IKEA Drawer Within Drawer Magic: Pull Just Once, Reach Either Drawer!
And it's up to you which drawer you reach. YOU will be in control.
So DH and I came up with a solution for the "you have to open two drawers, to reach the one within" annoyance, that's mentioned by so many people, when commenting on Ikea's "drawer within drawer" or hidden drawers.
I wanted my kitchen to have minimalist, streamlined cabinetry. To me, that meant drawers that line up, no mixing of 10" fronts with 15" fronts. We definitely needed the height of some 15" drawers to store tall items, so we decided to use that height with the hidden drawers within, which would let us determine the available storage height without having to deal with various fronts of differing heights. (On a couple of cabs, we substituted three 5" drawers on top for easy access to cooking tools, spices, food wraps, etc., practical and I like the look.
We also organized items that are used at the same time, to share a drawer combo, so dishes sit underneath the cutlery and lids sit over the pots and pans, etc.etc. This definitely helps, BUT, not always. And every so often it would annoy me to have to pull two drawers open to reach an item in the hidden drawer.
So after much trial and error, TADA!: We found a simple solution: Neodymium rare earth magnets.
(not the tiny, dangerous to kids, type)
Playing with varying thicknesses and diameters to control their magnetic strength (N), we now control, by pulling gently or a tad more forcefully, which drawer we want to access. Works like a charm. Always!
It took a bit of trial and error alright... We went from velcro to some other materials before thinking of magnets.
DH bought a variety of flat round rare earth magnets of about 1 1/2" diameter in various thicknesses, of varying magnetic strength. He used heavy-duty double-sided tape to attach one magnet to the inside of the outer drawer and another magnet to the outside of the hidden, inner drawer. For wider and heavier inner drawers, we used an extra magnet between, to increase the magnet's strength, which is, what lets us control which of the drawers (inner or outer) is accessible when we pull open the outer drawer.
If the magnet's power is too strong, it's hard to access the hidden drawer, as it then takes a hard yank on the outer drawer for the magnets to release the hidden drawer. On the other hand, if the magnets aren't strong enough, they'll separate too easily, and the hidden drawer stays back even when the outer drawer is being pulled gently.
So, the key is finding the right combination of magnets for each drawer, which depends on the weight of the inner drawer and its contents. (There is quite a lot of tolerance, as we don't notice any difference when opening the cutlery drawer when it's full of cutlery, vs. lots of our cutlery being in use or in the DW).
Something else to be aware off, the combination of magnets needs to be thick enough for the drawers to hold on to each other when both are closed.
Also, DH ordered our magnets (cheap and pretty weak) through Amazon. No indication of N or their power. More expensive sites let you choose exactly. DH thinks our thickest ones are somewhere in the low 40N range, others of the same size are typically > 50N. But in this case, cheaper and weaker might be preferable, as one can always add a thinner magnet to get to the desired strength.
Once we had that all worked out, it quickly became second nature to give a normal pull for access to the outer drawer, and a gentle pull to have the inner drawer open up.
SWEET!
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jdesign_gw
4 years agolast modified: 4 years agoVery innovative idea. European cabinets such as Siematic use specific hardware for internal drawers called a "carry-out-catch". Of all the times I've seen it in a showroom I never actually tried it but I will look closer next time. I believe there's still two steps involved so you win on ease of use. One question wouldn't you have to adjust depending on weight contents of drawer.
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4 years agolast modified: 4 years agoJdesign - Aha, I see. Smart. but as you say, it still requires an extra motion to release the catch.
I've seen this DIY version on the Ikea hacker website. But I didn't want to have to fiddle with the mechanics of it. Plus, one of my inner drawers is mounted so high up, there was no space for the jig. Very clever though, don't you think?
https://www.ikeahackers.net/2019/05/drawer-latch-ikea-maximera.html?_sf_s=drawer
"wouldn't you have to adjust depending on weight contents of drawer?"Yes, initially. As I explained above, each drawer requires a different combo of magnets. Once it works though, there doesn't seem to be a difference between the fully loaded drawers and when items have been removed.
I think, that when pulling, the resistance of the drawer is noted by the body (muscle memory?) and we might automatically adjust for that. Not sure of this though. I guess I should try and pay attention to how it feels when pulling them open.
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4 years agoraee_gw, I chose to put one hidden drawer/tray in each of my two and three-drawer stacks and also in the bases of my tall pantries. I like deep drawers but wanted to use the air space efficiently. I use the hidden trays to separate similar items. I have aprons above dish towels, seasonal plates/napkins above picnic and plastic ware, and Pyrex above Corning Ware (my favorite) A four-drawer stack would not have worked for these items because that would have left me with only one deep drawer in the stack. I looked at a lot of ways to store my Pyrex including vertical storage, but that took up way too much space. This drawer holds 14 items, probably the most efficient drawer in my kitchen.
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