I have 36â wide drawers under my cook top I measured my tallest pot and made the bottom one 12â deep, inside measurements, for big and tall pots. I had one end sectioned off for my frying pans to sit vertically. It works great just be sure to use full extension drawer glides that can take the weight. I bought all mine from a guy on eBay that can take 100 pounds. If I remember correctly he is Glendora, Ca. and the price was good.

The middle drawer is 7â and all my Le Creuset ovens and pans fit nicely in it. The top I had made in to two drawers, 5â deep, for cooking utensils, hot pads and such.

Stare by measuring what you want to keep in the space. Be sure to allow for the styles between the drawers and any room that the drawer glides will tale. It sounds like you will have a very useful space.
Claudia

Agmiss
Wonderful to make a use of this lost space. You will love it.
You might also post this on the kitchen forum. A graph of the area would help also. I am assuming it will be a sort of triangle, with the drawers in the corner opposite the longest side. Then shelves in the trangular spaces above and to the side of the drawers.

I would second partst's recommendation that you use full extension glides, especially on the deepest drawers.

Do make the shelves adjustable, and have your builder make one or two more shelves than you think you will need. Extra shelves are cheap, and most shelf storage wastes a lot of vertical space. And it is really nice not to have to stack things.

If the shelves above the drawers are also 28" deep, it will help immensely if you can make them pull-outs. Actually, if they are more than 15" deep, pull-outs would be worthwhile. Reaching to the back of a 28" deep shelf is going to be a nuisance if not just flat impossible, and it would be a shame to lose the storage at the back.

A couple of pics of pullout shelves in my kitchen:
This is over the fridge:

I made the shelves in this small cabinet adjustable vertically in a space originally designed for tray storage. Pullouts let me access items on shelves that are quite close together. And I can adjust the distance between shelves to eliminate wasted vertical space. Very space efficient:

Here are all of the shelves in this narrow (10") cabinet:

Thank you both for the helpful ideas!

I did post in Kitchens as well with some trepidation. I spent some time reading posts there last time I was having some work done. I found it less than friendly at the time. However I got some nice suggestions there as well. Goes to show me not to be so touchy.

I will attempt to draw it out but first here is a photo of the area. You are looking the area beneath my stairs and the rear of the fridge..

I had intended full extension drawers but had not thought of pullout shelves. I also like the idea of breaking up the drawer.

The drawer fronts will be brown ash. The interior of the area will be painted white so I can see in there. It will all be trimmed out in cherry to match the stairs..

Hi, Don't let the brevity of my sentences imply a mean spirit. Absolutely, do check out kitchens forum. It is the best on the web.

The goal is to max space and gain easy access. Do not nest stuff. Build vertical dividers, either front to back or side to side. Do not stack cookie sheets, trays, pots but build adjustable vertical dividers in fixed cabinets and drawers.

Drawers. More expensive to build but is the single most important thing we have all learned on the kitchen forum. Do you want to crawl on hands and knees to find something on a shelf?

Rots, rollout trays/shelves may look cute but it wastes a few inches (look at the space-empty and wood). See comments by Buehl re rots. Look it up. Uses extra effort and may not make efficient use of existing, on-the market hardware. It is only as deep as the hardware allows.

36" wide? Do not divide the width into smaller units. Use interior ready-made drawer dividers. 36 is way too small to divide. You lose valuable inches if you divide. Spend unnecessary cabinetry dollars to divide.

Do not paint but do stain the interiors. Paint will chip, sooner or later. Increase ceiling lighting or get ucl-under cabinet lighting for the upper part, if you will have an upper part, but don't paint the interiors. Have the heaviest duty glides available, with absolutely deepest extensions available-and you will see the interior stuff-and be able to access it. No inside paint.

That space is about what I imagined. I agree, make as many drawers as large as possible. But I do suggest shelves that pull out. Yes, you lose an inch or so of vertical space, but if you make the shelves adjustable, it will be so efficient you will be astonished at what you can get in this big space.

Westsider's suggestions are excellent. I agree--as many drawers as possible. Try to convince him to build you more than three. He could make three 36" wide and above them maybe another couple progressively narrower?

Don't divide the drawers permanently until you know what you will put in them. Even then, take your time. I agree, spend your initial money on good glides and maximum storage.

I think I have strayed from what you were really asking. Were you asking what sort of things will best be stored here? That, I think is up to you. You decide what will go here and then you can how deep the drawers need to be. Big bulky items like crockpots and roasters may well be better on the shelves.

Oh, you are going to LOVE what this will do for your storage!

I love customized dividers.
A lot of people here have used the Lee Valley divider system I linked below. It does require wooden drawers which you will have.

Here is a link that might be useful: Lee Valley Drawer divider channels

Thank you both. Very helpful suggestions.

This will be a completely custom piece. So I can do whatever I can afford. I am supplying the lumber and hardware. He is paying for the trade in labor. I will have to pay him after a certain number of hours. He is a really good craftsman so I need to be careful how far over I run.

I will have to think about pull out shelves or carrying the drawers right on up. I'll need a ladder to get into them. I am 5'+ with an emphasis on the +. However getting more stuff out of sight pleases me.

Again thanks. I will try to draw tonight. Off to pick up some very fresh stewing chickens from my sister.

In my kitchen I have a large, high-up cupboard above the ovens that is vertically divided with thin wood and holds all my sheet pans, platters, etc... anything thing that can be stored on-edge. It is handy because it isn't so hard to access as a drawer might be. This might work well with the upper angle of your opening. You might make it divided so taller things could store at the large side and then progressively get shorter as the angle declines.

