Drawers are easy to remove (by anyone, without a tool) to access plumbing. All you have to do is to fully open the drawer and pull it up.

That said, I do not get why people are so wary of water leaks in sink cabinets. I have had water damage from an old roof, from an old window, from centuries old pipes in a wall, from an old tap... But never experienced leaks under a sink.

Love this concept. Makes much better use of the space.

I just had a 5" tall pullout under my sink, on the bottom. I didn't have space for proper drawers with the instant hot and disposal and deep sink, but since the cabinet was 30" deep (front-to-back) it made the undersink area easier to deal with and much easier to remove everything to access plumbing.

If nothing else, do a pullout (roll-out shelf?) under there. Hey, it'll catch leaks, too!

The drawer in the top pic isn't as useful as that photo makes it look. Except at the far left and far right, there's almost no height to the top drawer - those three bottles you see (and a few more at the far left) are likely all that would fit. Even the few inches of height under the sink can't go all the way back; there has to be a drain somewhere, and probably a disposer too. Those few cleaning supplies are certainly conveniently close at hand, but that's offset by having to open a big heavy drawer to access them. I'd rather size the sink cabinet to be no wider than necessary to fit the sink, and use an adjcent 6" or 9" wide pull-out pantry cabinet for that sort of thing, or use a shelf in a nearby wall cabinet or pantry cabinet. There are also all sorts off pullout accessories with two tiers of wire shelves that are designed to fit under a sink that will work with common sink cabinets that don't have drawers

I do like the tilt-out trays that install directly in front of a sink, where the 6"h top drawer would be in most base cabinets. Those are great for storing sponges and the like.

kariwb: That drawer on the bottom is a great idea!

We did a pullout...the contractor notched it out around the garbage disposal....but I like the drawer idea more!

We also have a pullout under our prep sink where we keep all the cleaning supplies. It is very handy and I like how it keeps things "corralled". The funny thing is that we didn't plan to have it. Our contractor mistakenly ordered a drawer for the cabinet (where prep sink is, so no room for a drawer). He took it to his shop and refashioned it into the pull out.

These under-sink pullouts are from a GW member and I saved the picture because I thought they were so nice. I think the member was sandn? Wish I could remember so I could give her/him kudos.

I really love those! Thanks to the GW'er who shared that! I am sending that pic to my cabinet maker right now . Thanks everyone!

Love those also - wonder if I could retrofit!

Our under-sink drawer is one of my favorite parts of our new kitchen. It is nice to have increased storage and eliminate the large hard to access cavern that was under our prior sink. I have been waiting to post pictures of the entire kitchen until the backsplash is up .... but we all know how that goes!!! Here is a preview...

We were able to fit a bottom drawer with a 9" face under the sink because we installed a shallow sink. The garbage disposal and instahot have just enough room.

I feel lucky to have such a creative DH for a cabinet builder!!!

Thanks to all of you who have posted! We're just starting a build and I'd been vacillating over drawer vs door under the sink. So very helpful to see your pictures and hear your experiences!

Sudaki, wow, LOVE that--OK, how did your DH do it? Did you know what all the measurements would be in the first place (if so, how?), or did you guys put the cabinet in place & then figure out how deep the drawer could be & build it & the doors? Thanks!!

Well, I know it's not exactly the same, but i have drawers under my hall bathroom sink. I fell in love with a vanity in a magazine and the cabinet maker was able to replicate the look. He was going to put 2 drawers on bottom and dummy drawer on top, but i insisted on making the top drawer functional. He argued that it would be too narrow for any use (the vanity is only 28 inches). Well guess what? Those 2 narrow drawers hold the little odds and ends perfectly well - extra toothbrushes, floss samples, infant combs and brush. Anyway, I love having the drawers even if they don't store as much as my vanity with doors. And of course, there isn't a garbage disposal under there.
If you want to see a picture, i'll try to figure out how to post it. Quite frankly, my twins have had a rough few nights (more teeth?!) and i'm exhausted!!!

meganmca - The drawer and doors were prebuilt after carefully measuring the anticipated distance from countertop to bottom of the disposal just to make sure that there was a possibility of this working out. The size of the drawer face and doors was driven by the aesthetics - we wanted the height of the drawer face to match the lower drawers in the 4 drawer banks. We gave ourselves some fudge room in two ways - the drawer box is only 4.5 inches high and the shelf has a tall front face. This would allow us to drop the height of the shelf if needed to accommodate the plumbing. Worked well (the height of useable storage in the drawer is 6") though it was a bit nervewracking - but that is par for the course in kitchen renovation!!

sudaki - love yours as well. I am thinking of doing something similar in the bathroom.
Phillyfeet - hang in there with the twins!

