How to Add Vertical Storage Drawers to Existing Cabinets

My workshop organization efforts continue as I add some vertical storage drawers to the existing open shelf cabinets I built 4 years ago.  I needed somewhere to put tools away as I unpacked boxes so the open shelves, though not terribly convenient for organizing small items, were better than nothing.  I don’t like moving 15 boxes of screws and nails around before I find the right size or hunting for a specific roll or tape, etc.  I like to see all my choices at once.  I almost always prefer drawers over shelves for storage and for storing a ton of small items, narrow “pantry style” drawers are the best.  I call them, “vertical storage drawers”.  They are narrow so nothing is stored behind anything else.  You can see everything in the drawer, all at once, at quick glance, without moving anything out of the way first.This post contains affiliate links to products I use and enjoy!  😀

Add Vertical Storage Drawers to Existing Cabinets

My cabinets have a faceframe and I prefer to install drawer slides to the cabinet side rather than using back brackets so I needed to add some wood behind the faceframe.

You don’t have to use a piece of wood that completely covers the side, adding a couple “cleats” is fine.  Just make sure the cleats are flush with the faceframe and make sure you install them where the screw holes in the drawer slides will end up.  I nail these cleats to the side of my cabinet with a nail gun.  (With about 8 nails per cleat.)

DeWalt battery powered nail gun

The vertical drawers are open from one side and will have a set of drawer slides installed on the back side.  To make it easy, I place the drawer slides in exactly the same position on every slide.  I set the bottom slide on a scrap of  3/8″ thick beadboard and install it. I’m doing inset drawers so I’m lining up my drawer slides with the back of the faceframe so my drawer fronts will be flush with the faceframe once installed.

After installing the bottom drawer slide, I use my scrap of beadboard as a spacer to set the top drawer slide onto while I install it.  

Porter-Cable tool combo kit

These drawer slides don’t utilize the full depth of my 24″ deep cabinets but I had a box of 22″ slides and in keeping with trying to use up as much of what I already have as possible in this “workshop redo”,  I’m using these instead of ordering more.

I’ll have to add a vertical divider at every point I want to add a drawer.  I decided what I wanted to store in these drawers which gave me a minimum width for each drawer.  I then divided up the space equally — because I like symmetry.  I used a 1/4″ spacer and scrap of 3/4″ wood to draw guide lines for my divider installation.

Woodpecker 24″ T-Square

I drilled pocket holes in the top and bottom of every divider/cleat.

Porter-Cable Pocket Hole Jig

In cabinets where I had enough room to get in there and install the drawer slide after the vertical divider/cleats were in, I installed the drawer slides after the dividers were in.  It was tight, awkward and uncomfortable but I got it done.

Most of my vertical drawers were narrow so I had to install the drawer slides to the cleats before I installed the cleats.  In this case it is important to install the drawer slide on the opposite side as the pocket holes!

After flipping the cleats over so the pocket holes are facing the table, I installed the bottom drawer slide first, 3/8″ from the bottom of the cleat as I did before.  I used a scrap of 3/8″ wood to make this process easier than measuring and marking.

Then I used the spacer to install the top slide.  

Using this spacer on both the cabinet and drawer when installing the drawer slide will ensure correct placement and spacing on both parts so they line up with it’s time to put the drawer in place.

With the drawer slides already installed, I lined the dividers up with my lines I marked and screwed them into place in the cabinet.  I started with the left divider to give myself as much room as possible for the first couple dividers.

The consecutive dividers got more tight, awkward and uncomfortable.But I got it done.

That’s the hard part!  The drawer part of the drawer slide disconnects from the cabinet part but the slide should be assembled when you install it to the drawer so you may need an extra drawer slide.   To install the bottom slide, use a scrap of wood to make sure the slide is flush with the bottom of the drawer.  Also, make sure you know which side of the drawer is the bottom and which end is the front.  Then install your drawer slide accordingly.

Use the same spacer piece to install the top drawer slide.  I also use a block of wood to make sure the front of the slide is flush with the front of the drawer.

Now you can disconnect the cabinet part of these slides and use them again on the next vertical drawer.

The drawer slide should slide right into cabinet slide.

It’s a good idea to get the dividers installed before you build the drawers so you can make sure to build the drawers to fit in the space you actually have.  So many times the space you think you will have when you plan it out on paper doesn’t turn out to be space you actually end up with.  This is why I always build in phases!

 

Speaking of drawers, I built each one of mine based on precisely what I wanted to store in that specific drawer and built the drawer to fit HOW I wanted to store the items I wanted to store.  Almost every drawer is one of a kind.  I’ll share those with you and show you how to build them soon.  This is already a super duper looooong post.  

Bessey angle clamps

from http://bit.ly/1OesJXK

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