tall, narrow drawer

[Robert Reece]

I'd like to make a pull out in my kitchen to store the whole house vac hose and broom, dust pan, etc. Ideally the pull out would be about 7" wide, 30" deep (depth of the cabinets in that area) and 6' tall.

Anybody have hardware recommendations for the drawer slides? I am using blum undermounts in the rest of the kitchen. I thought about using blum undermounts for this application and adding a regular slide either on the top or near the top on the side. This would help guide the drawer back into the opening so that the Blums wouldn't have to try to keep something so tall lined up perfectly.

[Karl Brogger]

I'd just do a sidemount slide. I'm not sure if they are available with out looking in a 30" legth in the file drawer variety. I've had really bad luck using anything other than the file slides for heavy/heavily used drawers like trash roll outs. Depending on the height, (and if you use just a standard side mount), I'd throw a third slide near the top just to control twist if its going to be a really tall drawer. I've been doing this for a number of years on smaller pullout pantries, and pull out spice racks, with good results.

[Robert Reece]

Thanks Karl. I think I am zeroing in on the side mount slides. I'll mount two slides, both on the same side of the pull out - one high and one low. Drawing it up in Sketchup now to see what I think.

[Jon van der Linden]

Using the side mounted slides has been common for a while because it's cheap and it works. It just doesn't really look that good compared with the concealed mechanism.

As you've noted there are other ways to do this that keep the look of your kitchen consistent. I'm sure there's some specialty hardware out there, you just might have to look a little harder for it.

[Jamie Buxton]

Thanks Karl. I think I am zeroing in on the side mount slides. I'll mount two slides, both on the same side of the pull out - one high and one low. Drawing it up in Sketchup now to see what I think.

There are now self-closing and soft-self-closing sidemounts available. Haven't used them myself, but maybe they'll behave a bit like the Blum Tandems.

For instance, here's a page about KV, but there are others out there. http://wwhardware.com/catalog.cfm?GroupID=Cabinet%20Drawer%20Slides&CatID=Drawer%20Slides%2C%20Full%20Extension%20Ball %20Bearing&SubCatID=KV8450%20Full%20Extension%20Soft%20Close