How many kitchen tools do you have/need? I have everything I need for cooking in two drawers - one is 18" wide, the other is 24" (cabinet width, not drawer width). For everything else - even potholders - I would prefer a deeper drawer.

I agree with you that items are easier to find when they aren't piled up. I built dividers in my utensil drawer, which also makes things easier to find.

I suggest laying out your utensils to see how much space you truly need for them.

I can't think of another homily that fits other than you're letting the tail wag the dog. Shallow drawers are the least useful, rather than the most useful. Plan your kitchen around how to get the most deep drawers, not the most shallow ones!

I think it comes down to the fact that, for some of us, we're going from not being able to put much in drawers to not quite 'getting' how we'll use drawers once they arrive in our 'new' kitchen. I planned as many drawers as I could. I planned one 4-stack and four 3-stacks (plus the odd drawer under the speed oven and above the trash insert). I can picture what will go in the top drawers, and the four drawer stack that's replacing a particular drawer stack in my old cabinets, but try as I might, I couldn't get into figuring out where every last thing would go in the new cabinets before ordering.

Things that have been in cabinets over the washer and dryer or above the broom closet or by the back door will now, theoretically, get better placement in the heart of the kitchen. But I can't really say what will go where. And with that, I deferred to the experts that 4-drawer stacks aren't all that useable except if you have a particular purpose in mind, but the deeper drawers can be used for lots and lots of things that you wouldn't HAVE TO keep in drawers, but you'll love doing so.

(two weeks out from cabinet arrival, so I may not know what I'm talking about at all).

Are you using frameless or framed? That makes a difference to drawer space because almost all framed cabinets have a frame which may be 1" or even wider going between the drawers.

For our frameless cabinets, about 1.7" of the drawer height for middle and bottom drawers was taken by the thickness of the bottom of the drawer and space below the drawer bottom for the drawer glides.

For the top drawer about 2" was lost (because the cabinet box top takes up part of the 30" with the drawer face overlapping the box top).

How tall are your ladles, measuring cups, etc.

Our cabinet line had a reasonable cost for custom drawer heights. We spent significant time measuring the things we were storing and coming up with a plan. We have some 2 5 drawer stacks - one with 4 5.25" high drawers and an 8.23" drawer on the bottom.

We have a few top drawers that are 4.5" for things like flatware (with other drawers that can hold the taller ladles and things). I find 7-8" drawers to be very useful holding a wide variety of things: bowls, boxed foods like the baking powder and corn starch in our baking area, the kids plastic bowls and cups where they can get them easily, etc.

5" is probably a bit too short for many drawers and there is no need to keep to even inches once you are customizing.

If you are using framed, 5" drawers are going to have too little usable height. (There is a variant of framed cabinets with drawers where the frame goes only around the outside and not between the drawers but I've not seen any kitchen cabinet makers doing that.)

no full extension slides? that's be very important to me. full ext gives better access to what is in the drawer.

I understand the desire for more of the shallow drawers but not sure I'd want to go more than 3 drawers down with them or that I wouldn't be more concerned about the width of them.

I wouldn't want a 4 @ 5" & 36" wide (with lower being 15" deep drawer) stack unless I had a specific reason (none that I can think of). I think my max in width would be closer to 24".

have you considered things like baking utensils? beaters? measuring cups? how about a big soup ladle?

what do you plan to keep in the deeper drawers? how many things do you have for a 10" deep drawer? if something is 9" wouldn't it be better to have an extra inch or 2 above it? will you use any of those lower deeper drawers for things like cutting boards, 9x13 pans? (I do) then be sure there's enough space - that 9" wide pan will barely make it in a 10" drawer.

will you be using a drawer for things like baggies, tin foil? I've had drawers that I couldn't put them in - too shallow.

dish clothes and towels? how many can you get in a 5" deep drawer? I have a drawer that is about 6" and I can only fit a few in it. The others I have to keep in a linen closet - out of the kitchen. If I were redoing cabs, I'd have a deeper drawer. fortunately for me, it is only me so I don't use many. I'd still rather have them all together.

I'd also want top drawer hgts to be consistent. Not a 6" top drawer in one stack and a 5" top drawer in another stack.

how many drawer stacks will you have? will you be keeping pots/pans in a drawer? large mixing bowls?

I agree with LWO, deeper is better! Other than a couple shallow for utensils, I prefer the deeper drawers. Below is a pic of my plastic-wear in a 12" deep. All my potholders, cloths and drying towels are in a 9" deep drawer. Big Costco rolls of parchment paper/aluminum foil require deep drawers as well.

When saying a 12" drawer, are you saying the drawer front is 12" or is the actual inside dimension of the dovetail drawer is 12"?

Except for specialty drawers (deep pot/pans drawers), I did 3x drawers/stack. Like someone else mentioned, if you have framed cabinets you will lose space for each additional drawer you add. For 3x drawers/stack, I had 20.75" of internal drawer height to work with, so I made my drawers 4"-6.25"-10.5". I like storing dried food in canning jars, so I planned my drawers so that quart size jars could fit in the medium drawers and half gallon jars could fit in the lower drawers (and these sizes also worked very well w/ all of my other items). Planning out where I wanted to store everything and getting measurements took a long time but was very helpful!

