Home Made Kitchen Drawers

SallyW · Oct 1, 2020

Has anyone made their own kitchen drawers for the SE or Ocean? Can you give me any advice on how you made them and what materials you used please? Also, how did you attach them to the sides of the cupboard? We have recently made a slide out boot drawer which has been a great success (thank you to all who posted their experiences of making theirs) so now we would like to try and make our own kitchen drawers. Many thanks.

Tim Hook · Oct 3, 2020

I've just finished making and installing a set of three drawers. It was fairly time consuming and you have to be pretty accurate in your measurements.
I removed the original bracket (for the top drawer) on centre panel by drilling the pop rivets and then using gentle heat from a blow torch to loosen the glue/bracket. Keep the other bracing on the outer wall and you can use that to fix the purchased runners.
The drawers I made from 9mm birch ply, one from a salvaged item and the other two from new plywood.
The runners I used were from Amazon.
I attached the runners to the centre partition with short pop rivets. You dont have to drill all the way through the panel, just one side. (That does make sense when you look how the panel is constructed.
To fix the runners on the outside panel - I had to make a wooden frame to fit inside the cupboard, which I glued to the floor and the outer panel.
(I'll need to take some pictures of that - but will do so if you're interested.)

I would say it's not a job to be taken lightly but if you have good DIY skills - why not.
I like the finished drawers and they are so much better than the orginal drawer and shelf.

SallyW · Oct 3, 2020

Hello Tim
Thank you very much for taking the time to reply.
Your ideas are really good and it would be interesting to see the frame you made for attaching the drawers to the outside panel.
Have you considered making drawers for the left hand cupboard? This I guess would provide different challenges as the cupboard door is unable to open fully.

Tim Hook · Oct 4, 2020

Attached are a couple pics. of the cupboard interior with drawers removed.

With hindsight I would now recommend the removal the top bracket on the outside panel and extend the wooden frame to include the runner for the top drawer. (I had to insert a 3mm aluminium bar to ensure the opening runner did not catch the edge of the door frame.)