Converting kitchen cupboards to drawers

Moxley

In the spirit of money-saving and not throwing things away when they still work, I'm looking at enhancing my current kitchen instead of buying a new one. One thing that drives me mad about my kitchen is the lack of drawer space. There are lots of tutorials online for how to do this, but I'm looking for some advice that's specific to my circumstances.

My base cupboards are 1000mm wide with double-doors and a wooden support bar at the front dividing the two. I'm not sure if 1000mm-wide drawers would be practical or even possible given that I'd have to remove the support bar which might make the cupboard less stable. Would I be better off fitting a divider to make myself two separate 500mm cupboards, and then fitting drawers into each of those?

grumbler

IMO, no support is needed if you have a usual, strong enough worktop. Just in case it's worth screwing the side walls of the unit together with the surrounding units if this isn't done already.

nofoollikeold

1. I think 1,000 mm wide drawers would have to be made of something substantial like 19 mm ply, or they would sag.  Also, the weight might well exceed what is possible for the drawer runners.
2. If I were doing it I'd put the divider down the middle and settle for (approximately) 500 mm drawers.
3. Give some consideration to the type of runners you are going to use.  Full extension are more expensive but give much better accessibility.
4. You will have to allow for the width of the runners.  Full extension are about 1/2" (12.7 mm) each side.
5. How are you going to convert the door fronts to drawer fronts?  If they are solid doors you could cut them with a fine kerf circular saw, and use edge banding to take up the slack caused by the kerf.  If they are panelled doors, you may have to "fill in" the backs of the panels before cutting.

FreeBear

When I did my kitchen, I used a 900mm cupboard base unit and fitted three pan drawers. For the most part, it has worked out quite well. Having all the crockery in one drawer was probably not a good idea though....

Depending on how much weight you are considering putting in, a divider plus two sets of drawers may be better - Assuming standard 18mm carcass construction, you'd need a divider 36mm thick so that standard width 500mm drawers could be used.

Jeepers_Creepers

If you are going to consider a 100mm wide drawer unit - which is technically quite possible - then best go as NFLO did and fit 3 drawers max. This fewer the drawers, the higher the backs and fronts will be = stronger across 1m. 

Personally, I'd split them tho', as I think you'll find a larger number of smaller drawers to be more useful. Pulling open a 1m-wide drawer laden with stuff just to get to a coffee spoon will soon lose it's charm. 

Moxley

Thank you. I don't rate my ability to convert the doors to drawer fronts, so was planning on getting internal drawers like this. In terms of the divider, would 180mm-thick plywood do the trick? And would fixing it with brackets to the top/bottom/back be sufficient or is there something else I'd need to do?

troffasky

[assuming you mean 18mm not 180mm]

It's not clear to me from that product listing what it actually attaches to? Is it a tower that's kind of "free-standing" inside your cupboard? Or does it need to be secured to something [sides, or bottom, or both?]. If it needs to be secured from the sides then that will determine the minimum thickness of your divider.

ETA: if your new use of this cupboard is going to increase the loading significantly then I would suggest putting some adjustable legs under it so it doesn't sag.

Interesting find, BTW. Bit pricey for me though...

TELLIT01

If you plan to create internal drawers make sure you take the door hinge positions into account along with the amount the door 'intrudes' when fully open.  For example the cupboard doors on my cabinets reduce the width of the opening by about 1.5 cm.

Jeepers_Creepers

Moxley said:

Thank you. I don't rate my ability to convert the doors to drawer fronts, so was planning on getting internal drawers like this. In terms of the divider, would 180mm-thick plywood do the trick? And would fixing it with brackets to the top/bottom/back be sufficient or is there something else I'd need to do?

That's an excellent solution. 

A quick look at that site seems to suggest that Blum have thought it through - the kit comes with spacers for the drawer runners (to avoid the door hinges, etc) and actually seems to be 'custom' to some degree; you enter the dimensions of your unit and they select the right size of drawer and/or spacers.

Yes, you'll need a central partition for your unit. Yes, 18mm plywood will do, tho' other materials such as MDF will also do - where are you going to get such a panel? (Unless you have a source, I'd suggest you look at eBay and Facebook Marketplace for 'kitchen units' in your locality; chances are you'll pick up a suitable unit to butcher for next to nothing. A base unit side panel will also be finished nicely in melamine.)

The partition will need securing firmly. 

DiddyDavies

I recently converted a couple of cupboards to drawers using Blum kits.
These cost about £113 each as I didn't bother with the soft close option but went for this one instead:
Internal Blum Metabox 3 kitchen drawers PACK | Any Size (drawerboxes.co.uk)
I had priced up the materials needed to manufacture these drawers myself and once I took the cost of all of the bits as well as the time to make them (and knowing me, I would probably screw at least one up the first time), I decided to opt for the made to measure ones instead.
Provided that you measure correctly and take a bit of time and care with the fitting, the end result turns out to be a very professional looking job.
This is one of my cupboards and it shows how the spacers fit to allow room for the door hinges:

TELLIT01

That looks like exactly what I need.  I made the mistake of not specifying enough drawers in our new kitchen.  How straightforward was the installation?  Are the instructions clear?