Add Pull-Out Shelves To Kitchen Cabinets

DIY pull out shelves inverse my life. I am just slightly exaggerating hither. But seriously, we decided to transform our cabinets in the kitchen and bathroom with DIY pull out shelves. The result has been cypher short of amazing.

When nosotros moved into our home five years ago, the kitchen pantry had no shelving. So, we built our own pull out shelves. In our deep cabinets, the new full-extension pull-out shelves allow my family to reach the back of cabinets with ease.

The exercise-information technology-yourself DIY pull out shelves also make the narrow openings easier to navigate. The shelves at present pull ALL THE WAY OUT to bring order to overly deep spaces – similar our bathroom cabinets. After years of stretching through the 12-inch opening to reach items at the dorsum, we decided it was time to build pull out shelves.

Information technology was one of the smartest DIY projects we e’er did. The following steps walk you lot through the process of building your ain DIY pull out shelves.

Getting Started on Your Pull-Out Shelves

What exactly are DIY pull out shelves? Well, the shelves of a typical kitchen chiffonier just sit there. Simply DIY pull-out shelves are basically like drawers. The drawers slide out toward y’all so you can easily reach what’s in the back.

Each drawer slides on heavy duty rails connected to the walls of the cabinet using wooden spacers. The spacers ensure the finished drawers fit through the opening of the cabinet, including any protruding hinges. The basic steps to building and installing shelves include:

• Taking measurements
• Installing spacers and drawer slides inside the cabinet
• Assembling the drawer boxes for your pull-out shelves
• Installing the finished drawer boxes

You will demand the post-obit tools and materials to construct your pull-out shelves. Note that the lengths of materials are non given. These are specific to each project and will be adamant in Footstep i below.

The materials and tools listed beneath are available at hardware stores, dwelling house centers, lumber yards and online. For your convenience, we have included some links to the products on Amazon. Dwelling house Garden and Homestead receives a small commission from sales generated by our links. We thanks for supporting this website!

Materials
:

Drawer slides

1” x 4” whitewood boards

¼” birch plywood

Forest for spacers (size varies by project)

Screws

Wood mucilage

Finishing nails

Forest filler

Wood stain

Tools
:

Measuring tape

Saw

Table saw

or router with

groove bit

Sandpaper

Clamps (optional)

Hammer

Finishing nail tap

Stud finder

Screwdriver

Select sturdy drawer slides. There are two primary types: roller slides (which extend only three-quarters of their length) and

ball-begetting slides

(which extend fully). Brawl-bearing slides tend to support heavier items and curlicue more smoothly.

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Pace i. Taking Measurements

All adept projects offset with a few important measurements. Catch a piece of paper and a pencil, and let’southward get started. I similar to follow the former adage – measure out twice, cutting one time.

1. 
   Drawer slide and shelf lengths
   
   .
   Measure the depth of your cabinet to determine the length of each finished drawer. Next determine the length of drawer slides required. You will need to purchase the drawer slides to decide the remaining measurements.

2. 
   Spacer thickness
   
   .
   The cabinet opening will determine the width of your pull-out shelves also as the thickness of spacers required to support each shelf. To determine how thick the spacers need to be, lay the drawer slides in place. Then, extend them through the cabinet opening. Consider whatever protruding hinges that you volition need to work around. At present, measure the distance betwixt the cabinet walls and the back of the drawer slide. This is the thickness of your spacers.

Many mod cabinets are frameless and may non crave the employ of spacers. In this case, the drawer slides are attached straight to the chiffonier wall. Other cabinets have a very wide face up frame, requiring thick spacers. Thicker spacers may require using more than than ane piece of wood. I similar to utilise pieces of scrap wood to mock-up the spacers. We used 2” 10 4” boards and 1” 10 4” boards to build our spacers. We likewise needed shims on the hinge side of the cabinet.

3. 
   Drawer width
   
   .
   The drawer width is the distance between the within of the drawer slides. Be careful non to overestimate the drawer size. It is easier to add shims behind your drawer slides than to shave down oversized drawers.

