Need ideas for a very deep sliding shelf.

[Dustin Bartlett]

I like the drawbridge idea too. The only issue I can see with it though, is the chains would get in the way of things going on and off the shelf.

The drawbridge might happen, but I think your first idea is going to be the winner. Although after drawing it in sketchup, I don't think an auto deploy mechanism for the legs will be worth the trouble. And done right it should be really quick to manually extend or fold the legs up and rarely needed, as the first three feet will be accessable without deploying them.

[Paul Simmel]

Dustin,

Based on the OP and your sketch, so it's a closet now? It has a door, or is it just a big hole in the wall? What's below it, dishwasher or some such?

[Jamie Buxton]

.... The only issue I can see with it though, is the chains would get in the way of things going on and off the shelf.
....

The chains don't have to go all the way out to the tip of the drawbridge. With sturdy chains (or arms or whatever), and a sturdy door, they could anchor on the drawbridge only a foot or so away from the wall.

There's another variation on this. Leave the door as a drawbridge, but without chains. Mount legs on the outside of the door, hinged at the top. As you open the door, the legs stay vertical. They come down to land on the floor when the door is horizontal. Sketch attached, with the door partly opened.

I think you could disguise the legs as the frame in what looks like a frame-and-panel door.

[Jamie Buxton]

One more thought..

To best utilize the whole volume of the cavity, the pull-out probably isn't a simple tray. Instead, it is probably built like a double-decker bus. There are two levels to it.

[Dustin Bartlett]

Jamie, I could see your new drawbridge idea working. But I think I'm going stick with the mid mounted legs. I had always intended to put some shelving on top of this shelf. The thing I like about the mid mounted legs with shelving on top is I can configure it in three sections for frequency of needed access. Shelf in the same orientation as the door for the most frequently used stuff (about a foot deep, just open the door and use like a regular cupboard). Then you can pull the shelf out to the 3' point without needing the legs, exposing a 2' wide shelving area you access from the side. Then another 3 foot wide shelving area behind that you access from the side, that you need to deploy the legs to get to.

Paul, as the first post stated. I'm in a raised bungaloo. The main floor is 4' off the ground. The wall on the left is the back wall of my house. On the other side of the wall on the right are stairs down to my back entry way. The bottom of the closet is the ceiling of the back entry way. The closet is as deep as my back entry way is wide. The floor in my diagram is my dining room floor with a table smack dab in the middle of it (well offset towards the back wall of my house a little bit). What wasn't stated is it currently has a door on it, but it's much smaller than will be needed for this. I'll be enlarging the opening and adding a new door as part of this project.

[Paul Simmel]

Ok, my bad. I was just thinking that if it already was a closet of sorts, that if you just did a large built-in cabinet it might be easier for you to just open the doors and reach in. In practical terms, anyway. You could have shelves on 30" slides that at least pulled out from the back to the front of your cabinet.

Edit: Meant to say you could also have a swinging cupboard on one (or both sides) for the things mostly used, pull/swing that out of the way if you needed to pull the less used stuff on the sliding shelves behind them, out to you.