Details
Drawers are necessarily smaller than any opening they fit into, what with sliders and drawer structure eating up the real estate. I tried to minimize that wastage but that had to be secondary to the main goal; full accessibility to the contents. There didn't seem to be any need for high walls so I minimized their height as well. The drawer construction is about as simple as it gets; 5 pieces of plywood with glued butt joints, secured with nails or screws as appropriate.
Rather uncharacteristically, I didn't even bother to draw plans for the drawers on the computer. Instead I worked off some pencil sketches in a notebook as seen below.
Rather uncharacteristically, I didn't even bother to draw plans for the drawers on the computer. Instead I worked off some pencil sketches in a notebook as seen below.
A decidedly non-CAD plan
I must also confess to not actually taking any photos of the drawers being built. Instead I just have a few more finished-and-in-place shots:
In 'n out
This shows one of the drawers at the full extent. A set of two slides is rated for 75 lb so that should be plenty of capacity for a pile of dishes.
Front view
The drawers go all the way to the back to get the maximum capacity.
Top view
Drawer area shown.
We had the house renovated back on '04 which included a completely new kitchen. The new cabinets included a total of 14 drawers and all of them had full-extension slides except, for some reason, two of them. Not sure why we did it like that although those two drawers that opened only three-quarters of the way were a recurring spot of annoyance. Eventually I found the appropriate Blum "Metabox" slides and just ordered a couple full extension sets and installed them for those two odd drawers.
One of the corners
The left side has an extra piece of plywood to bring the slide and drawer side out past the edge of the open cupboard door.
Also visible in this shot are a couple of the plugs in the front panel of the drawer. While the other sides are nailed in place, the front is held to the bottom and sides with screws whose heads were covered by matching birch plugs.
Also visible in this shot are a couple of the plugs in the front panel of the drawer. While the other sides are nailed in place, the front is held to the bottom and sides with screws whose heads were covered by matching birch plugs.
In operation
The "full" shot.
This shows one of the two cupboards with drawers. The cupboard to the left of this one is a bit wider and got a very similar set of drawers.
This shows one of the two cupboards with drawers. The cupboard to the left of this one is a bit wider and got a very similar set of drawers.
The left cupboard
The same drawer treatment in the adjacent cupboard.
