I don't yet have experience with this idea, but I am making my own cabinets with dowel dividers like the ones [in this article[(https://www.houzz.com/magazine/idea-of-the-week-customizable-dish-drawer-stsetivw-vs~695341). Instead of organizing dishes, mine will be used to divide vertically stored skillets in the front 2/3 and lids in the back 1/3. Fingers crossed that I like it (or more importantly, that DH likes it - I'm making this to his specs!).

I just store my pots in upright with the lids on.

I'm with cpartist. Pots and pans go in one drawer, skillets in another, all face up. The big stock pot goes in the Super Susan. This may require one to thin the pots and pans collection to the ones you actually use on a regular basis.

I use "some" dividers that are 4 to 4-1/2" high. Picture is a 30" frameless cabinet, bottom drawer is similar. The top draw has one divider with utensils on one side and a sauteuse nest in a 12-1/2" fry, steamer and splatter guard in the other. Lid for the big fry is in a nearby 21" base with tray dividers, a roll out and a drawer.

Framed cabinets are handled differently.

Cpartist, how deep are your pots and pans drawers? I would love to not have to stack!

We culled a number of items once we moved to induction, and are able to hang our most used pots/pans underneath the cooktop:

(Jakuval: I have that SAME yellow colander!)

I love having my pots and pans in drawers under my cooktop. Drawers are 10" high.

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I have all of my le creuset pans on one shelf of a cupboard with pullouts. On the other shelf I have my non le creuset sauce pans. In the corner cupboard, I have all of my frying/saute pans in one of those tiered things. I wasn't sure if I would like it, but it actually works really well, I can grab the exact one I need without needing to move anything. I also have my soup and stockpots in the same corner cabinet. Tops are stored with the individual pans.

Cpartist, how deep are your pots and pans drawers? I would love to not have to stack!

I don't remember. They were in my condo which we sold last year. But I do know my stockpots fit with no problems.

Now I'm doing 3 drawers. I'll have to ask the cabinet guy next time I speak to him

Agree with others -- fancy storage systems are just too much trouble for me. We have a 30" cooktop with two deep drawers under it. Top drawer fits 2 medium sized pots, a small pot, a double boiler and my "huge" pot (for when I'm making a big batch of mac & cheese or whatever). Lids fit on top of each with no stacking. Bottom drawer fits two cast iron pans (stacked), one small saucier, one 14" square non stick griddle and a few random things (kettle, milk frother). Full disclosure is that i have one other big stainless pan (maybe 16"?) that I almost never use and keep elsewhere in the kitchen so that I don't have to stack in the drawer. If I'd been smarter with my ikea kitchen, I would have actually divided up the second drawer into two short drawers which would have accommodated twice as much (since all the pans are only 2 or 3 inches tall).

My husband and I are both big cooks and cook from scratch pretty much every night, but happily culled our pots years ago in order to not have too much junk in the drawer. It's been probably 5 years with this limited selection of pots, and there hasn't been a single time I've ever felt we were lacking a certain kind of pot.

I want my island to have drawers. Trying to find pre-built base units to put together, but they all have just doors - not deep drawers like these. Where do you guys get these from? All custom? That's too expensive for me.

I don't know if it's the most efficient, but we have cast iron frying pans and a large pot in a 24" drawer, and remaining pots (and lids) in the drawer in the range. We don't have a large inventory.

We keep a large stock pot and canning pot above the fridge, since they get used rarely/seasonally.

Chess - Ikea has excellent choices for doing drawers in base cabinets.

What a great thread. I had two 36" drawers for my pots and pans (inset cabinets) and these two drawers were totally insufficient. So I am excited to look for storage ideas for my new house.

i saw this picture and I wondered if it was a waste of space. A drawer within a drawer under a rangetop.

ILoveRed, IMO you'd be better with two full width drawers. This would allow you to better fit both large and small pots and pans in the same space.

When I visit my MIL, I'll take pictures of her drawers. She built the kitchen 40 yrs ago and used a European carpenter. It's amazing efficient for her pots/pans.

It's not very large but it seems to store more than my design will.

I don't have all my cookware up at the new build yet - just the induction ready stuff. Skillets and frypans under the range in the range drawer. Stockpot currently under the prep sink, will move to pantry when pantry is finished. Two drawers to the right of the range for other pots and pans and baking dishes. I prefer to keep lids with pots, turn lids upside down if you have to. Not wanting to search for the right lid!

(When I do move completely, the non induction ready cookware will be retired, reserved for grilling/camping, or in the case of the Caphalon, for oven use only. I'd probably store the Caphalon in the pantry so no guests confuse it for induction - They are all larger pieces anyway. Grilling tools will be stored outside in the grill box.)

