Drawer and Organizer Retrofits

More Storage Without New Cabinets

A standard base cabinet with a door and one fixed shelf wastes a surprising amount of room. The back half of the shelf is reachable only on your knees, the space above the shelf goes unused because stacking makes things fall over, and the floor of the cabinet becomes a pile. Replace that door and shelf with two or three full extension drawers or roll-outs, and the same box holds more and shows you everything in it.

That is the whole idea behind a retrofit. If the cabinet boxes are in good shape, you keep them and change what is inside.

First, Are the Boxes Worth Keeping?

We check every cabinet before recommending a retrofit, because a slide screwed into a weak box will pull out.

Plywood boxes in almost any condition are good candidates. Particleboard boxes can be fine too, provided the panels are flat, dry and firm around the screw holes. The one we find most often in older south Scottsdale ranch kitchens is a sink base where years of slow drips from a supply line have swollen the bottom panel. Hard water makes that worse, because scale ruins the seals in supply lines and shutoff valves. A swollen or crumbling panel can sometimes be replaced on its own; if the side panels are soft too, that cabinet needs rebuilding before anything goes inside it.

We also check whether the cabinets are square and level. A drawer slide needs parallel sides to run smoothly, and a box that has racked out of square will bind.

What We Fit

Roll-out shelves. A shallow tray on full extension slides behind the existing door. Good for pots, food storage containers and cleaning supplies. Cheapest way to recover a base cabinet.

Doors converted to drawers. The door comes off, and deep drawer boxes with matching fronts go in. Deep drawers are the best storage for dishes, pots and pantry goods in a base cabinet, and they are easier on the back than any shelf.

Blind corner pull-outs. Corner cabinets are where things go to be forgotten. Swing out and pull-out mechanisms bring the back of the corner to the opening.

Tray and sheet pan dividers. Vertical dividers in a cabinet above the oven or beside the range, so baking sheets and cutting boards stand on edge instead of in a stack.

Trash and recycling pull-outs. Two bins on a full extension frame, usually in a 15 or 18 inch base next to the sink.

Spice and oil pull-outs. A narrow pull-out beside the range, which is also a sensible place for oils because it sits away from the oven’s heat and away from the window light.

Hardware Matters

We use full extension slides so the drawer comes all the way out, and soft close so it does not slam. Load rating matters for heavy contents. A drawer full of cast iron or canned goods needs slides rated at 100 pounds or more, while a utensil drawer does not. Undermount slides hide under the drawer box and look cleaner; side mounts are stronger in some wide drawers and cost less.

Framed Cabinets and Clearances

Most American kitchens have face frame cabinets, where a wooden frame sits across the front of the box. That frame, and the hinges on any remaining door, narrow the opening a roll-out has to pass through. A retrofit that ignores it ends up with a shelf that hits the hinge or leaves a wide gap on each side. We measure the clear opening, not the box, and use spacer blocks so slides mount flush with the frame.

Frameless cabinets are simpler to fit, since the full width of the box is usable.

When a Retrofit Is Not the Answer

If the cabinet layout itself is the problem, such as no drawers near the range, a refrigerator with no landing space, or an aisle under 42 inches, rearranging the insides will not fix it. We will tell you that on the first visit rather than sell you organizers.

Call (480) 499-6221 and we will look at your cabinets, check the boxes, and price the retrofit cabinet by cabinet.