Step 2. Install Spacers and Drawer Slides Inside the Cabinet

As you lot install spacer boards inside the cabinets, don’t forget to take into business relationship the door hinges. In many cases, you lot can adjust your shelf locations vertically to avoid interfering with hinges. Or you may need an boosted spacer to let the shelves to extend past hinges.

1. 
   Cut spacer boards
   
   .
   Spacer boards should run the full length of the interior cabinet wall. Cutting each slice to the appropriate length.

2. 
   Stain the Boards
   . If you lot are planning to stain the drawers and spacers to match your cabinets, it is easiest to do so before installation. Our cabinets have a very pale whitewash terminate, so nosotros left our wood unpainted.

3. 
   Install spacers
   
   .
   Use woods mucilage to the backs of spacer boards (the side facing the cabinet wall) to provide additional support. Secure boards in place using screws. If y’all are securing the spacers into sheet rock, it is best to spiral the spacers into the studs. Use a stud finder to locate studs.

4. 
   Use shims as needed.
   
   Cabinet interiors are not ever square. You may need shims behind spacers in some places.

5. 
   Install drawer slides.
   
   Follow parcel directions to adhere the drawer slides to the spacer rails. Brand sure the bottom drawer slides are non too close to the floor of the cabinet. We used scraps of plywood when aligning the bottom slide to ensure plenty of clearance for the finished drawer.

Optional: Cap Spacers

.
Our bathroom cabinet required multiple spacer boards. To create a more than finished wait, we capped spacers with a ane” x 4” whitewood lath cutting to fit snuggly over the spacers.

Stride 3: Assemble the Drawer Boxes for Your Pull-Out Shelves

The pull-out shelves are designed like drawers with a wooden frame to go along stored items in place. We used i” 10 iv” whitewood boards to build the drawer frame and ¼” birch plywood for the drawer bottom.

1. 
   Cutting 1” x four” boards to proper length
   
   .
   The measurements taken in Step one above tell you the overall dimensions of your drawer box. It is a good idea to double check the drawer width once the spacers and drawer slides are installed. Utilize the overall dimensions to determine the length of each frame piece.

• • The end pieces (front and back) will extend the full width of the drawer box to hibernate the joints of the side pieces. These terminate pieces volition exist equal to the overall drawer width measured above.

• • The length of the side pieces equals the overall length of the drawer minus the thickness of the forepart and back pieces. We used 1” x four” boards to build the frame. Note that one x four’s actually measure ¾ inch thick, not a full inch. Therefore, the length of each side piece is calculated equally:

Side length = overall length – 1 ½ inches (the thickness of
both
end pieces).

2. 
   Cut a channel for the drawer lesser
   
   .
   The plywood drawer bottom is set up into grooves in the frame for added support. Using a tabular array saw or router, cut a channel into the frame boards virtually ¼” deep and wide enough to accommodate the plywood bottom. Depending on the tools you are using, it may be easier to do this earlier cutting the boards to their proper length.

3. 
   Cut the drawer lesser.
   
   The plywood bottom of the drawer needs to be cut wide enough to fit into the grooves of the frame. Equally such, the dimensions of the drawer lesser are one-inch shorter and narrower than the overall drawer dimensions.

4. 
   Sand pieces and examination assembly.
   
   Sand all of the pieces smooth. Earlier moving on to the next step, assemble the pieces to brand sure they fit together properly. Make additional cuts every bit needed.

5. 
   Assemble the pieces.
   
   Utilise a thin bead of wood glue inside the groove of each frame piece. Insert the plywood drawer bottom into the groove and assemble the frame. Apply finishing nails to secure the end pieces to the side boards. You may wish to use clamps to concur the pieces together until the glue dries.

6. 
   Stop the drawers
   
   .
   Later the gum has stale, use a
   finishing boom tap
   (sometimes called a finishing smash setter) to drive the finishing nails into the wood. So encompass the nail with wood filler. Stain the drawers every bit desired to lucifer your cabinetry.

Stride 4. Install Your DIY Pull Out Shelves

You are virtually finished. All that remains is installing the drawer slides to your drawer box and setting it in place. Follow the instructions that came with the drawer slides to complete the installation.

By building your own DIY pull out shelves, you tin customize cabinets to meet your specific needs. The pull-out shelves maximize storage space
and
provide easier admission to items at the back of the drawers.

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