How to Design Drawers in a Cabinet
- 1). Draw a line on a piece of paper, slanted at 45-degree angle to the right. This line indicates the length of the side panel of the drawer that will be installed inside the cabinet. Use a measuring tape inside the cabinet to determine the total width of the cabinet and subtract at least two inches to make room for the front face panel and the end panel. Write the total width of the drawer beside the slanted line.
- 2). Draw one vertical line from one of the ends of the angled line in the previous step. Repeat this step for the opposite end of the slanted line, so both lines are equally long. These lines indicate the height of the side panel, which is also the height of the drawer itself. Use a measuring tape to determine the desired height of the drawer inside the cabinet. Write the dimension down beside the two vertical lines. Connect the two ends of the vertical line with a slanted line parallel to the first.
- 3). Draw three identical horizontal lines going left, extending from the two bottom corners that define the front of the drawer, and from the top corner on the drawing. These lines indicate the length of the drawer from left to right. Use the measuring tape to measure the actual length within the cabinet and subtract the thickness of the wood twice to make room for the two side panels. The final dimension is the length for the end panel, so add this figure to the top horizontal line.
- 4). Connect the two ends of the horizontal lines to make a square using a pencil. Connect the top left corner of the square to the top left end of the drawn back panel, creating an identical slanted line to the original line drawn in step 1. You now have a 3-D design of a drawer with the height, width and length dimensions in place.
- 5). Measure the thickness of the chosen wood, which is often half an inch to a full inch thick. Add twice the thickness to the total length dimension to get the total length figure required for the bottom panel of the drawer. The bottom drawer is the full width by the adjusted length.
- 6). Add two inches to the full length of the drawer to design a larger front face. The front panel is both taller and longer than the actual drawer frame, because the front face must cover the sliding tracks installed on the side of the drawer and provide height so the drawer does not scratch the bottom or top of the cabinet frame. The height of the front face is only about half an inch to a full inch taller than the actual drawer height.
- 7). Finish the drawer design by adding hardware to the drawer sketch. Handles can be placed anywhere on the front face, while knobs should be placed directly in the middle, so the pull is evenly distributed.
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