I've looked through the archives and haven't found this subject raised in the past, so...
As I plan my kitchen upgrade, I've been building some drawer units for my workbench as prototypes and to gain experience with drawer construction, face frame construction, and carcase construction (using sheet goods).
One of the things I did with the storage drawers was use the "door lip bit" that came with my Freud cabinet cutter set. What surprised me was the fact that this lip cutter actually makes a lip allowing the door or drawer front to inset into the cabinet face frame.
Sideways ASCII art: (rotate 90 degrees for actual orientation
-----------+ +--------------- Face frame | | | +----------------+ |
------------+/ \+-------------- += =+ | | Drawer front (Note inset +----------------------+ into face frame)
From looking at houses and other kitchen cabinets in home centers, I have never seen this construction anywhere else. All of the construction I recall seeing has the drawer front and/or door front flush with the front of the face frame and profiled.
Has anyone built their kitchen cabinets using this kind of door and drawer face consctruction? One potential issue I see is making sure that the overlap opening is sufficiently sized to allow for seasonal wood movement. Another question that comes to mind is that this appears to have a greater potential for the drawer front to break at the edge if the drawer or door are shut with too much force.
The final question I have is, would this make the construction look less professional or somewhat "cheesy"?