My single observation is that pull-outs in base cabinets are a serious PIA.

If you don't open the door wide enough the inside of the door gets all banged up. Drawers are my answer.

The tall pull-out spice thing -- to me -- are space fillers.
I know people will beg politely to differ on this, but that's my opin-onion!

We're remodeling our kitchen and going with drawers in the wider spaces rather than pull outs. We figure "why open doors and then pull out a drawer" when you can just pull out a drawer?

For narrower spaces we're using pull outs (but not pull out drawers) with Rev-A-Shelf hardware inside. Look at the Rev-A-Shelf website to see what they offer. Some of their stuff is really cool.

We considered the tall and narrow "spice rack" things, but ended up not using any because none fit our space. After all was said and done, we had taken care of the "spice rack" issue with...guess what?...an upper drawer with the spice containers laid on their sides, all in full view and accessible while standing (no bending required).

Hope this helps.

I pretty much agree with CEEFreeman -- although I have one pull out for my oils/vinegars and am careful with it. And yes, those pull out spice things are useless and expensive. Much prefer drawers next to cooktop with lovely tin spice cans (thank you Breezy for the inspiration!)

Most of my storage (pots/china/bakeware) are drawers which are the way to go! Also have some open shelving for my large stuff (have lots of it for entertaining:)

If the pullouts are attached to the cabinet door, they work like drawers and are fine. Think of a trash pullout.

OTOH, if they are roll out tray shelves (ROTS), I agree with CEFreeman, they're a pain - and I speak from experience! I forgot to specify a "trash pullout" type cabinet for our "pet center cabinet" and have 2 doors + 2 ROTS. The doors are already nicked from the times we either haven't opened the door all the way b/f pulling out an ROTS or we didn't wait for the ROTS to close completely b/f closing the doors. Oh well, it's just one cabinet!

I have two 6" filler pullouts flanking my cooktop - they're full-height base cabinet pullouts. My only complaint is that the shelves are not adjustable. However, that is not the case for all such pull outs, just be sure you specify adjustable shelves!

However, I think drawers, in general, are more useful than pullouts unless you have specific items planned that are best stored that way.

My advice is to plan out your storage before ordering cabinets to determine specific storage needs. If you don't know what you're going to store in a particular spot, I'd stick with drawers. Have you had a chance to read the "Planning for Storage" topic in the "Read Me" thread?

Good luck!

Here is a link that might be useful: New To Kitchens? Posting Pics? Read Me!

I've never understood WHY anyone would still choose to 1. open door and then 2. pull out a shelf, then 3. push back the shelf, then 4. close the door.

Drawers. Love them.

Tall, narrow pull-outs are for spaces too narrow for drawers and put THEM to very good use. I have a 12"er right by where I work in my prep island which holds vinegars and other bottled ingredients I used all the time, oils, garlic and shallots in the top tray, etc., etc.

Like buehl said, there is the hybrid option of the tall pull-out with the door attached. It can have smaller drawers inside, which could be adjustable. Although I did the bulk of my kitchen with deep drawers, I did put in two full-height pull-out units. One holds the KA mixer (too tall to fit in a standard drawer, couldn't give up reach-in-pantry space, and didn't want it on the counter) and the other holds a pet food bin. So if you have something extra tall, consider where you'll store it.

As rosie said, I think the thin pull-outs are best used for vinegars and other bottles. But you may not want it right next to the stove because of the heat. As for spices, I have mine in a top drawer next to the stove. I like it MUCH better than if I had put a spice pull-out. I couldn't imagine squatting down to see what was on the bottom tray of the pull-out.

For my kitchen perimeter I have drawers. I did not put in any of the tall narrow pullouts by the cooktop, etc. I did do a pantry with rollout trays behind a single door for dry goods and a 12 inch wide x84 inch tall pullout tower for canned goods and bottles. I agree that I would not want rollouts in base cabinets, but I like the rollouts in the pantry. The look is more balanced than drawer fronts would be on that wall (I have seen others do drawers as part of a tall pantry cabinet and that ca work great too). I do get the advantage of being able to adjust the levels inside, which I have done with the tower. Have not changed the rollouts since they were set up.

BTW, my oils and vinegars are in the upper to one side of my cooktop on a lazy suzan. My spices are in a top drawer. A lot cheaper and easier than the fancy pullouts I thought were so cool and were drawn into one the cabinet bids for my kitchen.

