Adding shelves/drawers to metal cabinet

[Don Morris]

I have a couple tall craftsman metal cabinets where the bottom is accessed by lifting a door, much like a garage door. That area has too much wasted space, and I think adding shelves/pull-out drawers for that area would make it more useful. I'm leaning toward just putting a strip of wood (e.g. maple) on the side metal panel and thus have wood runners for shelves and/or pull-out drawers, but is there a more "elegant" (better) solution? Thanks for any input, even to suggest the wood runners are "elegant" to a Neander.

[Steve Kohn]

First things first. I noticed your tag line and I really like it. Well said.

Now on your question; I assume you are planning on removing the existing door and making drawer boxes out of wood to fit into the existing space? If so, I'd simply cut pieces of 1/2 plywood to fit the side of the cabinet. Insert these in the opening and run a couple of screws from the outside of the cabinet into the plywood. That would then lock the plywood to the cabinet sides. Then I'd make the drawer to fit and use extension slides between the drawer and the newly added plywood sides.

[Don Morris]

Ah, ha...didn't think of that. Like that idea so I can put extension slides on the drawers.That's a more "elegant" solution. Will have to shim the plywood from the walls of the cabinet to clear the opening, but that won't be a problem. If someone sees it and likes it, I'll take credit for it. Also, just got back from Northern Illinois- Rockford. My Brother-in-law lives there and Mother-in-law is in an Adult Care Facility, as she's 101.