The first question you need to ask is whether the code/inspection officer in your town will allow it.

That said, if I was going to do it I would use a locking outlet on the back wall of the cabinet and run the cord through a hold in the back of the drawer box. You want the drawer box to be large enough that you can get your hand in there to access the outlet. You also need to allow enough space behind the drawer box (in front of the outlet) for the cord.

Or, rather than a drawer, you could do a shelf with a drop down face (like in front of some sinks). Then everything would be accessible, and I believe fewer inspectors would have an issue.

bump

I put an outlet inside an upper cabinet for this very reason. Then I put a 1.5" grommet in the bottom of the cabinet. The transformer for my telephone is in there and the cord runs through the hole to the telephone that is on the bar top. Not sure if it was worth it honestly. Before I had the cord and the transformer, now I only have the cord, but it hangs down. I could use the outlet to charge my phones in the upper cabinet, but it is also our medicine cabinet and there is not much room. Maybe one day it will pay off, but in hindsight I probably wouldn't have done it.

Kitchen angst;

I hear you about the clutter. I had the cabinetmaker put 3" "sides" on the hutch. The electrician cut plugmold in half (turned out to be a PIA to do, but he was the one who came up with the idea) and mounted a 4 plug strip vertically on the inside of each side. My phone/anwering machine is plugged in on one side, cell phones get plugged in and charged on the other side. When I want the house to get all pretty, the cell phone plugs will go into a certain drawer. This way all that clutter is off my main counter. I'll post pictures if you're interested.

We are putting an outlet on the back wall of an upper cabinet for this purpose. The outlet will be just above the bottom of the cabinet (so we will set cell phones, etc on the bottom of the cabinet for charging). This is our makeshift message center spot - we will have key hooks on the back of the door and the phone is on the counter below, office supply stuff in the drawers in the base cabinet below.

Not a great solution, but at least it's hidden.

My DH put an outlet in the vanity base in our master bath where we plug in the hairdryer, etc with the hairdryer, etc in a drawer. Didn't get it permitted, however, and I'm sure it's not up to code. We love it and it works great. The outlet is on the back of the vanity base and we just plug in an extension cord with the cord flopped over the back of the drawer. It works fine, never gets hung up and allows us to open the drawer, pull out the hairdryer, dry our hair with the drawer open just a bit, and put the hairdryer back. The stuff is in the middle drawer and the other drawers work just fine.

I think it will work great, it's just a matter of getting it to pass code. But if you just put an outlet in the base cabinet, which is fine, then you can rig how to plug the phones and laptop in later. If you had a hole in the back of the drawer, as sue36 suggested, and plug in an extension cord through the hole with the plug IN part of the extension cord inside the drawer (the end where the phones would plug into), right at the hole, then the cord can just extend and relax behind the drawer as you open and close the drawer. Would it be possible to make a hole that you can fit the plug through, but not the end where the phones plug it so it is stuck just inside the drawer?

Am I making any sense? Woke up WAAAAYYY too early.

Good luck!

I have pics of a drawer that someone (not sure who) posted here last year, unfortunately we didn't actually do it so I cannot give you any details.
{{!gwi}}
{{!gwi}}

"The first question you need to ask is whether the code/inspection officer in your town will allow it. "

Should not be an issue if the correct flexible cord is used.

Hard use or junior hard use should be more than fine.

The cord must also be correctly terminated to the electrical boxes at each end with strain reliefs.

Thanks everyone! I think we're okay, as far as code. Stayed tuned to see how it worked out!