FACT: When you install pull out drawers, you will LOSE some shelf space.
FACT: When you install pull out drawers, you will GAIN ease of access to everything behind the 1st row of your shelf.
Each side wall of a pull out drawer is usually ½” thick…so, you lose 1″ of potential shelf width just there. In addition, a pull out drawer requires clearance from cabinet walls and hinges on both sides. If you have a ½” hinge and 1/4″ clearance on each side…that is another 1″ of shelf width lost. The width of our pull out drawers is EXACTLY the stated size…so a 15″ drawer is EXACTLY 15″ wide…outside dimension. Our side walls are ½” thick, so the inside width at the bottom of the drawer is 1″ less than the stated size.
Standard shelves are 22″ deep. You don’t want your rollout drawer hitting the back of the cabinet every time you roll the drawer back into the cabinet…so a maximum sized drawer should be slightly less. Our pull out drawers are all 21 5/8″ deep. Again deducting the width of the front and back walls of the drawer, you are left with 19 ½” of depth of drawer bottom to place items on.
One situation in particular, you may want to think about more deeply. If you have double door Face Frame cabinets…you have a vertical bar in the middle of a full double width shelf. You may be storing some items partially behind the vertical bar…e.g. a rice cooker…and maybe it is not inconvenient to remove the item behind the vertical bar. By placing pull out drawers on both sides of the vertical bar, you will lose all that storage space behind the vertical bar.
But think of what you gain. You could use a foot to open our pull out drawer…you could use a cane…or you could use your hand. And voila!…everything in the drawer is right there in front of you. Pull the item you want out…and roll the drawer back in. How convenient is that!
A couple of more things to think about when retrofitting existing kitchen cabinets or pantries.