H202, I checked IKEA and I can't find what I want there. I'm looking for a cabinet like this:

http://www.secondsandsurplus.com/drawer-base-30-unfinished-alder-pot-pan-kitchen-cabinet-55-pd30-3auf

I want two deep drawers and a shallower top drawer. Unfinished would be best since I am going to paint them anyway. Would prefer a 36" wide drawer, 30" at the least. Any ideas, anyone?

ILoveRed- we are using one drawer done that way on a job now BUT the drawer opening is 26-1/4 AND this cabinet has other drawer options to manage sizes. Often we simply eliminate the middle rail and slightly resize the bottom drawer. This being beaded inset and given the door style that did not look right. A bonus was that we needed a place for outlets :) I sometimes use "pullout in a drawer" with a full height 2 drawer base in framed when there are no other options.

I know this sounds odd, but what chafes my britches is having to stack and unstack and move three pots to get to the one I'm after. I don't have infinite storage and I don't have tons of cookware, but I'm hoping to come up with a solution in which the lesser used pieces are stored in my tall cabinets, and the daily pots and pans can be pulled from storage without my having to touch stuff I'm not using.

Chess - do the two deep drawers need to be the same size? Ikea has this model which is very close to what you're looking for: http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/S39044871/#/S09044919

We have several of that style in our kitchen and I consider the middle drawer to be a "deep" drawer where we hold pots, large mixing bowls, etc. The drawer front is 10" deep and the inside is 9" deep. I worry that if you are looking for very inexpensive cabinets, you shouldn't plan on painting them because most of the cheap brands are going to be mdf and not solid wood.

The bottom drawers in my 3-drawer stacks are not the same size; the bottom drawer is deeper, to accommodate what I wanted to store there. My cabinets were custom, so I could size them however I wanted.

H202 - son of a gun I swear I looked and looked and could not find those. Thank you!! Yes I agree, I don't want "cheapo". My BF will be putting these together to make the island and I don't know what all is involved in that, but I just want drawers and fronts that look nice, made well, and work well and open smoothly. All of the custom-built stuff I have seen is outrageously priced. Unfortunately, furniture is like cars...the minute you buy it, it devalues by nearly half. I hate to spend a fortune on it. I don't have an IKEA here, so I have no way of knowing how well these work. So you do like them? 9" is decent, I could make do with that I think.

I love having my pots and pans in drawers below my induction. The drawers are 36" wide.

Chess, you can read a lot about Ikea cabinets on this site, but in general, people consider it a very good value cabinet. They aren't real wood, but as you have already found out, you're going to be paying a lot more for real wood that may make other cabinets out of budget. Ikea is generally considered to be priced like a very cheap cabinet, but quality of the low-end of midrange options. So you'd have to move into midrange options to get the same kind of quality, but none of them are going to come close to ikea quality. I think the biggest downsides for some people with ikea is the lack of door options, and some people really don't like that they are mdf/not real wood. That said, people with more knowledge than me will tell you that a high quality mdf cabinet is a much better option than a cheap wood cabinet.

Eam44, I'm with you. I guarantee that whichever pot I want to use, it will be on the bottom of the stack. I have a 3 drawer stack under my induction cooktop where I store all my pots and pans. The top drawer has my frying pans and is only deep enough to stack 2 fry pans. My next drawer holds everything else except my tall pots, all without stacking. The bottom holds tall pots. I think the drawers are 8"/9"/13". The top drawer has less clearance because of the cooktop.

I have had the 36" IKEA (2 large drawers on the bottom, 2 small side-by-side drawers at the top) for 7 years - I have induction cooktop. I normally am only cooking for myself. The center drawer holds pots and pans, the lower drawer holds small appliances such as immersion blender, small electric roaster, food processor, etc. Lots of storage in that one cabinet! I have never weighed the items in the drawers, but there is a fair amount of weight in the bottom drawer (full extension drawers).

I don't like having to stack and unstuck regularly used pans, either, thus my pot rack. I can reach up and grab what I want. I also don't want the pans directly under the cooktop (I have a stove so that would not be possible anyway). I think if one is standing in front of the cooktop, having the pans to the right in drawers works best.

I saw this picture last night and that's a much longer drawer size than I've ever seen. The setup also seems to squeeze a lot in.

The dividers are similar to the old IKEA dividers.

I like the look of a pot rack, in fact I have a wall rack. But that means that pots need to be washed every time you take them down to use them. That's a pain, to me. Best solution, for me, is a drawer. But that one above is just TOO wide to me. And too crowded.

Anglophilia, nope, definitely do not agree. Speaking from experience, under the cooktop works perfectly (maybe to the right or left works too, I don't know).

Personal preference, but I do not like the look of a pot rack.

It's a single drawer front on two separate drawers. Super cool beach.

If I had a drawer for the skillets, I would be thrilled, but I am short on storage, so my three most used skillets hang on the wall. They are used so often they do not get dusty and since the inside faces the wall, the inside doesn't get dusty at all. They have to be washed very well on the bottom just as the inside so that they look nice on the wall, but I do love how accessible they are.