Some ideas:

Drawers that have a full extension (means that the full drawer extends from the cabinet and an over-travel means that the drawer extends beyond the cabinet). Really convenient when needing to get to the back of the drawer and lift things out easily.

Definitely a deep drawer or two for pots and pans.

If there is space for a thin, tall area with a door - use that for your sheet pans. Our cabinet maker put that over our ovens - nice area with 4 sections for sheet pans, large cutting boards, extra oven racks, etc.

Haha... Tall thin areas with dividers sounds like art storage! I wanted a lot of windows in my small house which I failed to consider meant little wall hanging space... and many creative family and friends. So maybe I can store my grandmother's many illustrations above my pots and pans (many of which were hers).

Alright dumb... or amusing only to me. But I have two flat files filled with art and my aunt emailed everyone in the family today to see who wanted more...

I like the idea of vertical dividers. Time to try to draw things out.

Hope everyone is okay weather wise. Happy holidays.

Brrr.... 10 degrees and falling.

Here is my attempt at drawing this area out. Pretty close to scale. I hope it is readable. Cell phone photo.

And another drawing...

1. i dont understand how access the area marked "shelving"

2. Drawers look good. You may be adjusting the height of the drawers depending on what you're storing.

3. Toe kick drawer on the bottom may be too expensive. Most of the time, toekick drawers are expensive-perhaps partly because heavy duty glides are expensive. I have 3 toekick drawers, so I like them.
4. Space above drawers may be suited to vertically divided uppers for trays, sheet pans, extra boards, pizza peel, large flat muffin tins, pizza pan, large frying pan on it's side, etc. Even if this area will not have a drawer or cabinet front, it may be eye-pleasing in an otherwise open kitchen because you will only visualize the thin on-the-side part of the cookie sheet. It doesn't look messy or disorganized. Forced organization. If the room has open shelving.

My divided uppers are jam packed. Very useful space.

Take this message of mine with a grain of salt because cabmaking is very precise and I don't want to lead you astray, if I have been flawed in my wordsmithing. Do spend some time reading Buehl's threads in the kitchen forum. She has written a gazillion posts but the ones I mean are general, and about storing items and moving back into the kitchen after reno. Perhaps a search using the word 'rots". Rots is a Buehl word! Buehl is the gemmiest gem person in kitchens.

The drawer front on my shortest drawer measures 5.25 inches tall. It is very short. I keep cutlery, junk drawer stuff, knives The drawer face measures 33" wide. It's in a much wider, 4 drawer, stack. My cabs are framed, not frameless. My cab maker doesn't make frameless, much to my original chagrin.

The pertinent measures are interior, exterior, and outside casing measurements. A professional may have three more categories of measurements. Do a bit of homework. Ask the cabmaker which dimensions are important. As in, how much interior height should you be aiming at? Ask us, the gw ppl, what their interior heights are. And interior height is what counts. My cabmaker and your guy may require different numbers to attain the same interior space. yes, different wood thicknesses. Dont be afraid to ask.

The shelves are open on the front. Their backs face the left side of my fridge - which opens around the corner. The shelves' right side meets the support for my stairs. I am just trying to use up the shallow gap between the drawers and the stair support.

The builder Mark included a smaller than normal toe kick (no drawer). The measurements he gave me has the drawer faces 1.5" larger than the inside. That was what I was using.

Basically I need to decided on the largest drawer. Then balance the other two out. I take your point about the small drawer being very limited.

I like the idea of vertical storage being open but tidy looking. How wide are your gaps?

More thinking....

One general note, do NOT skimp on the drawer slides. Insist on slides better than you can get at Home Depot, with weight ratings more than you think you need. (You can thank me later, or if you get cheapo slides, you can remember this when they screw up)

Rockler's has a wide variety, but your cabinet person should be able to get whatever you need.

Mark is ordering from Rockler. I think the final decision is 5", 7", 11". Now the triangle area....

I like your space and what you plan to do with it. Here are a few suggestions. I hope not too expensive.

1. If not too expensive, add two more drawers, each slightly narrower to fit the space, above the big block of three. The small triangle to the left of each drawer could be covered with a bit of panelling to match the drawer fronts. I'd let this be dead space, although I HATE dead space and it could be used to store paper towels or waxed paper or whatever.
2. Above these drawers, I would use adjustable/removable shelving, either horizontal or vertical as shown. And yes, I would paint the interior of these. I would also, when money was available, plan to add a triangular door, folding in the middle and hinged to the vertical right side, and finished to match the drawers.
3. I love the tall shelf unit. Be SURE that the shelves are adjustable and that you have extra shelves made. 4 vertical shelf hanging strips (or whatever they are called) will be cheap, and then you only need four clips per shelf and you can adjust the shelves to any height you want them. Very little carpentry here, since the shelves do not need to be hung permanently. Again I would paint the inside of this unit and plan someday to add a couple doors to coordinate with the drawer fronts.
4. How deep is the shelf unit on the right? If it is only 15 or 18" deep, you don't need pullouts at all. If it is 28" deep, pullouts would be very nice but expensive. An alternative is a heavy duty shelf liner. I love Cushy Cupboards, which you can find on the Kitchens forum, because I can pull it forward to bring even heavy appliances from the back of the shelf to the front.

5. If you can't afford two extra drawers or decide against them, I would put in a couple horizontal shelves in the bottom of the triangle and then vertical shelves in the top.

Here is a link that might be useful: Under stairs storage

This post was edited by Bellsmom on Mon, Dec 9, 13 at 12:25