Silverware drawer / bottom material

[Mark Gibney]

Should the bottom of a silverware drawer with a built-in organizer have a plywood bottom or a solid wood bottom?

My client wants a large silverware drawer (28" wide, 15" deep) in their island, and wants the drawers made from solid white oak.
The company I use to make my drawers puts 3/8" solid bottoms in their solid wood drawers. They say they can make an in-built organizer, and put this in a drawer with a solid wood bottom.

My instinct is to use a plywood with an oak veneer for the bottom in a drawer like this, and I want to check with the hive mind here on what you think.
Any opinions and advice welcome!

By the way I may end up ordering the drawers "blank" and making the organizer myself depending on what the drawer company can or cannot do - I don't know if this affects your answer, but there it is.

[Bruce King]

Either ply or solid is fine but I would use hardwood and make it thicker than 3/8 or add reinforcement strips underneath. Have the customer sign off on the divider layouts.

[Lee Schierer]

If the organizer is just going to be an organizer and not lifted out for setting a table the bottom can be 1/4" material. The drawer bottom will support the weight.

[Mel Fulks]

YES. And the drawer would also hold a bar of platinum!
I would cover the drawer interior bottom with the "silver cloth" tarnish inhibiter.

[Thomas Wilson]

Pacific cloth is the tarnish inhibitor.

[Mark Gibney]

Thanks for the answers. I guess the organizer should be unattached, so it can be lifted out - if so I guess it doesn't matter so much whether the bottom is solid or plywood.

[Jim Becker]

The divided organizer I made for my own kitchen has a plywood bottom with solid wood dividers. That reduces wood movement issues because any expansion of the solid wood dividers is vertical. I have shallow grooves in the 1/4" plywood base to make the whole assembly stronger; glue and 23 gauge pin nails keep the dividers attached to each other. I used. a little double stick tape to insure the organizer stays in place but it can be removed if necessary in the future. I prefinished things before assembly, too. Mine happens to be scrap cherry 1/4" plywood for the base and scrap cherry 1/4" stock for the dividers.

BTW, my preference is generally for these things to be independent of the drawer so the purpose isn't locked in over time.

[Bruce King]

Should the bottom of a silverware drawer with a built-in organizer have a plywood bottom or a solid wood bottom?

My client wants a large silverware drawer (28" wide, 15" deep) in their island, and wants the drawers made from solid white oak.
The company I use to make my drawers puts 3/8" solid bottoms in their solid wood drawers. They say they can make an in-built organizer, and put this in a drawer with a solid wood bottom.

My instinct is to use a plywood with an oak veneer for the bottom in a drawer like this, and I want to check with the hive mind here on what you think.
Any opinions and advice welcome!

By the way I may end up ordering the drawers "blank" and making the organizer myself depending on what the drawer company can or cannot do - I don't know if this affects your answer, but there it is.

I thought your question was about the bottom of the huge drawer. Most answers are about the bottom of the silverware holder. That size drawer needs a very strong bottom. The silverware holder doesn’t matter much.

[Dave Seng]

I just finished a silverware divider tray for my kitchen this weekend. Constructed it with a base of 1/2" Baltic Birch and used 1/4" poplar for the dividers. Dividers fit into a perimeter rabbet and in dadoes in the central area. I sized it so that it fits snugly in the drawer box, but so that it can be removed for easy cleaning. My "oops" was that I forgot to allow for the protrusion of the screw heads for the drawer front and the pull. Had to cut some shallow dadoes in the front exterior of the insert so it could slide over the screw heads.

450974

[Michael Drew]

I just finished a silverware divider tray for my kitchen this weekend. Constructed it with a base of 1/2" Baltic Birch and used 1/4" poplar for the dividers. Dividers fit into a perimeter rabbet and in dadoes in the central area. I sized it so that it fits snugly in the drawer box, but so that it can be removed for easy cleaning. My "oops" was that I forgot to allow for the protrusion of the screw heads for the drawer front and the pull. Had to cut some shallow dadoes in the front exterior of the insert so it could slide over the screw heads.

450974

Dangit, another cool idea just got added to my honey do list....

[Mark Gibney]

Bruce, my question was about both the bottom and the organizer in concert. My apologies for not wording my question as clearly as it could have been, asking the question here is part of thinking it through for me, I guess.
Great info and feedback, thanks everyone.

[Jim Becker]

Mark, something material to this is also if there will be a sliding tray on top of the organizer or not to provide even more organized storage. :) Something to think about...I'll be doing that next time around I think.

[Tom Bender]

Dave
That looks nice in the picture but how does it look now, with all the other stuff tossed in? That's the trouble with organizing misc stuff, there is always more. I went with plastic inserts from BB& Beyond. Just got a variety and blocked them in place. Couple weeks later I revised to suit reality.

Don't get me started on closets and bookshelves.

[Austin Grote]

About 10 years ago I started a project to make a divided tray for chisels, but along the way it became a kitchen drawer with dividers for the silverware...

I built a mockup of the internal pieces using plywood, and once the design was approved I used hardwood for the divider pieces, which fit inside the actual drawer frame. The bottom of the drawer was 1/2" pre finished plywood.

First pic is mockup, second is completed drawer, third is drawer, full of junk...451491451492451493

[Dave Seng]

Dave
That looks nice in the picture but how does it look now, with all the other stuff tossed in? That's the trouble with organizing misc stuff, there is always more.

I should have taken before and after photos - in my case the silverware drawer organizer really helped. But I do still have two drawers of kitchen utensils that are pretty scary to even think about trying to organize. Organization DOES help, be it in the shop or kitchen.

[Bud Brinkley]

One thing to consider is cleaning. Make the dividers removable as a unit to clean out the compartments. You'll be surprised at the food crumbs, dirt, and gunk that collects in them and you will always be taking them out to clean. Even more so with a felt bottom. Been there, done that.