Kitchen Organization - How to Install Pull-out Drawers in Cabinet above Fridge

Howdy!

I hope you've had a great weekend, mine was good, I was finally  able to work in my garage and put some organization in there too, anyways there's still lots going on in there.

The warmer temperatures are finally arriving, I'm so excited about working outside again. I'm planning on tackling more wooden projects this Spring and Summer, later on I'll let you know about that, for now let's finish this project, the second part of the cabinet above the fridge organization. ;)

For the first part of this project, the tray divider, you can click right HERE. At the end of my last post this is how the cabinet looked.

At first I wanted to install simple shelves, but I would've ended up with the same trouble I had with my pantry HERE, not finding the items stored in the back of each shelf, so, the only option for avoiding that, was to install roll out drawers.

Guess what? I even made my own drawers!
:)
That's a first one and I'm gonna leave you with some tips in case you haven't done this before.

OK, this is how it all went.
The cabinet part where the drawers were going to be installed was measured, I also checked if it was leveled.
On the right hand side two wooden supports were attached to bring the slides out without getting trapped by the door.

The inside depth of the cabinet is 23½". The length of the drawers was set at 22".
For the width, I had to measure the distance from the tray divider to the wooden supports, in my case that distance was 13¾".  The width of the drawers was set at 12-5/8"
Whatever your measurement is, subtract 1-1/8" space for the slides.

I used the same material from the tray divider, cheap ¾" and ¼" underlayment, the height of the drawers was set at 2½".
Using a circular saw, lengths from the ¾" underlayment were cut. Then, using a ¼" dado router bit, the grooves for the pan of the drawer were done.

Once the dado or groove was done, it was just a matter of cutting the eight pieces I needed for the two drawers. Holes with the Kreg jig were done to the side pieces of the drawers.

Both sides were attached to the front of the drawer. I don't mind the Kreg holes, these drawers are going to be way up for anyone to see them but you can cover them if you want.

From the ¼" material, the bottoms of the cabinet were cut and placed into grooves before attaching the back side of the drawer.

With the drawers ready, it's time to install the slides. For the lower cabinet I used a metal square to bring the measurement a bit higher than the bottom of the cabinet.

Mark the spaces where to drive the screws - I made pre-drills. ;)

By the way, I used this Knape and Vogt 22 Inch Soft-close Full extension slides - 100 pound rated

The part of the slides that is attached to the drawers hides the hole on the side of the drawer created with the dado cuts.

As a final touch, as per my daughter's request, the words Delicious Baking  were painted and distressed.
This is how the cabinet looks now:

I was quick to bring all the stuff to see how it all fitted. :)

I bought those clear containers at Walmart but they only had three, so I looked around the house and found those wooden boxes. There's still plenty of space but I know that's going to fill quickly.

I really wanted to have smaller containers inside the drawers, that way is going to be easier for my daughter to bring down small cases or containers while working because that cabinet is pretty high.

So, as I told you, these were the first drawers I ever built, and as a good rookie, these are the main things I learned from this experience:

• In cabinet building 1/8 of an inch is a big number if you're either, to short or way up in one of your measurements. Having 2/8 of an inch or ¼" is just HUGE! One of my drawers was ¼" bigger than needed, so of course it didn't fit! I had to disassemble it, cut the ¼" and put it together again, after wasting a very long time thinking my cabinet or the slides were installed wrongly, nope it was the drawer!
• Creating the groove or dado cut is easy, the problem comes when you have to do it on a long skinny piece of wood where you don't want the clamps interfering on the router's way (not a big deal if you have a table sew, I don't have it).  The only solution I could came up with was screwing the piece of wood to your bench and adding another piece of wood to its side to create a big surface for the router to sit flat on.
• Working way up the ground is difficult, sometimes you need a pair of helping hands but there's no space for another person on the ladder! A good strong tape can hold a piece of wood or slide while you drive the screws.

For more DIY kitchen and home project ideas check these out:

How to build a tray divider above your fridge

How to cover the empty space above your kitchen cabinets

Laundry Room Reveal

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