Hi All

Some of the drawers in my kitchen project are pretty tall (some as tall as 13 inches), so I will either need to do a glue-up or frame and panel. I am leaning towards F&P because these are inset drawers and I need to keep movement to a minimum, plus I think they will probably look a bit nicer. That being said, I've seen dressers with tall drawer fronts like that and there seem to be no problems an they look good. I'm open to suggestions here.

All the top drawers are 5" and those are all just solid fronts. All the doors are F&P. Frame members are all 2" wide.

I'm building the fronts myself, but I contracted out the drawer box construction. All the drawers have applied fronts with 3/4" frames with 5/8" panels (flush on the back 1/8" in on the visible side). The box itself is 5/8" material. The slides are blum undermounts. The boxes are soft maple. The fronts and cabinet face frames are ambrosia tiger maple.

Anyway, if I go with frame and panel drawer fronts, how do I attach the handle and the front? Normally on a solid frawer front, I'd screw directly into the back of the applied panel from inside the drawer, on the horizontal centerline.

Options I see:

1. Attach the drawer fronts through the panel like I would if it were solid material and attach the handle on the horizontal center line. I'm concerned here that the frame might move around unevenly, though, and go cockeyed in the space. I have spaceballs in there and they work well in the doors, but you can't guarantee equal wood movement (not a problem in doors, as the frame is what is attached to the hinges). In this case, I could also try and sneak a screw or pin through the very inside corner of the box into the solid frame members

2. Only attach the frame members to the drawer front and let the panel float. Attach the handle to the top frame member. I don't like how this looks, though, and the handle screws are unlikely to go through the actual drawer box in any way to provide real support against the pulling action.

3. Scrap this idea and go with solid fronts. Not sure about binding in the space there, though.

4. Others?

Thanks!

Pete