2023 Update: Added Spice Box, Trivet rack and detail pages.
Original Post:
This year I made a few things for the kitchen (out of wood, of course...) and this page summarizes them since it didn't seem like they really rated a whole page each.
Cupboard Drawers: We had a couple cupboards in the kitchen that were essentially full, meaning that it took some digging to get at anything in the back. In the case of the bottom shelf, this involved some get-down-on-the-floor-and-unpack action, which gets old pretty fast (well, OK. It actually took about 12 years to finally move me into action, but better late than never). The solution was to replace the fixed shelves with pull-out drawers, so I
made a pair of shallow drawers to fit into each of the two cupboards. They were equipped with full-extension slides so we could access things right at the back. The drawers are pretty simple, each being made of five pieces of 1/2" baltic birch plywood, glued and nail-gunned together. The inside of the drawer is about 2 1/2" narrower than the cupboard, so we lost a bit of real estate but the convenience is worth it.
Cutlery Insert: Next up was a cutlery insert, which was a replacement for a molded plastic version that we used for many years. It was still completely functional but we thought a custom wooden one would have a bit less wasted space and therefore more room for the actual cutlery. Again,
construction was pretty straightforward with a thin 1/8" Baltic birch plywood floor and solid birch walls. The walls were made to size and just glued into place. The only fancy bit was to contour the walls where they met so there was a nicely shaped transition. The insert fits closely in the drawer and the larger space makes it a bit easier to get out a paring knife - there are enough of those that they used to be 2 or three deep. We could have just thinned them out, but a larger insert prevented the trauma of choosing which ones hit the bin. And no, the cutlery drawer is not normally that nicely arranged.
Mini-Shelf: Lastly, I
made a mini-shelf unit to sit in a cupboard and hold a number of small bins that we use to store nuts. This was just 1/8" Baltic birch plywood with some shallow routed slots into which the walls and floors fit. After completion, I did a test fit and found that it was way to hard to get the bins out. So it was back down to the workshop to reduce the depth on some slots and add a bunch of finger slots. The second revision was much better.
2023:
Spice Box: The spices kept in the kitchen are mostly housed in the almost-standard-sized glass spice jars but a number come in different packages, often holding more than a standard jar (which we typically decant into a spare spice jar). To store the extra spices I made a pair of stacking boxes to hold the bags and larger containers. The boxes reside in the basement and we run down if a refill is needed. Like most of the other items here, it was
made from 1/8" Baltic birch plywood. The two open-topped boxes stack and slide for simple access. Completed February 10, 2019.
Trivet Rack: Our collection of trivets and breadboards were rather haphazardly leaned together in one upper cupboard and the pile had a tendency to collapse despite a grippy shelf liner. I thought a rack to keep them in better order was, well, in order so I
made a simple little 9-slot plywood rack which seemed to do the trick. Completed February 9, 2023.
| Material: | Baltic birch plywood, birch |
| Finish: | 3 coats Miniwax Wipe-on Poly, clear Satin |
| Size: | Various |
| Done: | February 21, 2017 et al. |
