You would need to post a more specific layout of the current kitchen plans, but why do you have two eating areas right next to each other? I would remove the separating wall and combine them to create a single more versatile space. Or else use the breakfast area for a sitting space and not eating.

I tend to agree, actually 3 seating areas for dining. (Island, breakfast & din rm.) As for full overlay vs inset, you didn't say what kind of house you are building. Inset are worth the money if you are creating a period look. You mention the perfect alignment for only inset but I am sure you would want it for either kind of cabs.

Conestoga cabinets (theCabinetJoint.com among others) charges $4.00 more for inset.

What is >>a huge cost difference

Inset was only about an extra $1200 for my whole kitchen from a local cabinet maker, so I'm even doing inset in my laundry.

I agree about the abundance of eating areas.

Well ok let me start with the fact that we are a family of 5 and we like to sit at our kitchen table and eat dinner together at least 4 out of 7 nights if not more often. We want a formal dining room that seats 12 for holiday meals as both my husband and I have lots of siblings and my kids like to be with their cousins!
We have been visiting our family for the last 20 years and I have always wanted the space to host the entire family but our houses that we have lived in for the last 20 years have been much too small. We will eat at the island for breakfast and lunch and will use it for entertaining. Also my daughters are 14, 12 and 7 and will do their homework there while I'm cooking. So we will stick with our floor plan- that wasn't really my concern.

I'm surprised that there could possibly be $4 difference in price, I'm talking $5,000. To me that is a big difference!

We are building a shingle style colonial with a front porch and we live near the beach.
Please help if you can with the concerns in first post.

We're hoping to do inset in our uppers, but overlay (frameless, actually) in the base cabinets, which will be almost all drawers anyway. The additional space you get with frameless drawers can be substantial, but with inset upper cabinets, you don't lose space, just have a little corner that stuff can get tucked behind. To me that's not a big deal at all. You're not doing that many uppers, it doesn't look like, so maybe something like that? Would definitely reduce the cost of inset.

Hi Laura, the view of your kitchen I think is fine from the door. The kitchen has become the new "family room" in many homes and can be a very welcoming area of the home.
I am brand new in kitchen remodeling but did quite a bit of research before choosing our cabinets. We have all frameless on the bottom drawers and cabinets and inset above the fridge and ovens. We only have a short run of upper cabinets that are frameless with glass.
I love the openness of limited upper cabinets. It is so much easier to reach for everything down low. With our layout and cabinet design I have more than enough storage space and don't miss the uppers at all.

Laura, I can forward you the email where I verified it because I was comparing apples to apples with cabinet makers. $4.00 a cabinet.

$5000? I'd shop. What else could you (probably) be paying too much for?

Sounds like you have a huge family. How nice that you like to spend time together.

Camphappy,
Thank you for addressing the concern I had regarding the view from front door. You're right the kitchen is definitely the hub of our home!
Great ideas to do both inset and overlay or frameless on bottom cabinets or drawers, I had not thought of that. Do you have photos of your kitchen? Would love to see the short run of upper frameless cabinets with glass.

CEFreeman-
I priced out the cabinets from 2 different kitchen designers- using Cabico and Medallion Platinum and with both it is a huge difference. I have a 16' run of cabinets, and 10' run minus the 48" range on the other wall, plus a 36" run next to the refirgerator, and a large island. Maybe this could be why. I'm curious as to what kitchen cabinets you are referring to. Mine will not be custom, they will be semi-custom.

Wondering if anyone who has inset is disappointed or upset with the cabinet doors expanding and contracting and the space between the door and frame changing with the humidity? These are some of my concerns.

Here is a picture from my phone so the lighting isn't quite right but you can see the mix of inset and frameless. We still need a strip of wood above the beverage fridge and a backsplash but it's almost done. These are the only upper cabinets we have and like I mentioned earlier I don't miss having more.

I lived in New Orleans with inset cabinets from Shiloh and had absolutely *zero* shift/humidity issues. Shiloh uses european style concealed hinges, though. We had plenty of seasonal changes with our trim, etc. but the cabinets never got wonky.

Shiloh still has free inset upgrade in my neck of the woods. I don't care for the fake baked on factory finish, so I'm only using Shiloh for an accent bank of cherry cabinets. I'm hand painting my "working cabinets."

I have noticed that if a company does primarily inset cabinetry, there seems to be little difference in cost between inset and frameless. But for those cabinet companies that don't specialize in inset there is a much larger premium to go that way.

re: your layout... is that your fridge on the other side of your island from the sink? I am thinking this is a loose plan at this point but as you get deeper into it I think you would like having your fridge closer to your sink and also not across the aisle of a major traffic pattern.