Your kitchen cabinet place is correct. Also, don’t get your cabinets glazed like in the photo you posted. I am guessing that kitchen is from about 1987.

Maybe it is "outdated" if you are doing some slick modern kitchen, but it certainly fits with my traditional kitchen that was done last year. I am sure my Los Angeles KD wouldn't have designed it that way if it was "outdated" ... the horror!

I used Wood-mode cabinets, and I am sure they too would have advised against it if it was causing them problems with customer installations.

If a split panel is such a problem, why are so many of the paneled fridges designed that way? It is usually done to match the counter height lines in the room.

I am going to guess that it has more to do with the OP's cabinet shop's inability to make a solid long lasting split panel DW door, so they steer customers away from that design with words like "outdated".

In the years that I've been reading this forum I honestly don't recall anyone saying that their DW panel came apart. If you use a single DW panel with stiles and rails, (pic 2) your DW handle may not line up with your other hardware around the kitchen. With slab fronts that is not an issue. I strapped a drawer head to a panel because I prefer having all of my hardware at the same height and there's more room to grab the handle. Go with the look that you like.

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Our cabinet maker didn't like them because of the weight they add to the door.

1. A third of my 2019 projects had cabinet matched panels - refer + dishwasher.

2. They were all single panels (no drawer + door looks)

3. Each appliance was built for this, heavier springs, etc. to accommodate weight.

We used heavier appliance pulls on the refer panels, with large washers to distribute stress and a larger than normal cabinet pull on the dishwasher.

I wouldn't recommend a 2 piece drawer look as it has to be mounted on a piece of plywood, which has to be thick enough to take the stress several times daily for ____ years. If you insist, it would be thicker than would look good.

BTW, it costs more money.

I used a cabinet company who has been in business for 125 years, so they have done a few strapped DW panels in their day. They are inset and sit flush with the surrounding cabinetry and are no thicker than the drawer fronts next to it.

I bought a drawer front and a cab door from Kitchen Craft where we got our cabs. I fastened them together myself with several small thin and flat metal pieces I bought at Home Depot. It has lasted 13 years.

My dishwasher panel tends to get drippy marks on it as I move dripping dishes into the DW. Those drips wipe off easily. But it does not have a faux drawer that the OP is asking about. I would not want more nooks and crannies of a faux drawer for that water to get into. To be frank, anytime the word "faux" is used in the context of kitchen design, I avoid it as a rule.

Damn, I wonder how good those dishwashers were in 1894!

Bosch does accommodate the 2 panel look with 4 attachment points in the upper panel to prevent stress at the joint.

Lol Jeffrey!

Properly strap the false front to the panel ans securely attach to the DW and you shouldn't have any problems. I did many without any issues.

i just checked: I have two drawer fronts on my DW to match surrounding drawers, one larger, the other even larger. No problems whatsoever.