Cabinet Organization

Piece of Meesh
by Piece of Meesh
9 Materials
$150
15 Hours
Medium

Is spring cleaning and organization still happening? I was super happy to get this cabinet organized. I started realizing that with cabinets, items get tossed to the back and are never seen..which means never used and it's hard to know what you really have. The solution was to create pull-out drawers so every item in the cabinet was accounted for.


To see how these hold up, or for other DIY ideas, make sure to check out my Instagram.

These are some of the embarrassing before pictures that summarizes the mess of these cabinets.


I started by removing everything so I could get to work.


Once the cabinet was cleared out, I used scrap wood as a divider in the middle of the cabinet. I glued it down and used screws to attach. This will be what I screw the draw slides into.

Once the center support was attached, I held up the brackets with the door open to make sure that the drawer would be able to slide out. This drawer slide 'just made it' which I didn't like.

So off to my scrap pile I went and found a thin piece of wood. This allowed the drawer slides to slide out without hitting the door. After I knew that was all good, I removed the doors (to get them out of my way).

I used glue and then my brad nail gun to attach the additional piece of wood to the center support.

I had to add supports to the side as well for the same reason (to make sure the drawers could slide out). Also, I decided after this that I wanted to remove the actual shelf. So I secure the support into the wall. You can see screws that were placed into the shelf, but they were removed.


I decided to remove the shelf to have a clean finish and the shelf was also bowed.

This is what it looked like before I removed the shelf.

In my opinion, the euro style drawer slides are these easiest to install. I used about 3-4 screws to install and of course, make sure it is level horizontally (this pic) and also vertically. If you are using piece of wood to help meet the distance between the slides, make sure your wood is straight.

This is how I checked for vertical placement.


You can also see here, after I removed the shelf, I used pocket hold screws to attach the center piece of wood. The center piece of wood still had to be wide enough to accommodate the doors.

I used a temporary piece of wood to help support the center wood while I screwed it into place. I used my brad nailer to hold the temporary piece of wood and took it out when I was finished.

I also used my 4 foot level to make sure the drawers would be level all the way across.

This is what the other cabinet looks like.

Then I painted it black! I had no intentions of doing this, but with the cost of wood, I ended up using OSB material. If you don't know, this material consists of several strands of wood that has been glued together and does not have a smooth finish. I knew the best way to conceal the uneven texture, was to paint it black. So the inside of the cabinets got black paint too!


Now let's make some drawers.

Follow me here.. I promise it isn't that bad.


First, I broke the cabinet up by 4 and labeled the cabinets on my drawing. To measure, you want to measure the width from one end to the other (where the drawer will be). The length is going to be the length of your drawer slide -- so this will be the same for all your drawers. To make math easy, we will say my width is 15", the length is 20", and the thickness of the wood is 0.5" thick.


After you find your width (and don't assume they will all be the same), subtract the width of the drawer slides. The width of the drawer slides should be labeled on the package. For me, each drawer side was 0.5", and I would be using two (one for each side) so that is a total subtraction of 1".


There are 5 pieces that you will need to make up your drawer. The bottom, 4 sides (left, right, front and back).


I decided to build my drawer box so you couldn't see the side panels when looking at the front. This matters for when you do the math.


Let's start with the front and back panels. Since I want the front and back pieces to hide the sides, I needed it to span the entire width of the drawer. So that = 15". Easy!


For the right and left sides, I have to consider the front panels as the wood is 0.5" thick. This means, I take my side measurement and subtract 1" (0.5 inches for the front and back panel). The length would be 19". (Front 0.5"+ back 0.5"+ right side 19" = total of 20" length).


For the bottom panel, your dimensions with be the same length as your right and left side (19"). For the width, the concept is the same. Subtract the width of the board (0.5" x2) from the total drawer width (15") since the bottom panel sits inside all the sides.

I went ahead and started cutting the OSB on my table saw. I cut in 4.5" strips.


If you don't have a table saw, the big box store will cut your wood for you. So don't let this deter you!

I then cut to size on my miter saw. You can use elbow grease and a handsaw for this as well.

I used a stop block on the left for cuts with the same measurement. It's important that the measurements are accurate.

This is what I ended up width. The left and right drawer sides (length) are all the same length. I labeled everything since everything else was not the same.

I sanded and painted.


I then used glue and my brad nailer to make a box.

I screwed the drawer slide on and that was it! It was totally worth it to have some organization.

Slide your drawer in and that's it! Because this drawer will not hold a lot of weight, I did not add additional screws to hold the drawers together. The wood glue is allegedly stronger than screws. We will see in time, if that is true. But based on my other builds, it should be okay.

I even have a dedicated drawer for my plant things!

And my kids have an organized gaming drawer that can be put away neatly.

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Frequently asked questions
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  1 question
  • Ellen Ellen on Jun 04, 2021

    What happened with the doors? Don't see them in the finished product.

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5 of 21 comments
  • Karen Bosco Karen Bosco on Jun 01, 2023

    Beautifuly done!

  • Carole Atson Carole Atson on Jun 01, 2023

    I desperately want drawers in my cabinets but this is all too much for an old lady to take on 😫😩😢

    • See 2 previous
    • Linda Ross Linda Ross on Jun 08, 2023

      Should read72” cabinet.

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