Kitchen drawers

Another reference to a previous entry - we decided a long time ago that we would be using drawer mechanisms from Blum  (www.blum.com.au). These are made in Austria and are of very good quality. They do cost a bit more, especially if you want the soft closing mechanism (called blue motion) than your standard drawers, but they work very well and are actually very easy to assemble. Joiners might tell you otherwise, but this is something that can easily be done in a small workshop at home. We used ply for the fronts, but there is no reason you could not use either melamine or medium density fiberboard (MDF), but generally try to stay away from the latter due to the amount of glue that is in the product. However, if you wanted to e.g. spray paint your doors, then MDF might work better than ply in that it is more stable and won't react with moisture in the same way.

The tools we used for the job were basically a circular saw to cut the fronts, using a straight edge as a guide to get a nice cut. Other tools were a battery powered drill for fixing things with screws and a drill press to drill the wholes needed for brackets (see picture below). Finally, a nice little square and a very sharp pencil.

The first thing we did was to cut all the fronts for the drawers. We basically measured the hole to be covered and then just used the circular saw to firstly cut this as one piece, then cut it again for the number of drawers we wanted in that particular cupboard.

After cutting the fronts, we followed these steps to install everything:

The roller brackets are installed - we started with the bottom one and then worked our way up. The first one was just placed at the bottom of the cupboard and screwed to the side of the cabinet. The outer edge of the mechanism was placed about 3-4 mm from the edge of the wood. The actual measure used was 37mm to the centre of the 3rd hole.

The drawer sides were then "clipped" onto the roller mechanism.

Placing the front in the correct position, we then marked where the inner edge of the walls were. From this point, we went 15.5mm towards the middle of the front and then measured the correct distance up for where to put the holes.

The centre of the holes for the brackets should be 32mm, but the height up to the first hole would depend on the design of the fronts and the spacing between the drawers. For us it was 59mm. Where we had tall drawers like this one, we also put a 3rd hole for the gallery rail 128mm above the upper hole for the bracket. We used a 10mm wood bore in the drill press to drill the holes. Just make sure you don't go through the front !!

The brackets were then pushed into the holes

And bent so that it stands straight  out of the front.

The front then "clicks" into the drawer sides - now screws or anything necessary.

The rear brackets are then "clicked" into the sides, again, now screws needed.

One end of the gallery rail is then inserted into the last hole in the front

And then fixed at the end bracket. Again no screws. You can then adjust the draw so that it fits perfectly. There are screws on the sides that will push the sides either left or right, and also to adjust the height of the front. Finally, the gallery rails can be turned to adjust the length between the front and the back brackets, allowing it to be adjusted so that the front closes flush with the cabinet.

We then disassembled the drawer again and cut the base and back of the draw to fit. Here again we used our circular saw with a straight edge as a guide for the saw. After cutting the base, this was inserted into the tracks in the sides. The sides where then clamped together at the back of the draw and screws were fixed to hold it in place. Then we measured the required width of the back and cut it to size. End result is like this:

We have also bought some side panels that can be hung on the gallery rail to make the sides solid, but these have not been installed yet. It will only be used on the drawers that might hold glasses, plates, etc.

Additional information posted on the28/05/2008

We have now also finished installing the door handles on all the drawers. This made the kitchen much more functional than just having the temporary screws, and it also looks much better:

Bench between the kitchen and the dining area.

Bench below the window

Bench between kitchen and living area.

And finally, this is our home made Lazy Susan for the corner cupboard. It was made out of melamine cut to size after a cardboard trial. There are 3 wheels underneath and it is fixed with a screw in the middle which is used as the turning point. One end is then fixed to the door so that it comes out when the door is opened. This "mechanism" was made by using a router to make a track in a piece of wood, which was fixed to the door. Under the melamine we then just fixed a screw that fitted into the track, and that was it.

Any problems, please email webmaster. This page was last updated 24/07/2008