What does "flush inset" mean?

I'm guessing he or she means plain, or without a bead, shown here.

I've had frameless and inset and really didn't notice a huge difference. I can see if you're trying to store large plates in an already shallow wall cabinet, it might be an issue.

Oh. A redundancy like "general consensus."

This topic has been covered a million times, and it's interesting that some feel there's this space loss, yet admit it's miniscule. After all. The cabinet itself is brought out to = the normal, 12" deep cabinet.

I've even taken regular cabinets and put inset doors in them.
I think it matters how big your dishes are. If you're ordering custom, accommodate your largest plate.

Decent article!

Have beaded inset and notice no lost space.

I can't stand looking at hinges + knobs. The heavy duty interior hinges in mine are terrific. It's the only style I like. The space issue is not enough to make any difference IMO.

Flush inset vs framed overlay= not much difference except in the depth of the uppers where the 3/4 inches can make a difference with larger plates. Some companies have standard deeper uppers (13") for inset doors.

Flush inset or framed, vs frameless-

For the framed cabinets (inset or overlay), there is probably about an 1/2 to 1 inch loss vs frameless on each cabinet of drawers that have side mounted rails. The side mounted rails take up most of the horizontal space of the face frames so that there is not as much difference as you might think. The biggest space loss IMO is in the internal pullouts where they are the same width of the drawers on frameless cabinets but significantly less on framed cabinets (inset or overlay).

For the hinged door cabinets there is really not much difference in the interior space other than the 3/4 decrease in front to back distance for the insets.

Also, custom cabinetmakers can combine larger runs of framed cabinets, eliminating one or two of the 3/4 inch side walls for each adjoining cabinet. This can recoup the space lost to the walls and equalize the space with that of the frameless cabinets. In my small kitchen there are two longer base cabinets , the longest being 69" (15" + 30" oven + 24") and one longer upper cabinet 48" long which is completely open inside (no dividing walls) despite having three doors.You can see how that completely open upper cabinet gives much more space and is easier to access than two or three adjacent upper cabinets with walls.

>>custom cabinetmakers can combine larger runs of framed cabinets,
eliminating one or two of the 3/4 inch side walls for each adjoining
cabinet<<

I just did that with a face frame for beaded inset. So that ability is not exclusive to framed at all. I joined 36 + 24 + 36" base cabinets into one with a single face frame. I adjusted the measurements so that the original frame, underneath it, worked as the drawer stop, eliminating weird ... stoppers.

It easily be done with uppers, definitely eliminating interior walls. Custom cabinets can really do most anything.

When you refer to "larger runs of framed cabinets" do you mean uppers? I am having to change from frameless to framed inset and see a drastic loss in storage space. Every cabinet loses 3" storage width from the frame for drawers and pullouts. (I really like the appearance of framed inset but I was looking forward to all the extra storage inches with frameless.)

12crumbles-

Base cabinets can be combined too but you still need one wall for holding the drawer glides so you only save 0.75 inches between base cabinets that need internal walls.

Not sure why you are losing 3" storage space for each cabinet, unless your glides are being supported from below instead of from the side so that your drawers can be full width? Or unless, on your frameless cabinets, the glides are integral to the drawers? (like Ikea and some higher end European systems). Otherwise, as I stated before, the side glides take up most of the space behind my face frames so that I am losing very little additional space with the framed inset cabinets.

You could consider frameless overlay bases and framed inset uppers. Several gardenwebbers have done that and no one notices except the TKO's.