Kitchen - Pots & Pans Drawers

[Mike Scoggins]

Although nothing fancy, I completed a little kitchen project over the weekend: added four drawers with full-extension slides for the pots and pans. It's not furniture, and plain ol' butt joints (with glue) were used in all of the construction. Drawers are constructed of Birch plywood. At least I got to make some sawdust. :)

Mike

[Todd Burch]

WOO-HOO!!! Way to go Mike! They look better than factory new!

What's the thing on the top back inside face of the drawers? A signature perhaps?!

Todd

[John Miliunas]

Oh, now you went and did it! LOML was just cruising by and happened to see your pics! :mad: Thanks a lot, Mike! :mad: Seriously, nice job on those drawers and you just gave me (us) an idea for our future kitchen re-do. :) :cool:

[Ted Shrader]

Mike -

Those look great!
. . . not furniture . . Yes it is. It is just installed furniture. I like the look of baltic birch plywood edge. The butt joints wll hold together just fine and be there long after you are.

Regards,
Ted

[Tim Morton]

Hey Mike..looks great. Thoser have been on my Honey-Do list for over a year....did you follow plans or did you wing it? could you post some details? i have the slides already.,,been looking for a good picture to copy.

[Mike Evertsen]

looks good,I have been wanting to this to my cabinets.

How did you mount the slides on the center stile?

[Byron Trantham]

Mike,
I like them very much. I like the way you made the "handles". I made some for my wife a few years ago (72 of them! :eek: ). We love the utter convenience. I am sure you will too.

[Jason Tuinstra]

Mike, great job on those drawers. If I made those, I would have "hero" status in my house for a long, long time. Sounds like you have "hero" status in John's house right now :D Furniture has never gotten me to this place, but this project would! You've given your wife something useful for her kitchen and something to be proud of in her husband! Sounds like a sucessful weekend to me!

[Jim Becker]

You did a great job on those drawers, Mike. Definitely the way to go for easy access, even to "things in the back"! This is also an great retrofit upgrade to almost any kitchen and a nice woodworking project, to boot.

When Dr. SWMBO and I were planning for our kitchen renovation last year, one of the things we paid a lot of attention to was not only storage, but accessable storage. We did a lot of "looking" in various kitchen stores, etc., and came to the conclusion that using drawers rather than doors and using pull-outs where doors were necessary was the way to go.

When I built the kitchen island as the prototype for the rest of the job, I used doors for the two large openings, but put in trays on full-extension slides as you can see in Picture One. This has worked well, although the doors need to be fully open in order to pull out the trays. (A design flaw on my part, perhaps...all the doors are inset, which affects clearance) I also created a pull-out rack for things like cooking oils, spices, etc. This idea was carried forward when we did the rest of the work as you can see in Picture Two.

In the main cabinetry, however, since we had control over the design, we actually went with real drawers as shown in Picture Three. These are a pleasure to use and I recommend anyone designing a new kitchen to consider using cabinets with deep drawers rather than cabinets with doors wherever practical. (In keeping with that theme, we even opted for a dishwashing system that also uses two independent drawers rather than a hinged-down door...much easier to get in and out of!)

[Mike Scoggins]

Thanks for the nice comments guys.

Todd,


What's the thing on the top back inside face of the drawers? A signature perhaps?!

Yep. I got one of those "branding irons" (from Rockler) for Christmas last year and thought I might as well use it. My project inventory for the year is sorely lacking so I have to make the most of each opportunity. :D

John,


Oh, now you went and did it! LOML was just cruising by and happened to see your pics! Thanks a lot, Mike!

Sorry John! Let's see, we moved to Katy in 1994 -- only took me a little over 10 years to get to this one! You're good until 2014 at least. :D

Tom,


Thoser have been on my Honey-Do list for over a year....did you follow plans or did you wing it? could you post some details?

