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kfpwvt

Number of drawers in a stack

kfpwvt
11 years ago

I am doing a minor kitchen tweak (really a mudroom/laundry room project) but resulting in one new wall in the kitchen. I have one new 36 inch base cabinet that I will do drawers in. I"m debating the 4 total drawers vs 3 (standard top and 2 large bottom). I plan to put a lot of baking things in these drawers -- cake pans, pie dishes, maybe some other baking tools. I think the deep bowls will go above -- but I supposed they could go below.

I'm torn between the lower part being deeper drawers (more flexibility) vs shallower where it is easy to reach each thing. It would be something like a 6, 8, 8 inch set vs 10 inch drawers (rounding off).

Any advice?

Comments (13)

  • taggie
    11 years ago

    Will your cabs be frameless or framed? With frameless, 4-drawer stacks are a slam dunk in my opinion. If framed, not sure how useful the narrower drawers would be; be sure you measure carefully re. what you plan to store in them.

    We did 4-drawer stacks of 6", 6", 6" with 12" deep at the bottom. Works great for us; love being able to keep all utensils in the top two drawers spread out for easy accessibility, and love having bowls and pans at hand without major stacking.

    I like your idea of 6", 8", 8", and 10". The 8" drawers would give you good flexibility for storage.

    Here is what our two middle 6" drawers hold, to give you an idea:

  • badgergal
    11 years ago

    I have 3 drawers in all my stacks and they work out great. I have framed full overlay cabinets. The bottom two drawer fronts are approx. 11 inches and the top drawer is approx. 6 inches. You need to be aware though that the inside dimensions of the drawer will be less. The interior of the bottom two drawers is actually about 8 inches deep and the top one about 3 1/2 inches deep. I wouldn't want the drawers to be any smaller than that which they would be with a 4 drawer stack.

  • mydreamhome
    11 years ago

    I was going to suggest what Taggie did. Her pics are way better than the ones I have of mine that are set up that way. I love them--nothing gets lost and everything is much more organized and easier to access.

    Hope this helps!

  • kfpwvt
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    Thanks. Love the pictures. Mine are framed so a bit less space but I do love the organization of shallower drawers -- but I also remember a 4 drawer stack (but it was narrow too) in my old house that it was hard to find the right things for. Narrowness rather than shallowness might have been the issue there...I have to decide in the AM. Still on the fence.

  • badgergal
    11 years ago

    taggies drawers look great but since you are going to have framed cabinets I thought might like to see how I use some of my framed 3 drawer stacks.

    Here are a couple of my shallow top drawers.
    {{!gwi}}
    {{!gwi}}

    And a few of the deeper drawers
    {{!gwi}}
    {{!gwi}}
    {{!gwi}}
    {{!gwi}}

    Good luck in your decision.

  • Gracie
    11 years ago

    My U-shaped kitchen has three drawer stacks total so I went with two 4s and one 3. My cabs were custom and I measured everything. The drawer faces are 6.5, 6.5, 6.5, and 9.5. The 4-drawer stacks are on each side of the range. They're only 30 in. wide but they hold all my pots and pans, Tupperware, wraps, silverware, gadgets, glass baking pans, colanders, casserole dishes, and bowls. My 3-drawer stack is 18 in. wide and has a drawer for spices, bread and snacks, and small appliances. I use my over-the-fridge cabs for deeper baking pans like angel food cake and Bundt pans.

  • angela12345
    11 years ago

    Ideas for Baking dishes in a drawer (not my drawers, I wish!) ...

  • live_wire_oak
    11 years ago

    While I'm all about function, doing non standard sized drawers would really bother me visually in a way that putting a "regular" 4 drawer stack next to a 3 drawer one wouldn't.

    Drawer heights are designed so that you have uniform horizontal lines around the room. If you do a 4 drawer stack, it should be 3 6" drawers and one 12" one. If 3, then 1 6" drawer and 2 12" ones. That keeps things lined up. It may be more functional to vary the height, but it will end up looking subtly wrong and bug you. You'd need to go back and redo the other drawers in the kitchen to work with the new spacing if you want things to look cohesive.

  • ILoveRed
    11 years ago

    Livewireoak-- "Drawer heights are designed so that you have uniform horizontal lines around the room. If you do a 4 drawer stack, it should be 3 6" drawers and one 12" one. If 3, then 1 6" drawer and 2 12" ones. That keeps things lined up"

    This may be a dumb question...but would that rule also apply to inset drawers? Would the numbers be different for inset?

    Thanks!

    Good thread and great pictures.

  • angela12345
    11 years ago

    My kitchen does not follow the drawer heights rule ... I have 2 stacks that are 6 12 12 and 2 stacks that are 6 6 9 9. I love this arrangement in that the bottom two 9's are useful where a 6 would have been too shallow and a 12 would have been too deep. Although, something that helps is that these stacks are caddy-cornered across the kitchen ... it would be very hard to look in any direction where you could see the mis-matches at one time.

  • kfpwvt
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    I just wanted to update that I went with a three drawer stack (2 below the 6 inch top). I realized most of my other lower cabinets had three pullouts in them - I had then retrofitted as the whole kitchen, exempt for narrow drawer stack, had standard base cabinets which I hate and fine horribly inefficient. Anyway, that is off topic, but I have several cabinets with narrower division. So deeper drawers here would be useful and add variety to

  • westsider40
    11 years ago

    Yes. See Angela's picture on Thursday 9:38? How the dividers go up and down, and front to back? That is key. Be sure to have dividers made for the bottom 2 drawers in a 3 drawer stack for baking things. You won't have to nest them and dig to find them or waste space. Baking vessels will sit on their sides.

    In this 3 drawer baking stack, I have the top drawer about 6.5 inches tall, outside measurement, and the middle drawer is 10 inches tall on the inside. The bottom drawer is 14 inches tall on the inside but that includes a toekick drawer. Just have two large bottom drawers and one shallow top drawer, but be sure to have dividers for the bottom two drawers, up and down dividers, as Angela shows.

    BTW, I have two of these 3 drawer baking stacks-love them. Sorry, no pics.