Drawers...three of them! OK, my cooktop is only 36" wide, but I would have done the same if it were 48" wide. Actually, it would have been even better...I could use an extra 12".

Top drawer: Knives, Prep Tools, Cooking tools/utensils
Middle drawer: Ladles & Turners (were too "deep" for the top drawer), pots
Bottom drawer: Pans

The big advantage of wide drawer for pots & pans is that you don't have to stack them...you can have a single layer of pots & pans with the lid stored with it. Just reach in and get the pot or pan you need w/o having to paw through a stack of pots/pans.

Knives/Prep & Cooking Utensils & Tools (top drawer):

Pot Drawer (middle drawer):

Pans (bottom drawer)...there is some stacking here b/c I don't have quite enough room to fit them in one layer plus I have too many pans! (An extra 12" would have been great here!)

Three 48" drawers. The top one is vestigial, since it lines up with my other utensil drawers. It holds spatter screens, griddles, wooden spoons, meat forks, etc. Two deep pot drawers. Love 'em!

You can fit a lot more into one wide drawer than two or more smaller ones. You get the actual area of the uprights/rails/drawer boxes in the middle, plus the empty spaces next to big things in the smaller drawers get added together in larger ones to make more usable space, even if it's just for the handles so more pots can fit side by side.

With wide drawers you do need heavy duty rails and good drawer bottoms that won't sag.

Thanks all! That's what I was hoping to hear. I was concerned about 48" drawers and hadn't really seen anyone mention having them.

plllog, thanks for the heads up, I'll keep that info in mind when talking to our cabinet maker. What do you suggest for drawer bottoms, 1/2" ply?

How tall, inside, are your drawers?

I often say it--my mother has had 54" pot drawers since the mid-'60's and they're still just fine. :)

I can't make a particular recommendation for the drawer bottoms, having left that up to a very competent cabinetmaker, but I'd think half inch ply would be good and strong. The drawer box should also be constructed in such a way as to distribute the gravitational force to the sides rather than pulling against them, but, again, a good cabinetmaker should know how to make a good drawer. Since I have a lot of cast iron, my cabinetmaker also decided I needed the 250# rails. I really don't think I have more than 100 pounds of pots in any drawer, and you don't get soft close with the heavier rails, but they're definitely not going to fail. He assured me that there'd be not problem if the children played in them--like got in and played sailor. :)

I figured out that I could make all of my drawers the same height around the perimeter and still get the storage I wanted, rather than dividing them up for each purpose, so my bottom two drawers are quite deep. The middle one is 9" inside, and the bottom one is 11". If I weren't going for the single line, I could have made them shallower and put more in the top drawer. As it is, however, my stockpot just fits in the bottom drawer, with its lid inverted. I could have easily put it in an upper cupboard, instead, but it's convenient where it is. With the depth I have, it's easy to store my pots with lids on, though I have the smaller ones stacked. The top drawer front covers the apron in front of the cooktops. The other drawers on that level have 4" interior height. I think the vestigial drawer is 1.25"-1.5". I found a couple of pictures of it:

Top drawer (pre-organization). Note the notch for the gas and electrical lines:

Showing cooktop apron:

Beneath our 48 range, we've installed four pull-outs. Two measure 30 inches wide, two measure 18 inches wide. The 30 inch wide cabinets are accessed by double doors and the 18 inch by just one. It is an ideal set up for us, as it allows for maximum organization of pots, pans, strainers, etc.

Although we considered having a drawer immediately beneath the range, such as is depicted in one of the photos, we opted instead to put most of these tools/utensils in our island, instead, which is directly opposite the range. Since we do all of our prepping on the island, rather than next to the range, this configuration made more sense for us, as we can pull out what we need and begin chopping/grating/straining, etc. But for this configuration, we would have had to have turned to the range for utensils, turned back around to work on the island, then turned back to the stove for cooking.

My best advice is to think about how YOU cook and will use this space and to design the kitchen around your own personal use.

Keep in mind that cooking utensils are used at the range or cooktop, so storing them under the cooktop makes sense.

In our case, our primary and secondary Prep Zones and Baking Center are all next to our cooktop...so it made so much more sense to put most of the prep tools/utensils (as well as cooking tools/utensils) under the cooktop...accessible from the Prep Zones, Cooking Zone, and Baking Center.

It's great to have those three drawers...all with tools/utensils/etc. used in the main work zones (except the Cleanup Zone...which is across the aisle and out of the way of prepping & cooking!)

Where are your primary zones (Prep, Cooking, Cleanup) in relation to your cooktop?

We are planning on getting a "pro-style" cooktop like rhome's, so like him it looks like two drawers will work best for us, except we will go the full 48" width. Just to the right, at a 45 degree angle will be a 36" cabinet, also drawers, for the prep area, that will be a good place for cooking utensils in the top drawer. This is all on a big, odd shaped island, we have way more floor space than wall space. Farther to the right, at the end of the island will be the baking area. When standing at the cooktop, the cleanup area will be behind and to the left. Kind of hard to explain, I've included a link below to some renderings I've done that should that should clear things up. (There are a couple of exteriors that you can ignore.)

We've been planning this for a long time (too long), lots of problems/delays getting plans approved by the county (hopefully "next week"). These rendering have been great for giving DW a feel for the space. We are now working on finalizing cabinet layout, thus the original question.

Thank goodness for this forum, and really all the great contributors. I've been a long time reader, but haven't really needed to ask many question since all the posting here are so informative. The worst part is trying to keep up with everything!!!!

Here is a link that might be useful: Remodel renderings

We are putting in open shelving under our 48" rangetop to store our pots and pans. We considered drawers, but thought the open shelf idea fit in with the more professional style look we wanted.

Sas95, open shelves can look great under a rangetop, but do consider function as well. If you can make the shelves pull out in some way it'll be a lot easier to get at the back. I've seen them done with bottom mounted runners where you could hardly see that they weren't fixed shelves. They just need to be disassembled, cleaned and lubricated ever year or two.

That's great advice, plllog.