The Pot Drawers
When I was working downtown, my wife would usually be the one responsible for cleaning the kitchen. I would leave early in the morning and return around 6pm. During that time, she had taken care of most of the dishes.
The onset of covid-19 in the Spring of 2020, and my employer instilling a work-from-home policy meant I wasn't spending 8hrs at the office, plus another 2hrs on transportation each day. I was home, and I was able to help out around the house more. I was doing the dishes more, and dealing with the poor organization of the cupboard space. When I would put the dishes away, I would always struggle with finding a way to stack the pots, cookie sheets, mixing bowls and the waffle maker - all of which went into the same messy space. My wife had been dealing with it, but not complaining.
 |
| I forgot to take a 'Before' picture, so this is the neighbouring cupboard, with the contents intended for the drawers. This is missing all the pot lids, cookie sheets, muffin tins, several other mixing bowls and a rolling pin. |
I had had enough. I gave my wife two options for my next project. A new faucet and pot-filler faucet by the stove, or pot drawers. She chose the drawers, and I'm glad she did.
I looked up some designs for drawers and watched some videos on installing sliders. The design of drawers isn't complicated - it's just a box without a top. I needed to make sure there was a bit of space between each drawer so that fingers wouldn't be crunched when they were closed, and so there wouldn't be any friction when they moved.
I decided to make two deep drawers that would fit all the pots and mixing bowls, even the largest stock pots would need to fit. The rest of the space in the cabinet was divided into 3 other drawers for the waffle maker (and other gadgets like a hand mixer), the cookie sheets with muffin tins, and the last drawer for the lids. The lids in the previous setup were a nightmare - sliding when stacked and impossible to pair with the matching pot. ARGH!
When I made the drawers, I wanted to make sure I was going to be able to hide screws as much as possible while still keeping strength in the structure. A big stack of steel pots is quite heavy! I used 1/2" plywood and used wood glue plus screws on all the joints. One thing Steve's course taught me was the importance of putting a thin layer of glue on end grain before the final glue-up. This will create a surface that the final gluing can adhere to, otherwise the end grain would soak up too much of the glue to make a good bond. This was done on all the end grain edges that were in the joints.
Prior to starting this project, my father-in-law had gifted me his vintage Black & Decker router. He said he had used it only once - and it showed. It was in pristine condition. It didn't have the bells and whistles of today's routers, but there really haven't been many changes in routers over the years. This router was 40yrs old and worked great. Thanks Denis! The reason I bring this up, is because this was the first project that I had the opportunity to incorporate the router into. I needed lots of rounded over edges to make the plywood comfortable on the hands.
As for the handles on the drawers, I wanted them to be flush with the doors of the cabinet, so I went with simple cut-outs for the handles. It meant that there was no space needed for hardware, and it was a simple enough design for me to cut my teeth on.
Once the parts were completed and glued together, I sanded everything down as smooth as was possible with plywood. I accepted the fact that some areas were rough because I knew a thick coat of paint would help smooth everything over a bit. I also had to sand the areas of the plywood I patched with glue-saw dust mixture. Next came the paint. Semi-gloss interior white. Two coats on all the visible sides. I did get help with the painting - thanks Tammy!
The last part of the process was the worst. Installing drawer slides in the right places for the drawers to fit. I thought I had measured everything correctly, but there were a few issues. I thought I had correctly measured the cabinet for the width of the drawers and the sliders, but the it wasn't measured correctly. I hadn't accounted for the thickness of the sliders. You can see in the photos, that I had to cut the centre support a bit to allow the slider to extend. I wasn't concerned about structural support for the counter - because I had installed a 3/4" board inside that now served as support for the counter, but also as a wall between the two sides of drawers. The issue I had with cutting those notches was the appearance - and the constant reminder that I hadn't planned correctly. That being said, my only alternative at that time that I could see was to rebuild two of the drawers, and that wasn't going to happen. So the router came into the kitchen with a flush-cut bit and I cut the notches. I installed the sliders and they worked beautifully.
The sliders have a 100 lb capacity, which was more than enough for what they would be used for. I got them on Amazon. The link is here:
Not sure about the price today, but I bought a pack of 5 pairs for $95 CAD.
Inside the drawers, I laid self-adhesive, clear cabinet liner paper. Several months later, I'm seeing it pop-up, so perhaps it doesn't like the glossy paint? Not sure, but tape or glue should hold it down if it's a problem.
I'm happy with the resulting products, but I am more happy each day just to have a well organized space.
Comments
Post a Comment