If the line doesn’t combine boxes, and you get all the little individual boxes with seams in between, it just looks poorly done. There is a big con in that the price of a well done inset kitchen is high, with combined cabinets. It is expensive to do it right. It’s horrible, done wrong. And still expensive.

Mine were custom made so no little individual box seams as described below and I have never needed seasonal adjustments. I don't even know what that means. I do have one cabinet that that has a lot of wear and tear along the bottom edge. It is where we put heavy glass canisters of flour and crackers and bang it up a lot.

Some inset have adjustable hidden hinges. They are HUGE and take up a lot of room on the interior. The classic ones do not, and if you are going to emulate a classic kitchen, the old fashioned non adjustable visible hinges are what you choose. Those come with the need for tighter control of your home's humidity, so they do not swell so much that the doors stick in the openings.

You don't see the box seams between the individual cabinet boxes in full overlay, which is what the majority of basic cabinet sellers are used to designing in. And they just design an inset job, like a full overlay job, full of individual boxes, with visible face frame seams. If a line doesn't combine cabinets, the design looks busy, and wrong, with the double stiles next to each other, losing you interior space.

I posted these on another thread about inset cabinets that I can't find right now. Anyway, the pictures below are examples of what Tish and Kendrah reference above, whether boxes are combined or individual. I've seen the combined boxes called ganged, and it's worth asking about if your vision is the classic, tailored inset look.

Inset ganged:

Inset not ganged (note the vertical seem between cabinet boxes):

Thank all of you for your input. @kendrah that is what I am worried about with heavy things in drawers how that will wear over time. I am not sure if Shiloh does gang built inset...all I have seen of their is the individual boxes. I am guessing Omega and Plato will not be in our budget, though.

One designer mentioned that they show more wear and tear along the edges and require seasonal adjustments.

Of course it depends upon how gentle you (and the rest of your family are), but it stands to reason that drawers that must slide back into /out of openings have more opportunity to create nicks and scratches. Do consider that painted cabinets are easier to nick or scratch than wood-tone cabinets ... or maybe those small injuries just show up more on painted cabinets.

If the line doesn’t combine boxes, and you get all the little individual boxes with seams in between, it just looks poorly done.

Yes, inset cabinets are harder to build, and they come with more opportunity for mistakes and -- as the other poster said -- if it's done wrong, you have little recourse.

There is a big con in that the price of a well done inset kitchen is high, with combined cabinets.

Yes, inset will cost more. Considerably more.

Remember that it's not JUST the cost of your cabinets. You also have to pay for countertops and installation.

My personal suggestion: Skip inset. No one except you will ever notice this small, expensive detail. Instead, get full or partial-overlay and spend your money in places where it'll show more.

Thank you for your input Mrs Pete, Tish, chicagoans, Mindardi, Kendrah and HU. I also got a bid from a local custom cabinet maker that does frameless cabinets that to me have some of the look of inset but the functionality of full size drawers. This is an example of their work

We have both inset and frameless, done by the same cabinetmaker at the same time, so a good contrast. I don't think wear and tear is any different on the inset. Our most dinged cabinets are the ones we use frequently for heavier items, which is one inset drawer and two frameless drawers. They rival each other in dings.

We also haven't had to do any seasonal adjustments, though we are in a moderate climate area without much humidity--but our kitchen isn't heated, so the temperature ranges from the low 50s at the coldest times of year to the 80s on days like today. We have exposed hinges on the cabinets with Blum full extension undermount drawer hardware and that combo has been great.

I 100% agree with others on ganging the boxes--ours are custom so don't have that issue. I did consider using semi-custom, though, and was able to come up with a layout where we could avoid that (but only because we were using frameless in some areas due to space constraints, including all of the places where two cabinets met). Our frameless cabinets are done more or less like the ones in your photo--standard frameless boxes but with fillers that give the aesthetic of framed (though they are there for function, not aesthetics--just a nice side effect). We also don't have any uppers on the frameless side of the kitchen, which helps. (I'd actually like to add one, but it breaks the clean line between inset and frameless, so am very torn on it!)

