Kitchen

Reply to: I'd suggest you do some research beyond the Houzz forums. There's some half truths and misinformation being offered here without explanation. - If you are going with an inset cabinet, you want to make sure that you are purchasing a high quality, well built cabinet. You don't have to go with Plain & Fancy or Wood-Mode to get a decent inset cabinet. Mouser is a very respected cabinet line and offers inset at no additional charge. - Losing space with an inset cabinet can happen IF the manufacturer doesn't increase the box depth. That is because the door sits within the typically 3/4" face frame. With full overlay, that 3/4" of space can be utilized by the edge of larger platters and plates. For this reason, many manufacturers increase the depth of their cabinets by 1" or more. Some do it for both uppers and base cabinets, some do it only for uppers. So if a manufacturer's typical upper cabinet is 12" deep for full overlay, and they make their inset upper cabinets 13" deep, you actually GAIN a tiny amount of space. - Cabinet makers that offer a quality inset product will utilize Blum Tandem with Blumotion concealed runners on their drawers. These have integrated soft close and allows for: * Side-to-side adjustment to be made by hand in the front and rear of the drawer to keep the drawer perfectly aligned in the cabinet and prevent rubbing and binding. * Tool free height adjustment to create uniform reveal lines between drawer fronts throughout the kitchen. * Tilt adjustment that corrects any "shingling" of the drawer fronts that may occur (typically this only happens during installation). * Depth adjustment to align the drawer front flush with the face frame. - The type of hinge you choose will depend how much and how easy it will be to align your cabinet doors. Exposed hinges, also called barrel hinges are very simple. They do not have soft close and require a magnet or other mechanical catch to keep the door closed. Really high end manufacturers will mortise the barrel hinges. At a lower price point you'll find non-mortise hinges. Adjustment is limited for both. I've heard that a mortised hinge, while more difficult to install, is more stable for alignment purposes. One big advantage to a barrel hinge is you can open the door a full 180 degrees. You can also opt for a hidden European style hinge. These typically allow you to adjust the door a full 6 ways: In/Out, Up/Down, Left/Right. Some are even available with soft close. In general, you are limited to about 110 degrees to open the door. One downside, they can bulky and protrude into the cabinet space preventing shelf placement in the vicinity of the hinge. If you are going with any glass panel doors, you may be restricted to certain stile widths to prevent visibility of the hinge. - Whether you go with inset or full overlay, the opening width is the same width. There is no difference. - You will NOT lose any drawer depth or width. The drawer box is the same for both inset and full overlay. - With inset versus full overlay, the face frame is fully exposed and any nick, gouge, or other damage is visible when the door is shut. With full overlay, the damage is covered when the door is shut. In my research I googled around and came across a blogger who posted damage that occurred to her face frame on drawer when someone closed the drawer with a utensil sticking up. All I can say is she must not have had the soft close feature on her drawers. They don't close with enough force to do the level of damage she showed. Someone would have had to physically push the drawer hard. Others have mentioned that frame edges can get nicks and bumps when adding or removing canned goods or plates etc. Yes then can , and mishaps happen. One way to minimize this is to go with the traditional beaded frame so you'll have a rounded edge instead of a straight, sharp blunt edge. it will be more forgiving to show a bump or dent. - Humidity can be a concern. But, unlike fine furniture, which generally have tighter tolerance for gaps, well built inset cabinets have easy adjustment capability go adjustment can be made to compensate. Also, unlike fine furniture, kitchen cabinet makers design their inset doors with a greater gap specification, typically a 3/32" gap (about the thickness of two dimes) around all door and drawers. That allows for 3/16" of an inch total expansion in width and height - that's almost 1/4" . I live in the Great Lakes region of Western NY state. We have bouts of humidity during the summer but they are short lived. Unlike say Florida. I do not have central air. I have several Stickley Mission Cherry case goods with an oiled and waxed finish. They have inset drawers and doors. The gap (or reveal as it's better, known) is about 1 dime thick. I have NEVER had those doors or drawers stick. And the drawers and doors have no adjustment whatsoever. That's a testament to well crafted construction. - I find the comment "That isn’t a design for that level of a home" to be uninformed. The same goes for the comment: "It makes no sense to put inset kitchen in a $250k home. You'll never see the money back on that investment. If the home is valued at $750k and the neighborhood supports a decision like this then it might be worth the extra money." I'm not sure where these people are located but it's a big country and not all areas of the country have outrageous real estate prices. Also you don't have to spend $100K on a kitchen. Here's an inset kitchen that's a bit more "down to earth" than the one a previous poster showed that I believe was based on their limited experience outside of high priced, high end real estate. Where I live in Western, NY, real estate is very affordable. I live in a 1350 Sq. Ft. Dutch Colonial built in 1935. I have lovely, original built-ins all over my home with inset doors. My home is located in a suburb of Rochester, NY and has one of the nations top performing school districts. People will often "sacrifice" wants in a home to move into the school district. The real estate market in my town is currently HOT and it's a seller's market. Home inventory is low. It's a solid middle to upper class town. It's home to lots of doctors and professors because of the proximity to the University of Rochester and its Medical Center. With all that said, my house might, MIGHT, sell for a high of $165K to 170K. That's it! That's just the way real estate is in Western NY. Having said all that, I'm currently redoing my kitchen and will be going with inset cabinets. My total cabinet cost (it's a small kitchen - 13 cabinets total) will be about $9K for Mouser's semi-custom Centra line. Cabinet installation will be about $1700. Inset is a design level that's not only appropriate for my level of home, it's well within what's a realistic budget for my home's total valuation. I hope this helps in your decision making and has dispelled some of the myths and half truths that constantly get put out there regarding inset versus full overlay.

Q