4 drawer stack, right?

No, 3 drawer stack.

If you have full overlay cabinets with side mount glides, you could saw the intermediary rails between the drawers out. But, you'd have to finish the raw wood, and it would never match, nor would it be durable enough compared to the rest of the factory finish. And it wouldn't get you any real additional drawer space, just additional clearance for taller items.

Bottom line is that if this issue is really important to you, you need to stop things right now and order different cabinets. If you were wanting to put pots and pans in them, the narrowest drawers that I'd recommend is 24" wide. Does the space support changing the cabinet sizes around? Whatever you add to one cabinet has to be subtracted from another.

I have 1/2" overlay between drawer doors and the railings are on the bottom of the drawers. I was thinking to remove the drawers and create a one big door with stacking drawers. I attached a photo to show what I am proposing. Would this be durable enough?

IsilB22:

I'd start thinking of a nice pot rack and pots hanging from the ceiling or something. Either that or just slide out the middle drawer and store it in the attic until you sell your home. I don't like the cabinet alteration alternatives.

It is more for the small kitchen appliances such as ninja blender, kitchenaid mixer, can opener, stockpot etc. Those are taller items that I cannot find spot right now.

How frustrating! I had a similar problem, but my cabinets were built by a local cabinet shop, and they were able to fix it for me. In my case, I specified that the bottom drawer be deeper than the middle one, to fit several things that I had measured. Th cabinets came with the bottom two drawers the same height - and neither was tall enough for what I wanted to put there.

I'm afraid I don't have any helpful suggestions, except to hold off on your countertops until you get this resolved. You may be able to figure out how to store things in different places to make good use of the drawers, but at this point that might be a miracle. I do know that if you are stuck stashing pots and pans elsewhere, when you planned for them in a certain place (for a good reason), you will be forever disappointed. That's NOT how you should feel about a new kitchen!

When I measured my appliances, cookie sheets, and casseroles I found that I needed drawers with useful interior heights of nearly 10" for most pots, 11.5" for casseroles and baking pans on their sides, and 15.5" for cookie sheets, cutting boards, pizza pans, and most appliances (kitchenaid mixer and vitamix blender need more like 18", so they live on the counter). How tall are your things? Could you lay them on their sides if you had drawer dividers like these (I got them at Bed Bath and Beyond but have linked amazon).

Here is a link that might be useful: tension based drawer dividers

@annkh: I feel like the remodel is not giving me the pleasure I should be getting. The cabinet guy will be back next week and I will have to talk to him about how to fix it without ordering new cabinets.

@kksmama: The ninja blender base is 8 1/2" tall, Ikea storage bind 8 1/4", crockpot 8". I was able to place some of the items on their sides but then left not enough space to add more items. Even if I have a pot rack above the peninsula, that will not solve my problem with the drawers :( My husband thinks that we should avoid drawers for the 36" base cabinet and order a new one with a shelf and have doors on each side for easy access. I really don't want to do unless it is not fixable.

You may get better suggestions if you posted pictures of what you have. You mention a 36" base cabinet, why can't you have wonderful large drawers made for that? Who designed the cabinet layout, and can replacements be made quickly?

Actually, there are 2 20" cabinets side by side making inside area 36". I do not have 36" one unit. We worked with a general contractor and this was the company he worked with. The cabinet layout designed by the cabinet maker's dealer. He told us that they had deep drawers for pot and pans and we didn't see the drawing with measurements on it and I assumed they were deep enough. So the whole process was a little bit interesting. I hope he will be able to fix this problem or we will have to order another cabinet which takes about 4 - 5 weeks from order to finish :(.I attached a link to the photos.

Here is a link that might be useful: Kitchen Cabinet Photos

This post was edited by IsilB22 on Fri, Dec 27, 13 at 22:35

Why on earth would anybody make 40" into 2-20's? That doesn't even make sense. I'd rather have a 36 and a 4" fill. Whoa. Did you sign off on this configuration?

As far as your idea for the interior roll-out tray, I think that's a clever idea and enough so that I'm going to do just that in one of my pot and pan drawers.

I have two 36" drawer stacks, and I couldn't imagine not having them now. You are fortunate to have the space available for this.

This is an issue of function, not just looks, so I would change the cabinet to a 36" drawer stack and wait the extra 4-5 weeks to get a better functioning kitchen; I don't think you'd ever regret doing so.

I just printed this post as I need to make sure my drawers I am getting will fit my pots! I had not thought about this. This forum is wonderful!

I have 2 36" wide, 3-drawer bases. The two lower drawers are fine for pots & pans. If anything, the top drawer at 3.5" is too shallow.

In my MBR, I had 2, 18" 4-drawer cabinet. Talk about useless, shallow drawers. They are full overlay. I took out the center stile on two of them and ordered 2 deep drawers from Barker. When I put the drawer IN, I took the two drawer fronts and attached them to the drawer so it looks like I still have 2 drawers there. Handles and all.

Now I have a place for towels, PJs, and can put lotions and things in the drawer standing up. LOVE them.

I don't get the 2, 20" bases, either. That's not even standard. It seems kinda stupid -- no reflection on anything but the cabinets!