter]

I think that a lot depends on the outside edge profile. With bigger profiles, the skinny rails look, well, skinny. For smaller profiles in and out, the 1.5" should be fine.

When I do drawers like this, I use the same cutter as the doors, but do the long grain cuts with a shallower fence setting, but deeper cutter, so the edges are still 1/4"

[Chip Lindley]

Jeff, I don't believe you will like the look of 1.5" rails on drawer fronts with 2.25" stiles. You can build a mockup of a drawer front from scrap and see it up close and personal.

Consider doing without the rails/stiles and use a full raised panel profile on the drawer fronts. I did this on a bathroom vanity. I used the same 5/8" RP shaper cutter I used for the door panels. I left off the back cutter to give a 3/8" thick *tongue* on the edges. This was rounded over with a 3/8" radius router bit.

Sorry, my cabinetry needs cleaning--it's in the laundry room.

[Darius Ferlas]

If that's of any help, that's how 1 1/4" rails and 2 1/4" stiles look:

[Glen Butler]

I am about to head down this same road. I was going to do the upper drawer faces solid and only do raised panels on the lower drawers where the faces are around 12" tall.

[Jeff Monson]

I think that a lot depends on the outside edge profile. With bigger profiles, the skinny rails look, well, skinny. For smaller profiles in and out, the 1.5" should be fine.

When I do drawers like this, I use the same cutter as the doors, but do the long grain cuts with a shallower fence setting, but deeper cutter, so the edges are still 1/4"

JR, there will be no edge profile, just eased edges. That makes alot of sense to use a shallow fence setting. But do you use the same bit?

[David DeCristoforo]

There are many ways to handle drawer fronts. Making raised panel fronts is one way. I have to disagree with Chip in that I don't have a problem with 1.5" wide rails. I have gone as narrow as 3/4" in order to accommodate a full raised panel detail. But this can get you into some other problems. For example, the flat field of the panel may not be wide enough to accommodate a pull. So you want to consider the height of your smallest drawer front and you have to do this in advance of building your cabinets.

Another way to deal with drawer fronts is to abandon the idea that they have to match the doors. On a recent project, I made the drawer fronts flat but I wrapped the outside edge with a rabbeted bolection molding. The molding was designed to emulate the detail on the door frames so that they worked together but had a distinct design. This ended up looking very nice and stepped around the repetitive look that matching fronts and doors can have. Here's a pic of the final design:

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In the end, your decision has to be made on the basis of what you (or your customer) likes. This is a completely subjective decision. What might look good to one person will look hideous to another. The only one who has to like it is the one who has to look at it every day. I would make mockups of different possibilities so that you (and anyone else involved in the decision making process) can see clearly what it will look like.

[J.R. Rutter]

JR, there will be no edge profile, just eased edges. That makes alot of sense to use a shallow fence setting. But do you use the same bit?

Yes, but you may have to adjust height to get your 1/4" edge to fit the groove.