# Kitchen Refurbishment



## darsev (Feb 3, 2012)

A couple of months ago friends asked me to do some "handyman work" for them. Turns out that due to a medical condition she wanted all the shelves in her kitchen cupboards converted to drawers, among other things. Tomorrow I put the shelves into the pantry and have WIP pictures attached.

After lots of discussions, we have come up with the attached plan. The size of the drawers is based on what she wants to put in them. Above the drawers are rollout shelves. In other words, drawers without sides. Originally she wanted drawers all the way, but this was impractical at heights as the drawer sides got in the way. She was also keen on being able to change the configuration to suit what she was storing. Out of this was developed the rollout shelf that you can see in the photos.

I set the rollout shelves inside frames that in turn sit on/under cleats. This way the shelves can be relocated like a traditional moveable shelf sitting on shelf pins. The back cleat sits over the frame so that it doesn't tip when extended. The side cleats hold locating pins so that the shelf doesn't slide forward.

I have built the drawers, mid wall, and rollout shelves, and tomorrow I fit them to the existing pantry. I am a bit nervous as I have not been able to test fit in the actual pantry itself and I know that there are clearance issues with the existing hinges that I will have to make adjustments for on site.

The images:

The first two images are Sketchup drawings. First is the completed kitchen minus doors to give context. The second is only those components that I am building.

Third is the 6 drawers in the lower half of the pantry, and the fourth photo is the bare shelves.

Number 5 is glue up of a Tasmanian Oak fascia onto the rollout shelves.

Numbers 6, 7, and 8 are the rollout shelf and it's surrounding frame. For completion, Number 9 shows all the cleats that the rollout shelves will sit on/under - 102 cleats in all.

I will post photos of the install later when I can. I am actually quite looking forward to seeing the rollout shelves working in practice. Tests so far are looking good.

Darryl


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## Knothead47 (Feb 10, 2010)

It seems, from Sketchup, that the top shelves in the pantry would require a step ladder to reach them. Used to sell cabinetry and never ran across anything like this project. My complements on the planning, etc. Looking forward to seeing the finished project. Thanks for sharing.


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## Cherryville Chuck (Sep 28, 2010)

The last set of cupboards I built for myself Darryl had drawers in the bottoms. Look very similar but a bit taller sides. You lose the adjustability of the Euro style shelf but the joy of not having to get down on your hands and knees to retrieve something more than makes up for it. Your customer will be thrilled with the results.


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## MT Stringer (Aug 15, 2012)

Looking good, Darsey. I can see a lot of thought went into this project.


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## darsev (Feb 3, 2012)

John,

The top shelves are high and she has some small stands she uses to reach that high. Apparently at one stage with her old shelves she wanted to put one within 50mm of the top so she likes getting them high.


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## darsev (Feb 3, 2012)

Oops... Forgot to attach the last three photos showing the rollout shelves. Here they are.

Darryl


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## darsev (Feb 3, 2012)

Cherryville Chuck said:


> The last set of cupboards I built for myself Darryl had drawers in the bottoms. Look very similar but a bit taller sides. You lose the adjustability of the Euro style shelf but the joy of not having to get down on your hands and knees to retrieve something more than makes up for it. Your customer will be thrilled with the results.





MT Stringer said:


> Looking good, Darsey. I can see a lot of thought ent into this project.


Yes Mike, a lot of thought and time has gone into it to this point. I am really hoping I can pull it off with all the effort made, but so far it is looking good.

Chuck, we spent a lot of time trying to work out the sizes of the drawers for that exact reason. Once the drawers are made, you can't change the height and she was pulling all sorts of things out of her cupboards to see how high they needed to be. Time will tell if we got it right. This is definitely not a kit project.:|

Darryl


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## Marco (Feb 21, 2009)

Look forward to photos after the install. It should come out fine and worth all of the work and planning.


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## old55 (Aug 11, 2013)

Great WIP Darryl keep the pic's coming.


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## Mike (Nov 22, 2004)

Well thought out project D.


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## darsev (Feb 3, 2012)

Here are the install photos. It turned out to be a much bigger project than expected. Every drawer had to be custom fitted and worked. It was basically put the drawer in position and then work around the problems that pushed it out of position. At the first attempt I changed the hinges from the standards 110 degree to 170 degree so that the door itself would swing out of the way of the drawers. Unfortunately the size of the hinge itself was too big and cut into the drawers so we went back to standard hinges but the drawers were too wide. I ended up having to take them back to the workshop and trimming 10mm off the width. This was just the start of the dominos falling and quite a few late nights and full days trying to make it work.

In the end, David and Janine were ecstatic with the result even though the rollout shelves have some teething problems I still have to sort out. The rollout shelves did exactly what she wanted. She can get to the stuff at the back of the shelf and she can re-arrange them when the redecoration urge hits. It was fun watching them call in their grown up kids to show off their new pantry. We are now calling the rollout shelf the "Janine shelf" because she loves it so much.

*Photos:*

1. Drawer slides showing the the filler needed to handle the narrower drawer size.

2. Pantry with 3 drawers fitted and the fixed shelf.

3. Completed pantry with drawers and rollout shelves.

4, 5. More detail on the "Janine" shelves, including the proud new owner.

Darryl


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## old55 (Aug 11, 2013)

Congratulations Darryl. Janine looks very impressed.


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## Marco (Feb 21, 2009)

They look good Darryl! So are you ready to build more of them?


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## DaninVan (Jan 1, 2012)

Those would be great storage solutions for my shop; great job, Darryl! 
Personally I couldn't work with those high drawers, but the way you've designed it, it's a _simple_ conversion to taller shelf storage within the same same space. brilliant!!


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## darsev (Feb 3, 2012)

Marco said:


> They look good Darryl! So are you ready to build more of them?


I have a feeling I will be... Looks like another job will be coming out of this one and I think my wife wants the rollout shelves as well.

Darryl


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## darsev (Feb 3, 2012)

DaninVan said:


> Those would be great storage solutions for my shop; great job, Darryl!
> Personally I couldn't work with those high drawers, but the way you've designed it, it's a _simple_ conversion to taller shelf storage within the same same space. brilliant!!


Yes, they are simple to move around. I was a little bit nervous but when the frame went in and the shelf slid in it all worked really well. The only mods we made onsite were to the frames where we planed the back part of the sides down about 1mm for the length of the gusset. That made it easier to slide them in past the doors.

Darryl


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## RainMan 2.0 (May 6, 2014)

Looks like a very easy to use setup , nice work Darryl


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