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Building a Home Design Dilemma Kitchens

Any brand of add-in rollout shelves better/worse???

last month

We are having house built—production, not custom. There are bottom cabinets vs drawers. Want to add roll-out shelves after market. Any particular brand that is better/worse? How tall should be sides be? Had cabs w/roll out shelves in another kitchen and they worked fine but kitchen was more custom in that house.

The cabinets in new house are Timberlake Sonoma Linen—an upgrade over builder standard, but right now I don’t remember if the interior is linen or natural. I added drawers under the electric cooktop and a bank of 3 drawers on sink island to hold dishes (vs upper cabinets) and flatware.

I know outfitting with roll out shelves is little more clunky than just drawers but didn’t want to pay for upgrade.

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Comments (8)

AnnKH
last month
We bought a house 2 years ago that had base cabinets. Before we even moved in I added Rev A Shelf pullouts. I like that the door is attached to the bottom pullout, so it acts like a drawer - but on a scale of 1 to 10, a drawer is a 10 and what I have is a 6. Roll out shelves behind a door are a 4.

My Mom put roll outs in one kitchen cabinet in the home she and Dad built in 1977. Both cabinet doors needed to open to pull out the shelves. In 40 years in that home, I'll bet those things were pulled out less than 50 times.

Think about the value that drawers will provide for the next 30 years in the home. Is there another place in the home you can cut back to pay for the drawers?

This is what I did:

