I think a mix of drawer fronts looks a little cheap. There is no reason to make narrower drawer fronts as slabs. He can make them all raised panel drawer fronts. Here's part of my kitchen, standard height drawers.

I think it's just a matter of personal preference. In my kitchen, all of the top drawers are slab and the deeper lower drawers have shaker fronts. In my previous house, all of the drawers had slab fronts and shaker style doors. It was a very small kitchen and we only had one cabinet with drawers anyway :).

I have an identical story to Daki's...In this house we have slab fronts on the top and a variation of Shaker on the deeper ones. In our last house, we had all slab drawers with Shaker doors.

Part of it depends on the actual style of your raised panel and the width of the stiles and rails. It'd look pretty silly to end up with a raised section that was really narrow.

I've seen some lovely kitchens with the shallow cutlery drawers that were slab front and larger drawers that were 5-piece. Especially when the smaller drawers were above the counter, as in an upper than comes all the way down to the counter with drawers below cupboards. I think it looks just fine. It helps if there is repetition and symmetry in the pattern of the drawers and doors -- and at least several of each size.

I really, really wish I'd paid for the upgraded fronts on deeper drawers on two base cabinets on either side of my range, and instead done what daki, rhome, and sayde have suggested. IMO the slab front drawers look better on smaller drawers where the 5 piece detail can look overwhelming, but the reverse is also true -- on the larger drawers some detail beyond slab front is necessary. Here's a pic of what NOT to do:

Many people on this forum (and there have been threads about it) have placed the slab up top and more decorative on bottom. I plan on a wide stile and rail type of door so it wouldn't work for the top drawers. I'll do them in slab if they are narrower.

Both the door I was originally going to get (raised panel) & the one I ended up getting w/flat center panel have the same drawer front...a "mitered molded frame"...definitely not a slab. Personally, I do not like slab-front drawers, but, it's a personal preference.

Do you have pictures of other work your cabinetmaker has done w/this style? I would want to see how they look before going with his suggestion.

4-drawer stack:

3-drawer stack:

Here's my cheap-looking mixed drawer fronts. All the top drawers are slab, lower ones vary between raised and flat panel depending on width.
I went with slabs because I didn't like having too much applied moldings, to me that would dilute the effect.

Thanks, everyone. I think I need to see the actual door and as you indicated rhome - check out the widths of stiles and rails to see how it would translate in a drawers. Proportion is important to me. In our very colonial, not quite shaker, kitchen, I'm not sure there would have been raised panel drawers in the 18th century so am going to do a bit of research and see what I come up with.

BTW - I do like it both ways, I think each has its place, just not sure what ours is yet......thanks again for the feedback.

I see a mix A LOT! Look at pictures and you will see that when there is a raised panel, they deal with it in a lot of different ways--slab or recessed for the top and raised for the bottoms. I think I will do raised doors and recessed drawers. I have seen that mix a lot too.

It's a matter of personal preference. When I told my CKD I wanted a plain top drawer, she said she usually does that on her higher end remodels.

I personally like a plain top drawer as it adds more interest and looks less busy, therefore more soothing on the eye, if you have a detailed 2nd and 3rd drawer.