A $700 6" spice pullout is an expensive space filler that isn't that usable. It's what you do when you have leftover room that you can't figure out what else to do with. It's much more functional to add that 6" to another cabinet in the run and then just put your spices in it.

Roll out trays aspire to be drawers when they grow up. They are 1980's kitchen thinking when the idea of something more than just a top drawer and a door registered in the consciousness of kitchen renovators. If you have a large kitchen, then one cabinet with them in it can adjust to odd height items and still be functional. But in a small kitchen, you are better off with trying to get auxiliary storage out of a drywall pantry or laundry room for that kind of stuff and leave the kitchen to drawer cabinets.

"...A $700 6" spice pullout is an expensive space filler that isn't that usable..."

I beg to differ. I have two of them...and they're a lot more useful than empty filler! I fit a lot of items on them that would take up space in other locations and be blocking each other. With my filler pullouts I have my many, many baking sprinkles in one and my most used spices, ingredients (like molasses, honey, cocoa, vanilla), and recipe box in the other. The one w/the baking items is in my "Baking Center" and the one w/spices, etc. is in my Prep Zone - all very conveniently located and very useful!

If you put the tallest items on the bottom shelf and the shortest (or most used) on the top shelf, you don't have to lean over that much or that often.

Finally, they are too narrow to have items more than two deep, so that means you can pretty much see everything stored in them!

My cabinets were already delivered so it was either filler pullouts or empty filler...we had to "fix" one of the many measuring errors by my KD. But, if I had to do it over again, I would try to fit at least one in my kitchen. (Just so you know, filler pullouts are available for both base and upper cabinets.)

Oh, and they are not $700...mine were less than $450 each. $700 may be Rev-A-Shelf's "list" price, but not even my KD would charge that much for them! [In the interests of full disclosure, I did not pay for mine - I insisted my KD pay for them b/c I lost so much cabinet & pantry storage due to her measuring mistakes! But, they did try to charge me, so I have the change order they tried to get me to sign.]

Together...

Baking Center side (left of cooktop)...

Prep Zone side (right of cooktop)...

>
Roll Out Tray Shelves (ROTS)...items can fall off ROTS b/c most have short sides. If they have high sides, then they may as well be drawers. Pot/pan/container handles and anything else that might hang off the sides of the shelves can get caught on the frame of your cabinet and ding it - both coming out and going in. And, of course, there's the issue I mentioned previously about being very careful you open the doors fully b/f pulling an ROTS out so you don't ding your cabinet doors; and being very careful about making sure your ROTS is completely closed before closing the doors so you don't ding the doors on the corners of the ROTS when closing the doors!

Drawers should not be so deep that you have to stack different items on top of each other...plan your drawers accordingly - I have both 3-drawer and 4-drawer stacks - I planned my storage so other than a few drawers, I don't have to stack things. It's nice having my pots & pans in a drawer mostly one layer deep (pan + lid stored together) so I don't have to shift things around.

[FYI...I think webbrowseraz is a spammer...the only posts I could find from him/her - all four (spanning from January to now) - link to the same site with basically the same post as on this thread.]

We are finishing up our kitchen.

One last minute addition was a tall pull out to the left of the fridge.

Originally, this housed HVAC duct work but the GC routed it through the basement and I had a Kaizan (light bulb went off in my head and a great idea was born)

I asked KD and GC about a pull out pantry instead of rebuilding the wing wall.
They looked, measured, and a new cabinet was born (albeit expensive). I think I am going to love it! It will house our empty bottles (lowest shelf), sports food and beverages, snacks, etc) We have a walk in pantry but it is always overwhelming -so I promised DH that he would have 2 shelves just for him. He is very excited -now we just have to figure out the hardware to open the baby! And to get the fridge back home after the floor repair and sealant.

The top shelf has a few extra items that didn't fit in our liquor shelf and we don't use very often.

There is a "stickiness" to the shelf to keep things from sliding around - so far, nothing moves when I open it

Some people have some very nice pull-outs!

Others are happy to debate doors vs. drawers (drawers only for me baby!)

My mother has a pull-out next to the oven that I'd find particularly useless. To me a drawer has greater flexibility, though I know some pull-outs are adjustable. The question as far as I'm concerned is, how often do you use the pull-out? And if it's used on a regular basis, how do you get the items out? Some are double-sided like the one shown above. The shelves are taller than the items they store - this seems great. The ones I've seen in showrooms seem to exhibit items that are barely as tall as the space permits. It always strikes me that the bottles or whatever are hard to extract.

$0.02