I have old partial overlay (from the 70s). While the style of the cabinets is not exactly to my liking (a little too traditional), the partial overlay looks nice (just not my preference). Partial overlay cabinets are quite lovely, but not contemporary/modern looking. This does not mean they look old or outdated, just not sleek and modern. In my opinion, partial overlay cabinets fit in very well with traditional or country styling. Try searching both in this forum (search box at the bottom of the forum pages) and the internet in general for images of "partial overlay cabinets". You should be able to find numerous images of lovely kitchens with partial overlay cabinets.

The one major issue for me is how these impact fitting dishes into the cabinets. The center stile inhibits my ability to fit large dishes, pots and pans, directly into my cabinets. I have to angle them just to squeeze them between the edge frame and the center frame. With such a large kitchen, you should be able to request wide cabinet boxes with large doors to help address this issue. Make certain you know exactly how much space you will have in the openings and make certain they are large enough to fit everything you plan to store.

I don't think the partial overlay looks out-dated, it's just a different style. Like Pricklypearcactus, I think the space issue is more important.

However, I would find out from your KD what you're paying for in the "glaze" color. Glaze is quite an expensive upcharge, and if you can find a stain color you like without glaze, you might be able to better afford the overlay you like.

We just had our partial overlay cabinets installed. I, like you, wanted the fully overlay, but we were on a tight budget. What bothered me with our old partial overlay really was that the doors did not butt up against one other. Our new partial overlay cabs do, and there are no center stiles in the cabinets. I forget, but the cabinet maker said they only have to put a center stile when the cab is bigger than a certain width; we didn't have any that required it. I am glad we saved the money! Here are my pics:

and ditto ImaCurvygirrl.....we nixed the glaze too!! Had really wanted it at the beginning, then saw the upcharge and had doubts. We saw the stain we ended up with and, while a little darker than we originally wanted, loved it and realized we could save the $1k in glaze upcharge!! So I gave up full overlay AND glaze, but got my raised panel and extra roll-outs in everything. I'm happy with the trade offs!

KM is very proud of their full-overlay styling and you could find that another brand would offer you more for less money.

If you were to compare KM with Showplace, you would most likely find that a full-overlay raised panel is not much more expensive than KM's partial overlay raised panel.

Showplace standard cabinet is all plywood with a full-extension drawer glide and glaze is a no-charge option (all of these options are higher priced choices with KM).

Finally, the current price promotion by Showplace gives you a choice of saving 50% off the specie upgrade charges, or a cash-back rebate check mailed straight from the factory to you the homeowner (no chance the dealer keeps it).

Having said that, partial overlay is more common than you might think; there are actually more kitchens done in partial overlay than in full overlay. If you would like that option, you could get raised panel, partial overlay, with glaze, and probably save money vs. KM.

Here is a link to understanding the differences between the two overlay choices.

Here is a link that might be useful: Door overlay choices

I posted about my anxiety in getting partial overlay.
see http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/kitchbath/msg042049459725.html

my motivation was different as we had them already in the house in other rooms.

one additional comment - my cabinet maker pointed out that with partial overlay you can fully open the door vs full overlay.

I will post pics tomorrow-we're still in progress here, but had a similar situation with budget. I have to say I'm really happy with our partial overlay, which are thomasville from hd.

Kngwd-your kitchen looks lovely so far!

Kngwd, thanks for the pics! I just think that your kitchen looks very classy and traditional, and seeing the frame doesn't really bother me at all (actually I don't even really notice it). I also noticed that you have a raised center panel, which I also like. That was the lesser of the "splurges" so I think I am going to upgrade to the raised center panel and not worry so much about the full overlay, although I am dissappointed a bit still. Does it sound like full overlay should be a significant increase in price (like a 25% increase?) over partial overlay. I also thought that was strange as I had priced full overlay at HD (which I have heard are the same cabinets) and they came out comparably priced for full overlay. Hmmmm. . .may have to look into that.

We didn't even get the price for full overlay once we saw these in the showroom, so I'm not sure if 25% if right or not. We used a custom cabinet place and it seemed like there upcharges were less than what we found in the big box stores. I checked - the glaze charge was actually just shy of $900. We paid just under $11000 for all the cabinets, including installation, so that's about 8%.

The granite is in!! Spending my lunch hour at the tile store exploring backsplashes. Look for more pictures tonight!

We also have partial overlay with raised panel from Kraftmaid and love it. I don't remember the name of the cabinet style but it was one of the lower priced hickory. With a Praline stain we can still see the beauty of the graining without the wild color swings hickory is known for.
We've opted to go with no hardware on the cabinets and drawers.

I like partial overlay. In my last home, I had partial overlay in my kitchen, living room built-ins and office cabinetry. They were all custom cabinets. The house was a tiny (880 s.f.) 1960's box near the beach. There wasn't much dictating style for the neighborhood (we had a flat roof and our neighbors were in an 1800's Victorian), so we just did what we wanted.

In my current home, we have inset cabinets in the kitchen, which I love, but I think if we didn't have a budget for the inset I would have gone with partial overlay again. I just like the look.

I think the above examples are beautiful.

Here are a few examples from my previous home of partial overlay (sorry, only one kitchen example).

This was our living room. We installed the fireplace and surrounding cabinets which were partial overlay.

This was a Tuff Shed that we turned into a detached office. Our lot size was only 2200 s.f. so space was tight! The previous owners had installed the shed, but when I was pregnant with our daughter, we turned the shed into our office with custom partial overlay cabinets.

Here is the partial overlay kitchen cabinetry (and laundry room beyond) that was installed by the previous owner.

I just put Showplace partial overlay in my kitchen because of budget constraints. My KD told me you had to stay under 39" cabinet size to avoid the center stile, which we did. I am totally happy with the partial overlay, and I don't think they look a lot different than full overlay to the average person.

I have the free glaze, and I'm glad I didn't pay for glazing because I certainly would have been disappointed! I put an ebony glaze on my sienna stained cherry and the only place you notice it on my shaker style is in the corners--not exactly what I had in mind!

There are so many options to consider to bring costs down. I would look at many things to lower the cost if full overlay is what you REALLY want.

I think partial overlay has a furniture look to it which I like.

I have partial overlay. Wasn't a budgetary choice, I just liked the look - maybe because it was different from what everyone else has. I also didn't care for the type of hinges that are used with full overlay. Here's a picture.

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Mine are partially partial overlay--I wanted as close to frameless as possible on the drawers due to space constraints, but the uppers I wanted some frame. You can do frilly things with framed cabinetry that you can't do if all you've got is doors! Open shelves work better, you can just do more details. It's a nice classic look. Sometimes there's a little less function but if you still have space for all your stuff, there's nothing wrong with them!