36-ers are pretty common and very functional.
I'd always go 3 drawers for depth, BTW. 4 are too shallow.

Given the weight of the drawers contents, they'd have to use some pretty serious drawer slides. I would also think you might have trouble closing them. Sometimes they get a little crooked being 36", so 42 might be tough.

Oh. And for the record and IMHO, 12" drawers are stupid and a waste of space. I'd recommend against going 30 + 12.

Christine

Thanks for the input. I won't be going with 30 + 12. I may go with 36 and shorten the run, or use a 6" pullout.

What depths of drawers are you finding convenient?

I need some shallow drawers for flatware, knife drawer, plastic wrap etc, but I also want drawers that will be good for organizing pots, pans and lids.

NOT too big!! Get good slides.

And don't put them where people stand often, like in front of the stove, if you think it'll cause problems.

(I did two 42" wide drawers in my baking area in last kitchen--15 inches tall and about 28" front-to-back in a 30" deep counter. Filled one with canisters of flour, sugar, etc. Love having everything in the same place. I decided to do it after having a free-standing Ikea cabinet for a while with ~50" wide drawers. I had 36" pot drawers under my cooktop, also good.)

well,...tempting.... (;

I love our 36" drawers and think another 6" would be just fine. I have Ikea, so the glides are really wonderful. You get 2 half width shallow drawers on top and then 2 deep drawers if you are doing a 3 stack. My one 4 stack is 18" wide and that has 3 shallow drawers and one deep one. I'd think that a 4 stack that wide would give you too much shallow drawer space.

Hi Athome! Sounds like you are progressing towards a good plan. I asked a similar question when deciding on my 38"ish wide drawer stacks. Answers were slightly divided on whether they are usable or not. I did the drawers as planned and don't find them too wide. Yes, they are definitely large, but not a problem for usability. They look proportional in my space. I also have a 36" stack under my rangetop. I'm so glad I went wide.

One thing you might want to think about is how you will outfit wide drawers with pulls. Will you use two small pulls? One large pull? Larger pulls can be harder to find and be more expensive. I prefer the look of one longer pull instead of two smaller ones. Having these wide drawers and some that are much narrower, I had a hard time finding pulls that came in multiple sizes to fit each drawer size in a style and finish I liked. Just something (else!) to think about. :)

Here is a link that might be useful: Previous thread on wide drawers

Breezy and all thanks so much for your thoughts. I had not thought that far ahead regarding pulls, but hopefully will be able to find something that will work one way or another. I am soooooo ready to get going on this.

From Kitchen before and after

Love my 36" drawers!! Top drawer is for all my cooking utensils and knives. Middle for sauce pans, and bottom for skillets and 2 large stock pots. Nothing except skillets are stacked and everything is so accessible. I don't think going a bit larger would be a problem at all.

I love my 36" stacks of drawers.
42" might seem a bit too wide
(and heavy when loaded with pots, pans and baking supplies)
from my point of view.