I did 3 drawer stacks mostly. A single 4-drawer (and the bottom drawer is deep with 3 shallow) holds my spices, a set of measuring spoons and cups, a 1 cup measuring cup, pot holders, trivets, etc., the deep bottom drawer holds hand towels and dish rags. I had a choice with under the cooktop to go with a 3-drawer or 2-drawer...I went with a 3 realizing that the plan I had originally for storage (pans vertical between inner dividers) wouldn't work...but the shallow top drawer works fantastic for the spoon rest, and cooking utensils...I wanted that drawer more than having the vertical pans - it had to be cut down to allow for the cooktop clearance, but it's still extremely functional...I just need to get dividers ordered for it now.

For sure, take the time to measure everything and plan where you are going to put things. I got my preliminary layout finished and then once I did that, I started measuring things and determining where things should go to make the most sense in my day to day cooking....those dictated what size drawers and depth were going where.

One area where I may have done things differently was my dish drawer area - it's a 3-drawer stack. Flatware is in the top, the middle holds daily dishes and plastic wrap, etc., the bottom holds food storage containers. I may have been better off going with a 4-drawer stack there - 3 shallow and the bottom deep - however, in that case, aesthetics won out over function..it still works just fine as a 3-drawer, but I would have fit things in better as a 4-drawer. Regardless, I like the looks of a long (36") 3-drawer unit much better than I like the looks of a 36" 4-drawer unit.

Thanks for the great discussion!

We are still working through this. These are frameless cabinets, and yes they are custom. We will have essentially 2 full drawer stacks about 13.5 inches wide. Interior width will be 11". We will be keeping the pattern consistent around the kitchen.

When I said not full extention I meant the drawer will not be, the glides will be. The drawers will be 24" long instead of the 23" supported by the full extention.

We will have a few wider drawers over other things. i.e. one over the trash, one over the mixer.

A agree there is a need for deep drawers. In this case they will be 10in front, about 9.5 in interior.

Our two stacks will be: 5,5,10,10 & 5,5,5,5,10

Our older framed cabinets current have shallow drawers with 3.5" interior space. Everything fits, so maybe we are used to it.

You're not going to get 24'' depthfront to back drawers in standard 24'' cabinet depth cabinets. You will have to move to 27'' deep cabinets. The cainet back and hardware as to have attachment points that take up room. If you've got any cabinet guy telling you that, ou've got a smoke blower, not a knowledgable maker.

And you're over thinking cabinet standards that have long been standards for a reason. Leave well enough alone.

I'm in the process of figuring out how my stuff will fit into my IKEA drawers. I don't have fronts yet, so I'm still fiddling around with exact placement of glides. I am actually adding fourth drawers to my cabinets! In one 24" cabinet I have 4 drawers - top one is cutlery, second and third are all of our everyday dishes, and bottom is pantry supplies in about 30 mason jars. It's incredibly efficient with all the interior organizers. I will be ordering drawer fronts *after* I know exactly how I want my drawers to be configured (based on contents), and I won't worry about the drawer proportions too much.

Plan your storage and don't make it all the same. Here's an FAQ about it...

FAQ: How do I plan for storage? Types of Storage? What to Store Where?

We planned out our storage and then decided what drawer stacks to use, etc.

We only have one 4-drawer stack b/c in reality deeper is better for most things. In fact, I discovered that my ladles and some turners do NOT fit in our top drawers...they're too "tall"/"thick"! Something I did not discover, unfortunately, until after the cabinets were installed and we'd moved back in!

Measure those utensils! Remember, space is taken up with drawer hardware and drawer boxes (floor of the drawer and the sides). If you have framed cabinets, then you also need to account for the stiles b/w the drawers (if they have them).

Dimensions in my cabinet line (Omega Dynasty & Omega Custom - bottom glides (some cabinet lines have side glides)):

Regarding upgrades (IMO):

Must-have: Full-extension glides - if your drawers will be deeper, get deeper glides so your drawers are true full-extension.
Nice-to-Have: Soft-close

I did a full inventory of everything that would be stored in kitchen, with a tape measure in hand, after design but prior to cab order. I wanted to get all small appliances off the counter, so I just did 3drawer stacks. Everything fits.

I needed the 6 inch top drawer for utensils but my 12x42 dish drawer was too heavy so put a drawer inside as a fix.

Sometimes, I think I should have done 6,10,14 (outside) to accommodate taller pans, cookie sheets, etc- but something is always too tall

a2gemini

Sorry to hijack the post----I just didn't know how to ask the question otherwise. Your configuration of the drawer-in-drawer is exactly what I was thinking of doing with my dish drawers. I always come to this site. Everyone has such wonderful ideas and solutions. Thank you!!!!

The top drawer will be 6" deep for the cutlery. The bottom two drawers can be 11 3/4" each. I was thinking of adding the drawer-in-drawer so that the drawers are not too deep for the dishes. My dish stack will be 3" high. I would like to keep some glasses and cups next to the plates. the cups are 4 1/4" high and the glasses are 6" high.

Do you just have this one drawer (and the drawer with in the drawer) or is there another drawer hidden underneath?
What is the depth of each of these drawers in addition to the 6" drawers above.
Thank you so much.

I lost track of what we have in the kitchen a long time ago. There's definitely a ton of things there that I don't even know how to use but the girlfriend keeps it in there so yeah. I can agree that deeper is better but I like to keep things separated and organize so I put up dividers within the drawers. I've read a blog on how to keep our fridge nice and organized and I basically took the tips and implemented them in a larger scale.

Here is a link that might be useful: How to Organize Your Refrigerator?