Hey Swingman - You've Been Plagurized!

[Mike Marlow]

Was watching HGTV the other night and what to my wondering eyes should appear - right there on TV for the whole world to see? To kick drawers in kitchen cabinets. Yeah - you read it right, your idea published for the world to see and not a single credit to you.

Now, for all I know these things could have been around for a long time, but the first time I ever saw them was in some of Swingman's pictures. My wife thought they were cool and I just smugly told her that I know the inventor of them. Didn't buy me much.

[C & E]

Sorry to be reeeealy thick here Mike but are these drawers in the toe-kick at the bottom of the cabs??

[Mike Marlow]

Yeah. Don't you just hate it when a guy doesn't proof read his own posts?

[RicodJour]

I'm pretty sure they're been around for a while. They're definitely a good use for unutilized space. I've been building drawers into kitchen toekicks for the past 15 years or so. I usually don't tell the owner that I'm doing it. I just install them and sometime later in a follow up visit, I casually press the kick drawer with my toe and the touch latch pops it open. The owner's astonishment is priceless.

R

[Swingman]

Yep, I invented them, back in 1835. ;)

Actually, they are rare in this day of purchased boxes/cheap built-ins, but I first saw one about 20 years ago. Most cabinetmakers these days are just too lazy to bother.

Of the two features in the kitchens I put in the houses we build, the toe-kick drawers, along with the elevated dishwasher cabinets, seem to be the ones that most women go gaga over. The toe-kick drawers are so well hidden that they must be pointed out, so we generally leave one partially pulled out during open houses ... must be an HGTV spy around?

Funny thing is I just bought the plywood yesterday specifically to build toe-kick drawers for six cabinets in two new kitchens.

[C & E]

Guess I can't argue that one, Mike.

[Fly-by-Night CC]

I've had an idea in the back of my noggin' for some years now and will try to put it in our updated kitchen - if it ever happens.

Our kitchen has a cooktop, must be only 3 or so inches in thickness - current one is gas, but the previous was an electric with similar depth. I think it would be a very convenient thing to have a pull-out wood cutting board built into the cabinet immediately below the cooktop. Not only would it be good for chopping at the stove and an added work space for pots and pans but a shield for toddlers and small children from getting burned or turning on the gas, flame or element via any forward-mount knobs.

The idea originated with the pull-out board on the other side of the kitchen next to the wall oven and under the microwave cabinet. Our cabinets appear to be site-built c. 1960.

[Swingman]

The toekick drawers are very easy to implement if you install the cabinet side drawer slides in the toekick space on the end panels before assembling the cabinets. Much more difficult to retrofit unless you are a contortionist.

We did four of them yesterday in the time it takes to tell.

For a 4 1/2" high toekick space, I've settled on drawer dimensions of 3 3/4" tall; 18" deep; and 1" less in width than the inside width of the cabinet with Accuride full extension slides. Those dimensions generally give you the clearance you need after you apply any extra toekick plate/shoe molding to the drawer front to match the cabinet run.

One thing to consider is to use an overextension drawer slide. Even with full extension slides you have the 4" depth of the toekick space to contend with, which only leaves about 14" of an 18" drawer visible from above when the drawer is open.

Pull-outs, of any kind, are in vogue ... I rarely do shelves in standard depth base cabinets any longer, only pull-outs.

[Fly-by-Night CC]

What do you hear that most folks use these for? My only concern with such a drawer in my house would be the copious amounts of dog hair that seems to accumulate on a daily basis - I don't need more dog hair in my meals than what I'm treated to already. ;)

[Swingman]

Cookie sheets, baking pans, placemats, cutting boards, pistols, your stash ... anything that lays flat, or that you want to hide.

[Mike Marlow]

Well of course Owen - the answer is obvious - to store the dog hair!