No plans. Just took measurements and made drawers to fit with the 1/2 clearance on each side (between drawer sides and face frames) for the slides I used (22" slides). The only other thing I might note is that I drilled holes 1" apart and used shelf pins to make the top drawers adjustable (i.e. they're not fixed). I mounted the drawer slides on the outsides to a board of thickness 1-1/8" that rests on the shelf support pins. Once I determined where the top drawers should be (based on pan heights, etc.), I screwed the boards to the cabinet sides to prevent the drawers from tipping when opened. For the center, I used two 1-1/2" x 1-1/2" boards vertically (behind the vertical face frame member, one in front one in back) for the shelf support pins. Then, for the horizontal members* to which the drawer slide attaches, I used a 1-1/2" thick board the same width as the vertical center frame member with a notch cut in each end to fit around the 1-1/2" vertical shelf-pin member at each end. (*I actually used two of these horizontal members so that the top drawers can be a different heights in relation to one another.) Hope this makes sense!

Jason,


If I made those, I would have "hero" status in my house for a long, long time. Sounds like you have "hero" status in John's house right now Furniture has never gotten me to this place, but this project would!

Oh, please tell me you're kidding. Surely the beautiful furniture you've made (and consistently put out) has gotten you "hero" status. It certainly has in my book! :D However, from a functionality standpoint, I hear ya, these kinds of projects are hard to beat!

Jim,

Wow! Nice job in your kitchen. I'd seen this before in some of your earlier posts, but you really incorporated some very useable designs in your remodel. It makes working in the kitchen so much easier and pleasant. It's much like working in a well-designed/organized shop. Thanks for sharing; I really like what I see there!

Mike

[Brad Schmid]

Turned out nice Mike! That's a great idea, and I like the adjustability. I'll be in deep trouble if LOML ever finds out you did it all in one weekend too. She'll expect me to pick up the pace :D

Brad

[Jim Fancher]

Look at all of the hometown people. :D I'm near 529 and 6 in Copperfield.

I've been researching neat ideas for a kitchen remodel. I hate our factory cabinets that David Weekly used. At first I thought about just doing doors and draw fronts, but now it looks like a full gutting. I'll be using your pots & pans drawers no matter what I end up doing. :)

Oh! The tile you have is what I've been looking at too.

[Mike Scoggins]

Brad,


I’ll be in deep trouble if LOML ever finds out you did it all in one weekend too. She'll expect me to pick up the pace.

Have no fear. Notice I said, “I completed a little kitchen project over the weekend.” I didn’t do it all in one weekend; it was a two-weekend project for me (although it wouldn't be for many) :D .


Jim,


I hate our factory cabinets….

I hear you! What started this project was actually the fact that one of the regular drawers in our kitchen fell apart. :mad: The wood-appearing, plastic-covered pressed wood drawer box reached the end of its useful life. I had to buy some plywood for the replacement drawer and thought this would be a great opportunity to tackle the pots and pans drawers, which had been on my list for a long time.

The tile job was one I did 2 or 3 years ago. It was way over a weekend project for me: about 3-4 weeks (working weekends and the week nights that I could) from removing (read scraping) the linoleum to sealed grout. :eek:

Tim,

Sorry – I called you Tom in my earlier reply (just one key over on the keyboard). :rolleyes:

Mike

[Dan Gill]

They look great. Interesting that when I did mine, I went the other way with the "handles" (low sides and tall handles). I think I should have done it your way. I used red oak for mine, with a 1/2 inch baltic birch bottom. Also butt joints, but with that bottom rabetted in, they're quite stout. I WISH I had thought to make the top ones adjustable. Of course, then I would have had to leave out my middle shelf . . .
Here is the pic.

[Randall Porche]

Nice job Mike... now I'll have to get you to show me what you did so I can do it at the new house. By the way, my new workshop is about done... you'll have to come visit when I'm finished.

[Mike Scoggins]

Dan,

Nice job; your's are fancier than mine. The red oak looks nice.

Randall,

Good to hear from you. I've been wondering how the move went. A new workshop! Oh man, I bet you're having fun. I'd love to see it some time.

Mike