DIY roll out drawer

Hey hey! Thanks for all the comments on my navy blue lamps. ;) Love them!

Today I’m sharing a DIY I did a loooong time ago, but I added a little finishing touch yesterday and realized that I never shared it with you all. I didn’t take pics as I did it all that time ago because I honestly wasn’t sure it would work. ;)

I think I’ll still be able to explain well enough how I put this together. My idea came from my desire to have these all over my kitchen:

(source)

Ah yes…making those deep dark cabinets easier to use. ‘Tis a dream.

But that dream is expensive. Those up there are $45 each (for only 11 inches wide!), yowza. The organization in our kitchen island cabinets was nonexistent so I needed help -- but I didn’t want to spend that much to make them work. So I figured out my own way!

I’ve since seen some different ways to make this by making a shallow box for the stuff to sit in. I’m going to attempt something similar for the other cabinets later. But my version (using mostly what I had in the garage) works great!

I started with a set of drawer slides – you can find them at most hardware stores and they come in various lengths:

You’re supposed to install them on the sides of the cabinet and to the sides of a drawer, but instead I installed them on the bottom of the cabinet:

You’ll see I had to nail down some scrap mdf first because I realized right off the bat that my DIY “drawer” wouldn’t clear the lip of the cabinet unless I raised this up a bit.

I just secured the slides into the mdf using four screws – two at the front and two at the back:

Since the drawer is pulled out now you’re seeing the bottom part of the slide here. That part is covered when the slides are pushed back.

I had a scrap piece of mdf I was planning on installing on top of the slides as my “drawer,” but I couldn’t figure out how to secure the two together. I couldn’t use screws because I couldn’t get to the bottom of everything, you know? I finally had an idea to use some heavy duty Velcro – I just stuck it to the top of each slider with the other part of the Velcro on top with the sticky side up. Then laid down my piece of mdf right on top, so the Velcro stuck to the bottom of it. Does that make sense? I hope!

Here’s what I ended up with:

The Velcro connects the mdf on top to the drawer slides underneath. It also makes it so I can take it off if needed (which I did have to do once) – but that Velcro is crazy strong. It’s a struggle to get it off!

The reason I had to pull the wood board off was because the sides of it were scraping up against the screws that were used to put the island together on the sides of the cabinet. Just make sure you have plenty of clearance on each side before you install everything. 

The expandable metal rack is really a pot lid holder from IKEA, but I use them for pans here (and plates in the dining room built ins):

I didn’t want it to move around so I used some plastic holder thingamabobs to secure it to the wood.

My last addition to this project was the handle I installed yesterday. I usually just pull it out by grabbing the IKEA organizer, but this will be much easier.

My only purchase when I did this was the drawer slides – I had everything else on hand. So my version was $15 – much better than the $45 version. ;)

Mine slides easily, even with all the weight of the pans on it:

I forgot to mention – it pulls out SO far out of the cabinet: 

Awesome!! (Ignore my ugly pans.)

Oh and you’ll want to make sure your taller items are in front if you have that upper shelf inside the cabinet.

Well there you go – my DIY roll out drawer. :) Sometimes when you want something bad enough you figure out how to make it work! Do you have any of these amazing contraptions (bought or DIY’d)? I love them – they make it so much easier to access everything in the cabinet!