How would this look? Kitchen cabs

[Michael Weber]

Anyone have an opinion whether or not leaving off rails between drawers (except the top most) in "all drawer banks" would look okay in a traditional kitchen design? I'm doing beaded rails and stiles and drawers will be inset. The cabs in question would have beads around the perimeter just as the cabs with doors. I could get deeper drawers or even an extra drawer in but don't want to jeopardize the traditional look.

[Max Neu]

I think it would look fine,no different than a pair of doors with a 1/16" between them.The only concern I would have is loading them up with a lot of weight,they might need frequent adjusting to keep them from rubbing if you try to maintain tight margins.

[Tom Ewell]

If it's for yourself, go for it. I'd just make sure that all 'gap' spacing is uniform. Whatever your drawer top/bottom clearances are should match the side clearances.
You could also emulate a rail look by beading the drawer fronts in a way to match up with the top and bottom rails.

[Dave Zellers]

That's what I did but I didn't care about traditional design. Now if only I could finish the rest of them, I could have a traditional countertop installed. :D

Here's a pic-

326922

[John Lankers]

It can look very nice, I would fit the drawer fronts first and then apply the profile afterwards if it was for me.

[Patrick McCarthy]

Dave Z, very nicely done! The cockbeading is very attractive, IMHO

[Robert Engel]

With frameless cab construction this is typical.
You'll never notice the diff.

[Jamie Buxton]

For me, "traditional design" would include rails between the drawers, and would have inset drawers, not overlay. "Traditional design" hearkens back to the days before all-metal full-extension slides, when drawers were simple boxes that slid into cavities in the casework. The rails were part of holding the casework together, and making surfaces for the drawers to sit on.

[Michael Weber]

Dave Z, very nicely done! The cockbeading is very attractive, IMHO
+1. Guaranteed mine will not look that good. Thanks everyone, going to omit them.

[Peter Quinn]

I've had to do it both ways for designers in the past, in really prefer rails between the drawer fronts, you are never squeezing in an extra drawer by omitting two 1" rails. I did a kitchen last winter which had only a rail between top drawer and the bottom two in the drawer banks, it looked better than no rail at all....but coming from a very traditional shop previously, it still looks like somebody is trying to dress up full overlay euro boxes. In that case it was done so all three elevations in the kitchen would match the fridge panel elevations which for some reason could not have take. Best reason to do this is "value engineering"....aka cut the cost. Wrapping and flushing all that bead, or Jack mitering it, takes way more time. If you do a 1/2" rail with 1/4" bead on each side it takes up little more room to the drawer bank than full overlay would, but makes the inset drawer fronts pop. I know you said you decided but take a look at some examples of beaded full inset with narrow rails, might be appealing. Google "crown point cabinetry" for some good traditional galleries of beaded inset with rails.

traditional cabs as noted needed the rails for the web frames that held drawers, and typically they beaded the drawers not the face frames, to cover the dovetails....which were considered unsightly! I've also seen drawer banks with beaded drawer fronts, no rails and no beads on face frames, this actually looks pretty good too to me, bit closer to traditional.