They are Annoying and completely useless except when you are keeping lids to the pots in the drawer below there. It’s much better to do a 3 drawer stack if you want 3 drawers.

I have a double silverware drawer, which is awesome -- we can keep, e.g., the steak knives in the lower section rather than a more obscure drawer, and they're easy to get to. Can't stack the spoons quite as wildly as before, but otherwise great.

Don't really see the point for anything bigger -- as Sophie says (ish), what is the advantage here over separate drawers? I'd rather open the drawer I want each time, rather than having to use two motions sometimes. The deeper second and third drawers are super-useful!

I have and like them in a vanity. I don't find them annoying because of what I choose to put in the top. I am planning on putting some less used flat things in them in my kitchen, too.

I like actual single drawers myself with great organizers in them

acm - from my perspective, they have a few benefits:

1) Design Flexibility - you can remove the top part if you decide you want more storage for tall items at some point. If you do separate drawers, you never have the option to store taller stuff there

2) Storage of plates/bowls/glasses in upper drawers: the way my kitchen is laid out, we have a lot of lower base cabinet storage, but not much upper storage. So we may store our plates and bowls and maybe even glasses in drawers, and it would be easier to access if it were in a tall top drawer with the upper tray removed than in a second drawer in a 3-drawer stack. With this style of double-decker drawer, I can keep silverware and kitchen tools in the tops of some of these taller drawers, and then leave some of them full-height for storing plates and bowls with dividers to keep them organized.

3) Aesthetics - I think it can look a little less busy to just have 2 drawers vs 3 drawers...I think that's less important in a very traditional kitchen, but something to consider in a more sleek and modern kitchen

The drawbacks I have been considering are:

1) Maybe annoying to have to push back the top section to access the lower section - but I wouldn't plan to store things I use frequently in the lower section, so this hopefully wouldn't be too annoying

2) Heavier drawers - this was my main concern, just would it be too heavy to pull out the big drawer if I just want to grab a spoon, that kind of thing. I've seen them in person at kitchen design showrooms and they seem comfortable to use, but they're not loaded up with heavy Dutch ovens and cast iron skillets!

There is no point in paying the extra $200-$500 for something that you “just take out”. Drawer stacks can be any number of sizes, and should be sized for what is being planned to be stored there. A 3 drawer furniture base with 3 10” drawers instead of 2 15” drawers might suit your storage needs better. Or. 5 drawer stack of 6” drawers.

If you haven’t already mapped out what will go where, and in what size storage it needs, then you are gailing a very important design homework assignment.

If you are a form over function person, and font really use the kitchen except for socializing over takeout, nothing based on functionality will ever sway your vision anyway.

Sophie - To clarify, I wasn't planning to buy them for every drawer...I more mean that I could move them to a new drawer, or order another insert later if I felt I wanted more of the shallow storage spaces and less of the taller spaces. You can't go the other way if you start with the shorter drawers.

I've tried mapping out the kitchen as best that I can, but it is a little hard if you've never used the space before to know how it will be utilized. This is a house we are moving to, so I've never used the kitchen and it is being renovated before we move in so we don't have to live through a renovation with two small children. I would prefer to live there in the space first, but that isn't possible.

Also, your needs in a kitchen change over time. Right now I have tons of bottles, sippy cups. plastic kid plates, and tiny silverware...but in 5 years, I won't need that stuff and will need more tall water bottles for the kids to bring to sports. I literally have a giant drawer of just baby bottles right now in my kitchen, and won't need that in a few months (unless I have another kid!)...So I can map out my kitchen now, but it will be different in a few years.

I too prefer the exact right drawers for the exact right items. Yes, you do need versatility built in, but that is most often better done with a door with roll out trays inside rather than a drawer within a drawer. The drawer within a drawer is limited to the large 2 drawer pot and pan if you don't want to negatively impact items stored in the bigger drawer below. If you foresee needing to store a lot of shallow items, then doing shallow drawers is much more useful.

Your kitchen designer should be helping you to think through all of these options! And there are a LOT of options. These are all 24" base cabinets. The cabinets with doors can have adjustable height roll out trays in them, which is all the drawer within the drawer is. 10 different choices, and with versatility for the future as well.

The Cook's Kitchen - thanks for that diagram, interesting to see all of the options laid out next to each other. I strongly dislike lower cabinet doors, even with rollouts, so definitely don't want any of them in my kitchen! I've had both and definitely prefer deep drawers instead of cabinets with rollouts.

You mentioned needing versatility, and that's why I suggested doors with roll outs. That's the king of versatility. I always put at least one cabinet with doors into a kitchen for that very reason. Everyone has that weird juicer, or large wok, or something that won't fit in any drawer. Adjustable drawers behind doors allow those to be stored. Or your collection of vintage placemats in 3" roll outs stacked closely on top of each other like a map case. Drawers are great! Except when someone thinks they may need to change layout for the future.

But your KD should be helping you to analyze the inventory of what you own, and figure out of the most convenient spot to have that stored. Mis en place might even have you storing multiples of the same item in different locations, based on the different activities that need to happen. Measuring spoons are a great example of items that should be duplicated in different locations based on the function of that zone.

I'm choosing them for aesthetics in two places.

So shoot me. Lol.

Like I said, I don't find them annoying AT ALL. My micro plane and rotary cheese grater and stick blender don't need to be as accessible as my whisks and spatulas.

I plan out my kitchen by drawer. Most KD can't cook, so I don't find them so helpful.

All my pantry cabinets will have doors and pullouts because I can guarantee that my storage containers will be the same size in 8 years.

I also have one 24" cabinet with a single door that I will use for weird shaped/oversized stuff, like my biggest stock pot. It's next to the trash pullout and paneled dishwasher so it all looks the same.

Milly, I made ratatouille and Kofta kebabs tonight with a cucumber, onion, and feta salad. Many actual Kitchen Designers cook. Most. Don't confuse Kitchen Designers with Cabinet Sellers. :)

There are 4 types of KDs.

Folks at box stores who aren't KDs at all. They can usually just enter orders.

KDs affiliated with kitchen remoldeling specialty places who have an intimate knowledge of many products and trends and may even have a design degree...but usually don't cook.

Independent KDs who are interior designers who specialize in kitchens who don't usually cook but do make gorgeous spaces.

And independent KDs who are KDs because of the cooking as much or more as the D part of it.

I didn't say that no KDs cook. Just that most don't. Even among the independents, there are a lot who fall in the interior designer camp.

I do not like the drawer-within-a-drawer.

If you've ever had pullouts behind doors, they work the same way. So you can know what you think of them. (I prefer pullouts for pantries because I need them to be more flexible for future changes.)