ETA: Realized I did not actually answer the question! I love love love my inset cabinets and have no regrets, BUT I'm also very glad we used frameless in areas where every inch mattered, and our cabinetmaker charged the same for both--I wouldn't have paid significantly more for inset. We also have a 1915 house that we know had flush inset cabinetry in the kitchen originally and I wanted to match that.

10 yo Shiloh beaded inset white cabinets that have held up to Houston humidity and hard use beautifully! Inset is a Shiloh specialty. Would do again.

I have inset. No regrets. I live in an antique house in the Northeast with huge seasonal variations in humidity and not one plumb surface and I haven't needed a "seasonal adjustment." That's despite going through a shrink/expand cycle that will require lots of touchups to trim/caulk throughout other areas of the house.

Logically, I don't see how inset cabinets could suffer greater wear and tear than overlay. When closed, inset cabinets are flush or very close to it, so there are fewer opportunities to nick the door/drawer edges and sides as there are with overlay. And unless installed not just poorly, but extremely poorly, the drawers/doors don't come into contact with the surrounding cabinet boxes, even when loaded with very heavy items, so the idea that opening/closing creates additional wear and tear doesn't ring true.

To me, there is no question that inset is worth the added cost if you're going for a traditional, classic aesthetic. It was non-negotiable for me, even though I was on a budget. Overlay just looks not quite right to me outside a more modern or transitional space. I may have a sharper eye than average, but I strongly disagree that cabinet construction doesn't play a significant role in the overall aesthetics of a kitchen given this is by far the most prominent finish surface in the room. And even if the average person wouldn't pick it out, great design and particularly great traditional design is the combination of many small elements that may not individually command attention but together form a cohesive whole.

That said, budgets are budgets and if you can't do it, you can't do it. There are many stunning kitchens with overlay cabinets, but I would probably push the overall design more transitional than traditional if using them.

An analogy might be quartz vs marble - some people may not notice, many people will, you can do a fabulous kitchen with either, budget/practicality may dictate the outcome, but if not, there is a clear superior aesthetic choice for a traditional kitchen IMHO.

Thank you, @ HU-918119203 . Can I ask what you do not like about Shiloh inset?

The visible wear and tear often mentioned with inset is on the exposed face frame, as cups and plates or pots and pans aren't carefully moved about. The doors and drawers aren't the recipient of most of that bang and bash. The cabinet frame is. In a full overlay or frameless cabinet, that bit of dent and chip of the face frame or cabinet edge isn't visible with the doors closed. When the doors sit inside the face frame, you see the damaged face frame, very visibly, at all times.

@Minardi, thank you so much! That makes complete sense. What are your thoughts of frameless cabinets? I have a bid from a custom cabinet guy that does frameless but the boxes are 3/4 furniture board as he says that is more dimensionally stable. I posted a picture yesterday on this post of his work.

We have had our inset kitchen cabinets for 14 years (and also have inset casework that is 110 years old) and no issues with anyone banging into the face frame. Both the inset and frameless cabinets in the kitchen do have dings and gouges from people not being careful—we keep all our dishes, pots, and bakeware in them—but only on the top edges of the drawers. It’s just as visible on the frameless as on the inset. Mostly people ding them putting things away when they’re open, so you’re a step away from the frame itself—you’d have to work to hit it.

@ artemis78 would love to see a picture of your kitchen with your combined inset and frameless.

My sister has 3/8” inset that is 60 years old. The wall cabinet next to the sink where the dishes are stored has several small chunks of wood out of the frame edge where peoole hit the edge when putting away dishes. And the doors stick like heck in summer. But, that’s 3/8” inset for you. Plus 60 years of wear. And kids. Kids and husbands don’t always ”place” things in the cabinets.

Yes, we replaced 1939 3/8" partial inset cabinets when we remodeled (and still have them in one bathroom). Those definitely stick, though I think that's as much about the many layers of paint on them as it is about the style.

@Kim Hasty here are ours--though it's very hard to get both types in the same photo!

And a better photo of the inset side (fridge has since been replaced):