Drawers and drawer slides, Master closet makeover

Today I am posting my drawers and drawer slides, for the master closet makeover.  To catch up click Here and Here. This was probably the most time consuming part of the towers, and I still have to do the drawer faces, but I will get to those…eventually!

What a cute little helper!  He is such a sweet little nipper!

Remember we left off here…

I started off by taking all my drawer slides and mounting them to scrap pieces of wood.  Just collecting the scrap wood and then cutting to size took a while.  Then I had to mount all the slides on them.  Sorry no picture of this process, too busy.

After I had all twenty done, (I have five drawers on each tower, so two for each drawer equals twenty…yikes) it was time to mount them in the towers.  You can see in the top right photo above, I started on the bottom.  I used a scrap piece of wood to get it to the right height and then clamped it to the tower.  After checking for level I pre drilled holes and then screwed it into the tower using 1 1/4 inch screws.  I did the same on the opposite side, but before I screwed it on I used a board across on the drawer slides themselves (not the wood scraps, see bottom right photo above) and checked for level, then adjusted if necessary, and screwed it on.  Repeat 18 more times.  To make it easier I drew lines where the bottom of each drawer slide would need to go, I did make sure these lines were level as well, see left photo above.

See the arrow?  It is pointing to the line I drew, these were helpful so I knew were to clamp the drawer slide, then I could adjust as necessary to make it level.  Also, you get an idea of how I mounted the drawer slides on the scrap wood.  I made sure to do each one at the very bottom of the wood and flush with the front.  On the right, the two towers are with all drawer slides installed!  At the bottom you can see twenty more pieces ready for installation on the bottom of the drawers.  I guess I should build the drawers…

I measured the towers with the drawer slides installed to make sure to cut the right sizes.  From the plywood I bought for the two towers I could only get about eight boards for drawers out of what was left.  With 5 drawers, each needing 4 walls, that equals 40 boards.  So I had to get creative, and when you have to get creative it takes more time.  The above photo is me cutting some scrap plywood I got for free last year.  I couldn’t have done it without my new circular saw, and my hoard of free wood!

In the top left photo above you can see my stack of wood for 8 of my drawers (I will get to the hamper drawers in a bit).  I love it when the wood is all stacked and sanded!  I drilled pocket holes and used my new right angle clamps to help me hold the pieces together while I screwed in the screws.

As I finished each drawer I started stacking them.  Until I had a really cool chimney! Ha ha!  This was a very satisfying moment for me, after all the hours of work to measure, cut, and sand, I was very pleased with my little “chimney”.  I couldn’t resist a picture inside.

For my hamper drawers, I am doing something a little different, and you will see in the end what that is, but for now the above photo shows my process of building those.  Basically I just used two 1×2’s instead of a whole piece of plywood on the front.

To make life easier I cut all four of my scrap 1×2’s for the hamper drawers at once buy taping them together with painters tape.  Perfect!

And this brings us to the bottom of the drawers…I still had to cut those.  I ended up finding some 1/4 plywood in my stash (are you beginning to realize how big my stash is?) and I got all 10 measured and cut.  I was so excited to finish my drawers I brought them in: glued and nailed the bottoms onto each drawer, and installed all twenty drawers slides….and I didn’t take one single picture.  I think I remember thinking I should stop and take a photo…but really it is not rocket science, and you can still see Ana’s drawer post, it has pictures, yea!!

When I went to install the drawers they weren’t all perfect, but little imperfections can be hidden behind the drawer fronts, and I am OKAY with that!  Some shims were needed behind some of the towers drawer slides in a couple of places because my cuts were a little short, but in the end it all worked out, and I feel like having to use a circular saw for my very first time and cutting odd and random pieces of plywood gives me a good reason to be imperfect!

They slide great and I am very excited to have them in!

Here is one of the hampers sliding out, I can’t wait to show you what I am doing for the front!  And you can also see the bottom of the drawer thickness in the drawer above it, and a random shim on the floor.

Here are the two towers without the drawers in.  I wanted to point out that I added another support board in the middle.  It was really helpful to sturdy things up.

Tower two with drawers, and that cute little helper…

And again tower one with drawers!  My next post will not contain the drawer fronts but some great progress on that back wall!  Eeek this is so exciting!!

Hugs,
Mindi

I will be linking to these parties.