If you are concerned about this, you should be looking at frameless cabinets for your kitchen, not framed.

@Shannon_WI I've read that frameless cabinets aren't as durable as framed cabinets. I'm concerned about it, but I don't know how old my current cabinets are nor the manufacturer. I'd be interested to know if some manufacturers are better at space utilization in framed cabinetry.

What you read about frameless is hooey. I’ve had frameless cabinets in several homes over 25 years.

Here is a thread that might have some information for you. https://www.houzz.com/discussions/5204349/frameless-vs-framed-eclipse-by-shiloh#n=46

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/2515758/contractors-dissing-frameless-cabinets-now-what#n=22

Narrow drawers like this are not terribly useful but you probably will end up with such a stack. You will use them for small items.

I used Shiloh's frameless cabinets for my lowers and I can promise you these things are solid as a rock! I have huge, wide drawers, filled with many heavy things, and they're fine 3 years later.

There was a great thread several years ago that really helped me to make decisions about drawer and cabinet construction. I can't find it right now. It was called something like "Everything you ever wanted to know about drawers;" or something like that. I wish I could find it for you; I'll keep looking. Maybe someone on here can look also.

If you add up all the extra space you gain over your whole kitchen, you get a lot of extra space if you choose frameless construction. Frameless construction is not less strong, unless it's poor construction in the first place.

frame less can be very sturdy when you buy the higher quality. You will get more storage with. Watch out for inset cabinets in kitchen, if someone closes drawers & something did not get put in drawer all the way damage can happen. I only use insets in built ins where they are not used daily.

Actually "higher quality" in frameless cabinets includes Ikea, which is a bargain.

So - what brands of frameless cabinets are good, and which should be avoided?

Ikea cabinets are excellent. If you don't like the doors/fronts, there are several companies that made beautiful ones to fir Ikea.

I hated all the wasted spaces too. I went for frameless and made some look like inset.

I used a combination of Ikea and custom Conestoga.

Even with frameless, you still have wasted space behind the drawers. There is a huge difference between manufacturers. When I did my research, I saw wasted space from 4”-8”.

For my custom drawers, I specified 1/2” inch from the back wall.

@beachem Wow, thank you! By any chance, do you still have your research regarding the wasted space behind the drawers - which manufacturers were 4", which were 8"?

Everything you ever wanted to know about drawers

I remember that thread. it was great! but I don't know how to search for it.

Here is the referenced thread, https://www.houzz.com/discussions/2457034/everything-i-wanted-to-know-about-drawers

I went and measured each cabinet line. I don’t remember the info. It’s all packed away right now. I’ll try to take a picture of the custom setup I designed and the Ikea spacing.

This surprised and annoyed me to lose all the space ~3” depth at the back of the cabinet because drawer slides don’t hit the back wall of the cabinet

Correction not 3” rather 4.5-5” of dead space