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Working on 1st layout draft. Do you like your drawers?

16 years ago

We're working on draft #1 for our remodel. Our kitchen is small...and also a corridor with 2 parallel cabinet banks, about 15.5 ft each bank. We've been looking at so many pics, and I am noticing an abundance of base drawers instead of base cabinets with doors.

How do you like them???? Any advice?

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Comments (6)

raehelen
16 years ago
Drawers are great. Especially as we age, it beats laying down on the floor to have to reach that #*### darn thing at the back at the bottom...!

But, if you don't have any pantry space, ie any uppers that are deep, keep in mind that some things may be too big and bulky to fit in a drawer, so be sure to measure everything that you want in the kitchen, and allow some cabinets (whether upper or lower) to fit those oversized items. Platters, bread makers, huge bowls, pots. Trash, recycling, etc.

Also, with drawers you lose some of the depth, ie my tray that I like to keep with placemats and serviettes on it for outside, wouldn't fit in a drawer, so I have one base cabinet closest to the deck so I can have my tray handy. So, besides my sink cabinet, this is the only base cabinet I have, plus one for my recycling pullout.
california_dreamer
16 years ago
Yes- I LOVE my drawers! They are so handy! I do have one large base cab with pull outs. I wanted that to be drawers too but my contractor talked me out of it. I wish I hadn't listened to him.
The thing I don't like about the pull out is that I have to fully open 2 doors, stepping out of the way completely, and then pull out the tray to get what I need. With drawersif the item I need is toward the front I don't even have to open the drawer all the way. I find them so much easier to use.
I put most of my big items (small appliances, salad spinner, large serving bowls etc) in my corner lazy susan cabinet. I do have one pull out trash cabinet and one lower cabinet that holds my mixer but the rest are all drawers. It is one of my favorite things about my new kitchen.
HTH
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I don't like tiny knobs on big doors...so that bothers me, but the real issue is...if you have one knob it should be lower on the upper doors and higher on the lower doors (did that make sense? heh heh) But frankly, a 3" or more pull would look better, and I'd bet you could use the existing hole on many of those doors and drill one below it for the other hole. You can play with looks in advance and see what works. The green or yellow would look nice with both white and almond :) The green especially would help the almond blend easily. Now that I know they're not white...I'd be careful about painting in white. You'll immediately make the appliances look very bad by painting white on the cabinets surrounding them. Really...it would be a big mistake. For that fridge, you could take a sledge hammer to the back wall and poke that fridge back into the framing area by taking out a few 2x4's (if it's not a support wall). You can build a header around the space and push the fridge back, then maybe some trim and you'll be amazed how much better it looks. The cabinets I just removed from our remodel are the cabinets you have by the way. (VERY CLOSE anyhoo). The previous owner had changed to a corian type countertop and that did help with the look somewhat (but they were still orange oak LOL) and they didn't have any trouble holding up that counter :) I wouldn't put 3cm granite on them (because spending that type of money on counter tops when you need to do other things is silly) but I'd look to some of the prefab granite out there. We're getting a gold colored granite out of asia at $44 sq ft, with finished edges and a 4" backsplash, all installed, $44 sq ft for our new place (rental). I'll be putting that on top of some 1977 cabinets :) and they'll be just fine :)
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Cp-Yes, we are limited on the outside. We tried craftsman traditional homes and were rejected every time. But you're right, if the outside looks like the rest of the subdivision, the inside could be anything within our budget. Unfortunately, the style rules are vague. There's standard limitations on brick in front, Max of 3 car garage, and minimum square footage. Aside from those, which I doubt remember off hand, because I know we'll meet them. The builder had to approve, and also go through the builder committee of for large builders in the area. Pretty much, they have to look like rest of the neighborhood. We have considered it, and we'll be utilizing one. However, they're aren't any independent ones in our area, and they wouldn't be familiar with our particular subdivision. We've contacted an individual we know that does architecture, but we're not sure if they do residential or commercial/industrial. Bpathome- I love the idea of arranging the bath upstairs. Great idea! Yes, we are allowed to add windows on the side, not sure why I hadn't thought of that.
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rhome410
16 years ago
I love them. I goofed and my food processor won't fit in one, but, otherwise, I left a few cabinets as non-drawers and almost wish I hadn't. The drawers are so wonderful compared to the alternatives, and I'm finding I want to put everything in drawers...Small appliances, Tupperware, dishes, baking pans, pots and pans, etc, etc. I never liked pullouts, but the advantage of them is you can change the height within the cabinet if you end up with something like the food processor that's barely too tall for the way it's set up.
saskatchewan_girl
16 years ago
Drawers are new to me, never had any before and I absolutely LOVE them. Like rhome410 I had 2 base cabinets installed and wish I didn't. Mine drawers are quite wide and fairly deep so they hold A LOT. They pull out fully. It's so convenient to put away and retrieve!!! Hardly any bending and easy to find lids! I would always lose the lids to containers at the back of the cabinets. I think I have so much more room to pile up my plastic containers too LOL.
I use 2 for pots & pans and NO MORE dragging them out or from front to back........all are easily accessible with no marks on shelves.
My only regret is not going deeper for my upper cabinets. I went with standard depth and wish I had done 15" or 14" deep for the uppers.
I'm also happy I didn't re-install a lazy susan in the corner, just shelves this time.........love that too : )
HTH
pompeii
16 years ago
I "inherited" a kitchen in the house we bought that has quite a few drawers. I probably never would have thought of including so many drawers in a kitchen design, but I love them. My kitchen is from 1957, so the guy who built the house was way ahead of his time!

Some are regular depth, some are deeper, some have removable dividers, some are very wide, but they are all very usable.
abbycat9990
16 years ago
I've had them in three kitchens now, and I love them. Cabinets for the first kitchen were built on site in 1975:

The original kitchen of our current house came with site-built (1950) drawers too:

Then we moved the kitchen to the DR and, with great glee, I ordered all-new, smooth-sliding drawers:

Drawers rock

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