There is probably a lot of head space. My drawers are Blum Metaboxes and they are maybe 6" deep, but that's just the box. I can store all of my pots and pans in there, including an 8 qt pressure cooker. Hopefully that is the case with your drawers as well. In a 4 drawer stack, I see no way in the world that you could have drawers that are only 6 1/4" deep. That is most likely just the depth of the box.

Thank you, ccoombs1! That makes me feel a little better. I didn't realize that the clearance could be quite a bit more, but seems like the clearance is usually just a couple of inches above the box height. Hope I'm wrong. And this is a 3 DRAWER stack. I certainly hope that I have more than 6 inches!! :) Or there will be very few of my pots and larger pans going in there!

Your total cabinet box is probably about 30 inches (34-1/2 minus the toekick space) The top drawer is typically 6 of that (overall) and the lower drawers are usually about 12 (again overall) In frameless cabinets, you will bet most of that space. In framed or inset cabinets, you will lose the space in between, but that is not likely to take you down to half.

Measure from the inside of an open drawer from bottom of the drawer to the bottom of the next higher thing on the outside of the cabinet (the next drawer front or cabinet frame) to get the actual clearance.

The drawers lose height for undermounted drawer glides, drawer bottoms, clearance and the cabinet top and bottom. It's around an inch per drawer and someplace between 3/4" to 1-1/2" for the cabinet.

You can have equal sized drawer fronts, but the one on the very top or very bottom may actually have less clearance in frameless cabinets because the drawer front is offset to cover the cabinet top or bottom.

Very roughly with traditional framed cabinets, you lose about 4" more for the frame.

We discovered that same issue AFTER the cabinets for our master bath arrived. It never dawned on us to actually look inside the drawer banks ourselves because person we were working to design the cabinet layout said they were "standard" size when I asked. Who's standard, I'm not sure but not OURS. We can't lay a blow dryer into the first two of the 3 drawers and was really disappointed as well. Your lucky you discovered the before it really is too late.

The door heights I have looked at for 3 stack are generally 6-12-12 inches for frameless full overlay and 5-9-9 inches for framed inset cabinets with rails/stiles around the inset doors.You would lose a little on the bottom of each drawer for the bottom of the box construction. Your drawers probably have a few inches of clearance on top of the sides.

These cabinets are framed full overlay, if that helps. So maybe I will get around 9 inches for those bottom 2 deep drawers? I'm hoping for that? I'll look at my friends' cabinets this week... Thanks, everyone! I'm feeling a little better, at least it won't be 6 inches once I get some of the clearance that I wasn't counting.

some time back on a thread about the height of drawers buehl posted hers. the url doesn't work anymore but i did copy out her post. here it is:
(I hope it's ok to post this buehl!)

* d by buehl (My Page) on
Wed, Sep 2, 09 at 7:43

* Cabinet Line: Omega Dynasty

* Face Frame: 1-1/2"

* Drawer box wall thickness: 5/8"

* Interior Depth of drawer box (front-to-back): 19-3/4"

* Approx interior width of any drawer box = cabinet width" - 4-1/2"

* Drawer Heights/Depths (interior drawer bottom-to-stile b/w drawers):

o 3-drawer stack:

• Drawer 1 (Top) = 3-1/4"
• Drawer 2 = 8-1/4"
• Drawer 3 = 8-1/4"

o 4-drawer stack:

• Drawer 1 (Top) = 3-1/4"
• Drawer 2 = 4-3/8"
• Drawer 3 = 4-3/8"
• Drawer 4 = 6"

o Drawer of 'Top Drawer + Doors' Cabinet = 3-1/4"

here's a pic of my sister's 3 drawer cab. face framed i'm sure. It's woodmark i think. Her 2nd and 3rd drawers look a lot bigger than 6" - tho, an inch or so isn't usable space. I bet there's at least 8" of usable height space in them. Don't panic, call one of your friends w/the same cabs and have them measure for you!