Even though this kitchen is overall pretty functional, I am seriously considering new cabinets - and one of the big reasons is the lack of real drawers.
dan1888
last month
Upgrade to drawer base cabs. It'll go on the house price, not out-of-pocket.
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any pretty storage ideas for open shelving?
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Until you decide on another shape, you can use the white plastic, one-piece, storage lids for Ball jars. The come in both the regular mouth size and wide-mouth varieties. They're for sale in boxes of a dozen at most stores that sell canning stuff. You can write on them with felt tip pens and usually clean the writing off with alcohol (test first, of course, but I use Sharpies and pure grain alcohol with no issues). I use labeling for dating stuff more than for ID'ing stuff, though corn starch and mochiko are hard to tell apart w/o a label. I buy most of my ingredients like this in bulk form from my Co-op, so I need to repackage it all when I get home. Another useful thing that I used when I was still using the two-piece lids: you can cut off a piece of the package of about the the same size as the lid part and slip it under the ring between the lid. This gives you a way to keep important package details right on view, but almost entirely hidden when looking at the jars on a shelf. Keep in mind that many things like nuts and many flours are better kept refrigerated, or even frozen. Light also degrades food more quickly than storing stuff in the dark. I can easily get my paw down inside half-gallon WM canning jars, though I admit it's hard to scoop stuff from them. In my kitchen I have to keep things like crackers sealed up tight to avoid critters, so I really rely on the postive, screwed-on seal of the white plastic storage lids on my half-gallon canning jars. I have seen containers like the Anchor Hocking ones where the glass lid had no gasket; that would be a bug and rapid-staleness problem for me. If you're going for a uniform look among the containers, pay attention to the fact that the pressed-in design in the glass of ribs, brand name positions etc. changes from time to time, I bought three dozen half-gallons this summer at Tractor Supply to manage my bee-feeding syrup operation and they are different from my existing half-gallon canisters even though both batches are brand-name Ball/Jarden products. Tractor Supply does have the best prices in my area on canning jars, but it's a seasonal item for them so they may be out of stock by now. They usually have a very good sale around the end of July. L
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It Could Have Been So Much Worse (for my pocketbook)
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Comments (21)
Snidely claims, "New appliances are more capable, MUCH more energy efficient, and usually more reliable. " Just this past December, Hubs and I bought a new KitchenAid 'fridge because he decided we just HAD to get a new one. I refused to give up the old one, so it's in the garage. The new fridge has more cubic feet of storage space, both in the 'fridge part as well as the freezer. Even so, we simply cannot get as much food in the new unit as in the old unit. And the old one is still working great! I bought the old fridge, brand new, in July 1971. It was originally a Harvest Gold type color (although the name was not Harvest Gold), but I had it professionally re-enameled about 25 years ago. The thing works great. It has been serviced exactly once, in 1991, when some part needed to be replaced in the unit in the freezer. I know that it is absolutely NOT energy efficient at all, but neither am I. I'm not going to throw myself away, so I won't do it to that 'fridge, either. :-) I disagree with Snidely's statement that new appliances are more reliable (even though he did qualify his statement by adding "usually"). My old 'fridge has needed servicing once in 44 years and it's still going strong. I'm willing to bet that it will still be going when the new 'fridge conks out. They are not built to last. As Lucille said, "But it was hard to beat the reliability of Grandpa's ice box. "
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In defense of roll-outs...
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Comments (18)
@cefreeman: the extra space comes from the sides of the drawer. In my case, with inset cabinets, I gain 3/4" on each side for an extra 1 1/2" of width --- although clearance on the sides for eats into this. In addition, you gain about 2" of vertical stacking height due to stiles between drawers (see below) and then 2" in depth due to the space to the back wall and the front of the drawer. (my drawers fronts end up being 1 1/2" thick -- the front panel plus the box depth - even after allowing for 1/2" clearance to the front drawer to avoid damage). It's just a little bit, but it helps with things that have long handles and it adds up, especially with the narrower cabinet I have in this location. You could specify low sides as @annKH noted but you would still lose the vertical space. @arialvetic: here's mine. Sadly, my storage spills over to other places. I have more frying pans, skillets and sauteuses in a drawer, the stock pots moved to an upper, dutch ovens and rondeaus to the display cabinets, and larger pots in under seat storage. I put frequently used long handled fry pans and saucepans/windsors/sauteuses here. You can see how the long handles stick out the back/. The extra vertical clearance comes in handy for lids. I used to have more in each and the tall stockpot in the lower, but I realized less frequently used items could go elsewhere. Once again, the helper handles stick out the back.
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Comments (96)
The thing is, cloth masks, whether the spit and mucous kind, homemade or a simple bandana, do limit the distance of spread of certain droplets, but they are not restrictive enough to restrain the covid-19 virus. It can go right on through. This gives people a false sense that they're not shedding virus. As I said when you first brought this up, the suggestions to wear such masks were for reminding people to keep their distance, not touch their faces, etc. For that, any kind of mask or scarf will work so long as the wearer doesn't get so used to wearing it, and the populace get so used to seeing them, that it's no longer a reminder. It's possible (I don't know the data) that cloth masks are better than nothing for limiting spread, but the question becomes which is a greater benefit, the amount of moderate to mild prevention of the mask or preventing the false sense of security it brings. I have a mist filter respirator mask for airbrushing. It's rated for very fine droplets, but from what I've read, I don't think it would withstand the virus. It might need a carrier to cough right on it, to breathe it in. Coughing it out would cause the wearer to remove the mask fast. It's not easy to breathe in it to begin with, and it does seal to the face. Wearing it in public, with goggles, might be a good way to keep people away from you, though. :) The author of that article had a good point about the N95 masks. Sure, teaching people how to properly fit and wear them makes more sense than saying don't. These do work, though not perfectly. For contagion, proper fitting is essential, or they're just overpriced spit masks. It's not a perfect seal, though, and there are other issues, but it's the best we have for the medical workers who come into constant contact with infected patients. Even with the masks and other measures, medical workers are catching the virus. It's inevitable, but the more staff who are sick, the fewer will be available to treat patients right when the exponential growth of serious cases is hitting. Nurses here are demonstrating outside a hospital because of the shortage of N95 masks. Corporations and private parties who use N95 masks for non-medical work, are donating their supplies to hospitals. There just aren't enough. So, teaching the populace to use them correctly is moot. If you have one and use it, great! But "everyone" shouldn't be wearing them, because the hospitals are in such need. If you want to say that everyone should have had a stock of them in their emergency preparedness kits, and we should have had a much larger emergency store of them for hospitals, first responders, etc., just for this kind of event, sure. Shoulda, woulda, coulda. When this is over, we can put a lock on the barn door in case a horse escapes in the future. That's not today's issue.
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chicagoans
last month
last modified: 29 days ago
I’d price out pull outs from Rev-a-Shelf and compare to the cost of upgrading to all drawers. Pull outs are expensive and you may find that you’re not saving much (or anything) with pull outs, plus you’d be giving up the functionality of drawers.
dan1888
last month
If you go with drawers, make them wide, 36 minimum up to 48 where possible.
PRO
Minardi
29 days ago
Drawers would be a higher priority than roll outs. But, Timberlake is Waypoint is Shenendoah is American Woodmark. You should be able to order the manufacture assured fit roll outs from anyone that carries any of those brands.
PRO
Martin & Calloway LLC
29 days ago
I agree with chicagoans. If your pricing after market pull-outs, I would look into rev-a-shelf we have always been happy with their products. We are a cabinet shop and have installed tons of pull-outs. I would be very surprised if there is a significant savings vs having drawer base cabinets installed.
PRO
JAN MOYER
29 days ago
last modified: 29 days ago
Show the floor plan of the house: ) Please.
anj_p
29 days ago
If you still have the option, pay for the upgrade. You won't regret it.

Rev-a-shelf otherwise, or the cabinet-brand specific roll outs another poster mentioned.

I have roll outs (similar situation in a production build and I didn't have a choice to upgrade to drawers). I have a 3 drawer stack in my island though, and that is heaven. The roll outs are fine (about 3' wide) so they store pots and pans, but definitely would have paid for drawers if I had the option.

Regarding the drawer stack on your island...consider where you will be prepping and where your DW is. It might be easier to store dishes in upper cabinets right across from the DW and use the island drawer stack for prep. Kind of depends on how much room you have next to the sink. Here is my island:

Dishes go in the cabinet & drawer right across from the DW (easy pivot).

3 drawer stack: top drawer is prep utensils.

Middle drawer is prep bowls. Bottom drawer is a bit of a mess right now but holds my large glass measuring bowl, my chopper, my hand mixer, and whatever my husband can't find a place for when he empties the DW (believe me, it has a place, he just can't be bothered to learn).

Drawer over trash holds all my spices.

I prep right over that drawer stack. It's amazing.

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