This post was edited by a2gemini on Thu, Nov 7, 13 at 20:31

I have always been fascinated by this very clever u-shaped drawer and wondered why I haven't seen others like it. It seemed so functional by allowing you access to the plumbing while giving you a lot of drawer space in what would have been a wasted area. I would think it would be great for a bathroom also.

See next post for photo 2. They are the ones by muskokascp on Sat. Feb. 2, 13 at 12:40. Unfortuantely, muskikascp doesn't say which company made it.

If anyone has any more information or experience (especially if there are any drawbacks), please share!

Here is a link that might be useful: Show me your undersink drawers!

This post was edited by wannaknow1 on Sat, Nov 9, 13 at 23:12

Second photo:

Wannaknow - the u shape is what I have under vanity sink. I promise to post photo tomorrow.

Thanks, Sudaki--that's really really brilliant, love that you designed it to be flexible if there was an issue!

Wannaknow - the u shape is what I have under vanity sink. I promise to post photo tomorrow.

Thanks Phillyfeet. Hope your twins will feel better.

Would you do this in a kitchen? If you still have your magazine, did it say who the manufacturer was?

Muskokascp had written "It was not a problem for our cabinet company and they seemed quite versed on this as an option. The key is to have the plumbing in the right spot so as to allow a u-shaped drawer. " I wonder if this rules out those who have a drain hole somewhere other than the center. Not sure if her "cabinet company" is a brand name available to all of us.

wannaknow - my DH modified the top drawer of the vintage dresser in my powder room to accommodate the sink plumbing. I keep my bath tea lights and extra hand towels in the drawer. Works great.

Brilliant! What great ideas.

Sudaki, you mentioned you have a shallow sink. What do you suppose is the maximum sink depth one could use?

Here's trash pullouts from another thread, but it's a prep sink. If you follow the link, you'll see that it still accommodates a garbage disposal.

I thought a rear corner drain would better accommodate all the plumbing in a single plane, but here Morton5 indicates a front center drain worked best. Thoughts anyone?

Here is a link that might be useful: under sink trash pullout

I can't imagine why a drain in the back corner would be any better or worse than a center drain? What's the difference as long as the pipes are clustered together?

I probably wouldn't put a ton of weight in any of these drawers with a cut-out area, but for towels and paper/plastic bags and some cleaning stuff I think they're ideal.

Okay, the girls are napping, so i was able to sneak into the bathroom for a few pics. Please excuse the crazy things i have in the drawers right now. Also, I haven't yet figured out how to post multiple photos in one message. I tried to show all three drawers - the bottom drawer is basically full, with just a very small notch at the top rear wall panel.

The magazine where i saw the vanity is long gone, but only really showed the exterior in a beautiful large bathroom (it was gorgeous, sigh...) My cabinet maker copied outside. He had no calms about cutting around the sink base and pipes. Seemed like he has done this in the past. I haven't thought about doing this in the kitchen yet cause i really haven't gotten that far in the design. (Just met with kitchen cabinet dealers yesterday) I do think that i would only have 2 drawers instead of 3 if done in the kitchen so they could be deeper. Right now i keep cleaning supplies there in kitchen and obviously, the bottle would be too tall for this configuration. Oh, my vanity is only 28 inches, so i imagine that it would be even better with a wider kitchen sink base cabinet.
The person who made this vanity is in PA (near Lancaster). I can email his contact info if you want.

This post was edited by phillyfeet on Sun, Nov 10, 13 at 13:51

another view of vanity

BTW, the girls are doing better. I think it was a combination of some teeth, day light savings and starting to reach the dreaded "terrible two's" a bit early!!!

This post was edited by phillyfeet on Sun, Nov 10, 13 at 16:32

crazybusytoo - Our sink is a 7 1/2" deep undermount. We find it to be plenty deep. Not sure that you could go much deeper without sacrificing the function of the lower drawer. I suppose it all depends on the plumbing connections in your kitchen, if you have a garbage disposal etc.

I know this is old but I just wanted to add in something. You can now get flat pancake drain valves that cause the water to drain straight out toward the wall instead of having the regular U shape or S shape drainage pipes. This eliminates the wasted space and allows drawers to be installed up to 8" down from countertop.

Sorry for bumping an old thread but the last reply by jessmeagan has me intrigued. I can't find any info online about these new flat drain valves she mentions. Anyone have links or photos to share?