Every kitchen quote in South Florida eventually comes down to one question homeowners rarely hear explained: framed or frameless? It decides how much you can store, how the doors look, how the boxes behave in humidity and, to a degree, what you pay. Dreamery builds both in its Coral Springs shop, so this is not a sales pitch for one side.
The difference in one sentence
A framed cabinet has a solid wood face frame around the front of the box, and the doors attach to that frame. A frameless cabinet has no face frame — the doors attach directly to the box sides, and the doors cover the box almost completely (full overlay).
Storage
Frameless wins. Without a face frame, the opening is the full width of the box: drawers are wider, pull-outs are wider, and there is no lip to reach over. In a typical 30-inch base cabinet the difference is about two inches of usable width — across a whole kitchen, that is a drawer’s worth of storage.
Look
Frameless gives the tight, continuous door-and-drawer face people call “European” or “modern”: minimal gaps, no frame showing, works with slab, shaker or textured doors. Framed gives the traditional look — a visible frame, and the option of inset doors that sit flush inside the frame, which is the classic choice for a 1920s bungalow in West Palm Beach or a coastal-cottage kitchen in Fort Lauderdale. If you want inset doors, you want framed.
Durability in Florida
This is about the box material more than the style. A frameless cabinet relies entirely on the box for rigidity, so a frameless cabinet made of particleboard is the worst of both worlds in humidity. Dreamery builds every box — framed or frameless — from plywood with dovetail drawers and soft-close hardware, which is why we are comfortable building frameless for coastal homes. With plywood boxes and proper installation, both styles last.
Cost
Similar, with the difference coming from the door style rather than the construction. Slab and shaker doors on frameless boxes are the most efficient to build; inset doors on framed boxes take more material and labor and sit at the top of the range. In our 2026 contracts the cabinet line — built and installed — ran $10,000 to $19,500 for a full kitchen, with door style and cabinet count driving most of the spread. Full ranges are in our kitchen cost guide.
Which to choose
- Frameless if you want maximum storage, a modern or transitional look, slab or shaker doors — most Weston, Parkland, Boca and condo kitchens.
- Framed with inset doors if the house is historic or you want a furniture-like, traditional kitchen.
- Framed with overlay doors if you like the traditional look but not the inset price.
In every case, ask what the box is made of before you ask about the door. That question, not framed-versus-frameless, is what separates a 20-year kitchen from a 5-year one in South Florida.
See how we build them: custom kitchen cabinets.