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Sawdust Girl®

Sawdust Girl®

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Installing Adjustable Drawer Fronts

All Posts, Cabinet Making 101, Drawers

Today I’m going to show you the easy method for installing adjustable drawer fronts that I used on my Studio map drawers.

Map Drawers - Installing Adjustable Drawer Fronts

Before Installing Adjustable Drawer Fronts, the holes for the knobs or pulls need to be drilled into the drawer fronts.  Personally, I paint my drawer fronts before installation as well.drawer fronts for map drawers

Installing Adjustable Drawer Fronts

I taped a spacer (paint stick) to one side of my cabinet to ensure a uniform gap between the cabinet and all the drawer fronts while Installing Adjustable Drawer Fronts.

drawers with wooden glides

Starting with the top drawer, set a spacer on the top of the drawer front to maintain a gap between it and the cabinet.  Then drive screws into the drawer through the holes in the drawer front that you already drilled for the knobs.  how to install adjustable drawer fronts

Next, remove the screws and set the drawer front aside.  The screws will have made small holes in the drawer and this will show you where your going to drill.  Use a larger drill bit here than what you used to drill the holes in the drawer fronts for the pulls.  The hole for cabinet pulls is generally 5mm.  A 6mm hole in the drawer should create some wiggle room for your bolt without needing a washer to hold the bolt from pulling through the hole.
Installing Adjustable Drawer Fronts

Now put the drawer front back in place and install the knob through both the drawer and the drawer front.Installing Adjustable Drawer Fronts

Drawer Front Adjustments

Put the drawer back in place and check your spacing.  If it needs to be adjusted, loosen the knob and adjust the drawer front up or down.  This is the same concept as using drawer front adjustment screws in additional holes.  (Check out this drawer front installation tutorial for more on that.)  Only with this method, we are using the knob holes for adjustment.

The larger hole in the drawer is what gives the bolt room to wiggle around until you tighten it.  The larger the hole, the larger adjustments you can make.  If you make your hole too big, you just may have to add a washer to your bolt to keep it from pulling through the hole.Map Drawers - Installing Adjustable Drawer Fronts

Because you have some adjustability after the knobs are in place, you don’t have to be TOO particular about making sure the drawer fronts are spaced perfectly while you drive the initial screw.  If you don’t feel comfortable eyeballing the initial placement, you can to use your spacer.Map Drawers - Installing Adjustable Drawer Fronts

Continue down the row of drawers using your spacer.  You can always go back and adjust any drawer front by simply loosening the knob.  Once you have perfectly spaced all your drawer fronts, you may want to go back and tighten all the knobs with a screw driver.  Just hand tightening the knobs doesn’t always get them tight enough.  If they loosen, the drawer front may slip out of alignment.

Map Drawers - Installing Adjustable Drawer Fronts

You might even want to drive another set of screws to secure the final placement of each drawer.  These would be driven from the inside of the drawer and be just long enough to go through the drawer and into the drawer front but not poke all the way through.  The length will be different depending on your drawer and drawer front thickness.

Map Drawers - cabinet drawer installation

Map Drawers - cabinet drawer installation

August 17, 2016 · 6 Comments

« Map Drawers – Craft Room Storage
Fawn’s Library – Part 2 »

Comments

  1. Nancy Williams says

    August 17, 2016 at 2:47 pm

    Great set of instructions!

    Reply
    • Sandra says

      August 17, 2016 at 10:42 pm

      Thanks Nancy!

      Reply
  2. carol clark says

    August 17, 2016 at 5:49 pm

    wow i love it

    Reply
  3. Maren says

    August 25, 2016 at 5:28 pm

    Looking amazing! Such an inspiration, as always, Sandra.

    Reply
  4. Gwen says

    August 26, 2016 at 12:22 pm

    What an easy way to make the drawer fronts adjustable. Thanks for sharing!

    Reply
  5. Adrian says

    December 28, 2017 at 10:18 pm

    This is ingenious… Thanks for saving me some headaches this weekend!

    Reply

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