Kitchen compatability?

JuzaMum

I have a Homebase kitchen with a cupboard under the sink. I would like to change this to drawers but Homebase don't have an undersink drawer in their range. B & Q do have the drawer I want. Could I put the B & Q drawer on a Homebase draw front? Unfortunately the drawer fronts are expensive so I don't want to experiment.

FreeBear

There is no problem fitting drawers to a cupboard base unit, regardless of whether it is under a sink or not - I fitted drawers to a B&Q 900mm base unit without any problem..

Cupboard units will not have any predrilled holes for screws to hold the side runners in place - You will need to measure and mark exactly where the screws need to go (drill a 2mm pilot hole). That might no be too easy with the base unit in situ.. Also, drawer boxes come in different widths, heights & depths. Not all units use the same thickness materials for the sides (real cheap ones are 15mm, better quality, 18mm). Any plumbing under the sink may limit the depth of the drawers you can use..

tacpot12

Bear in mind that not many people will have tried this, so you may struggle to get the definitive answer you are looking for.

You need to check the dimensions of the B&Q and Homebase cabinet doors to ensure that they are the same height. If the cabinet doors aren't the same height, the drawers won't match perfectly in height because they are designed to match their respective doors.

You should also carefully check the width of the doors - the human eye can be surprisingly accurate at spotting very small differences. 

If the heights and widths of the doors match, and you can find a B&Q drawer unit with the same configuration of drawers as the Homebase drawer fronts (e.g. 1 deep drawer and 2 shallow drawers, or 4 equally sized drawers) then there should be enough tolerance to move the drawer fronts around in relation to the drawers to get them to fit. You could also measure the height of the individual drawer fronts available from Homebase and B&Q. The closer they match the more certain it is that there will be no problems.

The final thing to check is that the B&Q drawer fronts don't have any fittings or projections that won't come with the Homebase drawer fronts. If you can find the instructions or a video online, you should be able to confirm this. 

A final tip: buy some double sided sticky tape when you buy the drawer fronts. You can use this to stick the drawer fronts to the drawers to position them correctly and keep them in place while you make the final connection. You might need to shove something up behind the drawers (polystyrene would be a good option if you have some of the right thickness) so that you can push the drawer fronts firmly onto the drawers.

GDB2222

It's not what you asked about, but have you considered some pull out storage baskets, but keeping the cupboard doors? 

JuzaMum

GDB2222 said:

It's not what you asked about, but have you considered some pull out storage baskets, but keeping the cupboard doors? 

I have pull out bins under the sink and the cupboard doors are forever getting loose due to the amount of opening and closing. Also if the bin holder doesn't get pushed in properly it scratches the inside of the door. 

Rosa_Damascena

JuzaMum said:

GDB2222 said:

It's not what you asked about, but have you considered some pull out storage baskets, but keeping the cupboard doors? 

I have pull out bins under the sink and the cupboard doors are forever getting loose due to the amount of opening and closing. Also if the bin holder doesn't get pushed in properly it scratches the inside of the door. 

Somehow kitchen designers automatically add this, and a bin for recycling. I removed it, would rather have the cupboard space and an freestanding normal bin.

JuzaMum

We have four bins! General waste, recycling, compost and non compostable food waste