Need some advice from the smart folks out there: I’m starting to build new kitchen cabinets for our house and plan to build full extension drawers throughout…no cabinets with doors (aside from under the sink, of course!). We find that stuff in the very back of cabinets get lost or forgotten after a couple of years, because it’s too hard to go digging in the way back, so drawers would seem to improve space utilization.
Some of the drawers will be fairly large: 13 1/2″ high by 24 ” wide by 22″ deep. Weight shouldn’t be excessive…the deep drawers will hold tall pots, mainly. I had planned to use 1/2″ birch plywood for the drawer sides, backs and bottoms. I will also use full-extension slides on the sides so bowing of the sides should not be a problem.
Does anyone see a problem with this plan? Should I consider thicker drawer sides?
Replies
Half inch birch plywood will be stong enough.
Scott C. Frankland
"This all could have been prevented if their parents had just used birth control"
Thank you, Scott. I'll carry on.
Regards,
Lofton
Lofton,
1/2" 9 ply baltic birch - typically sold in 5x5 sheets works extremely well!
Klink
Anybody have any experience using a product called "Uniply" for drawers? From what I gather, it's a baltic birch-type of product that has all the plies oriented in the same direction. Its apparent advantage is the appearance of solid wood with the stability and strength of plywood.
Anyway, I'm curious about 1) how this stuff looks with through dovetails and 2) how available it is in small quantities.
Most of the cabinet makers like myself put 2 roll out adjustable shelves behind the doors in the lower cabinets instead of having wall to wall drawer stacks so it looks like a Kitchen.
You know that might be the way to go If you cant build doors.
But I'm just one of the dumb folks out there
Edited 7/9/2003 5:29:54 PM ET by I Like Beans
You might find that it's simpler for some of this to put a top drawer, which is standard height, and a door underneath with two pullout shelves. The shelves can come all the way out, hold pots and pans and such, and meet your criteria. The nice thing about this is that these shelves can be positioned anywhere you please within the opening. Some openings could have 1 shelf, some have 2 shelves, some 3, and you'd get maximum space utilization.
My kitchen has some deep drawers where we have towels and such stored, but for all of the pots and pans I have pullout shelves. Works great.
John
My new kitchen has the same cabinet configuration with pull-out drawers behind normal cabinet doors, but I noticed right away that the previous owners were obviously not careful to fully open the cabinet doors before pulling out the drawers.
As a result, all of the doors in the kitchen have deep scratches on the inside of the door from the front corner of the pull-out drawers.
I'm sure this is a common problem. Any ideas on how to prevent this from happening? Should the corners be rounded over, or is there a rubber bumper available, or should i re-hinge the doors?
Thanks.
Our kitchen is 5 years old, I installed it, and there are none of these issues. If you can't control rogue usage I'm not sure any kitchen will survive. For instance, kids can pull drawers out and stand in them to get to things on the counter.
John
Hello, all. This is great stuff and I thank you.
Regarding the suggestion to use pull-out shelves instead of drawers: we already have these in our present cabinets, and in fact many people have asked me why I don't want to use the same setup. The reason: the way we put items into the cabinets is less than neat. As a result, these items can tip over, and since the shelves don't have sides, the whole arrangements gets jammed up. Since the only solution is to add sides to the shelves, well then, hey...drawers!
Fronting either drawers or shelves with a cabinet door is inefficient: to get to the contents of the cabinet you have to first open the door and then pull out the drawer. Having just drawers makes the process one step (no, I'm really not all that lazy...if so I'd buy the cabinets rather than build them!). Omitting the door makes drawers' contents accessible from either side. It's a true galley kitchen!
Consensus is that half inch baltic birch plywood is the way to go for building the drawers. I'll look into the uniply stuff and post whatever I find.
Many older kitchens, circa 1900 or so had a very large number of drawers. So depending on the age of your house, multiple drawers might be MORE kitchen like than cabinet doors. I put in lots of drawers in our kitchen and am glad I did. Ditto on the 1/2" Baltic birch, it's the only way to go for kitchen drawers. good luck & post pictures.
Jim
My sister-in-law is on the small side so I made drawers in the toe kick that pull out and she can lift up a step ladder built into it. She loves it.
I have small rubber rollers on the front corners of the pull out shelves. Works great.
Len
I absolutely love the idea of a built-in step ladder in the toekick area. My wife is 5 feet tall and if this were 5 years ago I'd be working this into my cabinet design. Can you post pictures?
John
john,
My sister had the same problems with her new cabinets...the height was too great. I made her a 5" step stool with a long handle (37" from floor) which she absolutely loves. She is heavy and wanted it very strong so its a tad heavy (3/4" oak)..put a hole in the end of the handle so she could hang it up when not in use..and easy to hold onto as you clime up.
John,
Never took picture and they have moved out the house 20 some years ago. I can sketch you a drawing today or tomorrow and post it.
She has been waiting for me to do them for her new kitchen. Since I moved 400 miles away. I made her a roll around stepladder for now.
Visiting home is no longer a vacation. It's a list of Honey do's. Oh well, got to love them anyway.
I'll get back to you.
Len
It's taking a little longer thatn I expected. I didn't have any power all day Sunday (My own doing.) Replaced the 100A service witha 200A. When it finally was done the pwer went out in the whole neighborhood for several hours. (Not my doing.)
We have been having blackouts all last night and today. By the end of the week I'll have them posted.
Len
Ok, Mr Wizard. I set the way back machine and sketched up what I could remember.
I didn't use ball bearing slide for fear my sister in law would slip.
Hope this helps and good luck.
Len
Edited 3/1/2004 1:21:05 AM ET by Len
This is ingenious. Have you thought of marketing it? I'm serious here. There are lots of women who cannot reach any higher than the bottom shelf of the upper cabinets. And having stepstools around the kitchen is just an eyesore.
John
Hi, Len,
This is a great idea! Not only did I get plenty of responses to my original question I can now keep my wife rather than having to trade her in on a taller model...er...version.
Lofton
There are several bumper that products that solve this problem.
Doug
Marcury.
You can buy little wheels that attach to the fromt corners of draws/shelves for just such a problem.
Ben
Lofton, my house was built in 1978 with a large kitchen, lots of cabinets. we have mostly drawers some larger than what you describe, we've had no problems or complaints. I've built some cabinets for my rental properties with big drawers, tenants love them. A couple of drawers I planed 1 x 12" pine down to 1/2" for drawer sides. They are several years old and don't have any problems. 1/2" birch plywood should be great.
Gods Peace
les
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