I'll be interested in the replies, as I'm having one made now for my bathroom. The cabinet maker advised against the kind of opener that you push against to pop it out, because if it fails it's impossible to get in for a repair. I, too, am wondering about a pull and think I may just look for a small wood knob or handle that will blend in as much as possible with the cabinet.

I am short, and use my stool a lot. It's tucked in my sink cabinet - convenient and out of the way.

I would definitely do it! I'd love to have toe-kick drawers for a step stool, large serving platters, owners manuals, and I can think of a bunch of other things that I need to store but not necessarily use frequently.

Anyway, below are some options.
1. From a GW kitchen; these are deeper than the toe kicks so the top part of the drawer is flush with the cabinet fronts, and the drawer itself is indented to form the toe kick. Clever!
2. Low profile pull in the same finish (but different style) than the other drawer pulls.
3. Same kind of pull as the other drawers. Not too visible unless you're looking for it.
4. Wood handle stained to match the cabinets so it blends in.

None of these, sadly, are mine...
HTH

I love my toe-kick drawers. They are kick to open instead of pulls and there's tons of room in them:

However, this is where I have my stepstool. I use it daily (I'm short) and wanted to access it more simply by just sliding it out from it's "cubby":

Olivertwist: great drawers, and I especially love your green backsplash! Great color!

I have toe-kick drawers with the same pulls as in chicagoan's second picture. My KD also cautioned against the "kick to open" but now I don't recall why.

They're great, but not super convenient. I have the step stool in the pantry.

IKWYM about the tall fridge, it's not about reaching stuff in the fridge it's about reaching the stuff over it!

I'm having several toe-kick drawers put in. I can't recall how we planned on opening them. I will ask my cabinet maker and will let you know.

Thank you!

As infrequently as you're going to be using a step stool, I don't think it's an issue of the catch breaking. Part of the attraction to me is that they're invisible, so a handle would kind of spoil that for me.

Another thing I REFUSE to do is crawl around on the ground getting things out of cabinets, so I'm not gonna bend down to find the handle, to pull out a drawer I could just push with my toe. You're not playing soccer, for God's sake!

Think about it. No one stores stuff they use on a daily basis on the cabinet shelves up near the ceiling. There's a good possibility you'll forget you have the drawer until you're looking for your step stool, at which point you can pat yourself on the back for your brilliance.

I'm making my own and getting my hardware from Lee Valley. I'm using Blum full extension, soft close glides I got at my reuse center. The wood? Glad you asked. $2.00 drawer from H4H.

Cabinet makers frown on beaded inset doors, too. I've made my own and do NOT understand all the fuss. 1/6" of a gap around them, too. Not 1/4".

Done preaching.

Yes,I did mean access to the pullouts above the fridge, not to the top fridge shelf, sorry if I wasn't clear. Usually end up storing booze and light bulbs up there!

I'm sure you're right that the top shelf won't be anything I need frequently. (My husband says it will hold the stuff that we shouldn't have moved with us anyway.)

I could have a one-stepper that would fit beneath the sink, I guess.

Thanks for the pix, this will help with the discussion.

Lori - our kitchen is in the process of being installed. We are having two toekick drawers - one for kitchen receipts, instruction manuals, and the like. The other for my cheapo step stool...I may at some point spring for the lovely WS thin one...but, for now, my $10 plastic fold-flat special will do just fine for now, particularly since it will reside in the drawer.

We debated over a push release for the drawers, but ultimately decided against since (in my experience) those tend to be a bit finicky. Also, we decided to go with side rails for them rather than under in case the drawer needed to be removed at some point, a side rail glide would be easier to do that with...I don't know how you would access the bottom mount ones once the cabinet is installed if you ever needed to since there's such miniscule area between where the drawer extends and the floor.

Lastly for now, we opted for over-extension glides so that it would come close to being a "full extension" in actual practice since part of the drawer will be naturally concealed due to it's nature of being set back under the regular drawers for the cabinet. A standard full-extension glide would keep the back of the drawer concealed by several inches.

I'm having a TK drawer for a step stool so I say Yes, do it! I found a side mount KV glide with integral push open, so we don't need any additional hardware for the opening mechanism.

(We chose Fulterer glides for the rest of our drawers as we needed side mount and these came highly recommended on some woodworking sites that I was reading. Price was good, too.)

Below is a link to the glides, if you are interested.

Here is a link that might be useful: push open glides