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Thread: Recommendations for drawer sizes

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jun 2009
    Location
    Madison, WI
    Posts
    345

    Recommendations for drawer sizes

    I'm working on a lowboy/commodé looking chest. Roughly Queen Anne, with cabriole legs. The drawer space I have to work with, between the top of the bottom rail and the top of the legs, is roughly 14 3/4". Width between the legs of the drawer space measures roughly 33"

    The plan I currently have is for three drawer spots. From bottom to top, I have: Bottom rail. 5" drawer opening. 7/8" web. 4" drawer opening. 7/8" web. 3" drawer opening. 7/8" top rail to help support the top.

    Is 5-4-3 an optimal ratio? It didn't look wrong to my eye laying it out, but not necessarily right either. Two opening might look nicer, but I worry about the drawers getting heavy.

    And finally, how should I subdivide any of the drawers? With my three opening plan, I was planning on splitting the top row into 2 or 3 drawers. Which would be better? If I go to 2 openings, which would you recommend splitting. How?

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Oct 2006
    Location
    Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada
    Posts
    391
    Unless you feel the front of the dust panels are needed as a design element I would eliminate them and go with just the three drawer fronts (grain matched) inside the carcass frame.

    For drawer heights check this out > http://www.woodbin.com/calcs/drawsizer_hambridge.htm

    Cheers, Don
    Don Kondra – Furniture Designer/Maker
    Product Photographer

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jun 2009
    Location
    Madison, WI
    Posts
    345
    Is that "period correct?" This is going to be a surprise gift my mother and will be next to some actual antiques. It doesn't need to reproduction correct, but needs to fit in the room, if that makes sense.

    Regarding the drawer sizer, I've struggled to get it working correctly. The height and width measurements seem swapped half the time. I can work around that, but if I put a height of 14 3/4 with 7/8" dividers, it adds them? Rather annoyed with it. Can't figure any other way it would suggest a total drawer space of over 16".

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Oct 2006
    Location
    Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada
    Posts
    391
    When all else fails, resort to the tried and true method.

    Pencil and paper

    Make a full scale drawing of the carcass. Cut cardboard, etc. to represent the dividers and simply place them on the drawing.

    Cheers, Don
    Don Kondra – Furniture Designer/Maker
    Product Photographer

  5. #5
    Speaking to your comments of "lowboy, Queen Anne and fit in with other antiques," lowboys have 2 rows of drawers not 3, sometimes a single drawer row. Commonly a single top drawer with triple lower. Give that a try with reducing your height of 14 3/4 around 2 inches.
    Last edited by James Conrad; 01-10-2015 at 6:45 PM.
    "The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes." - Proust

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