| Although Ron had
done a lot of work to make his kitchen more convenient, when
it came to the things stored in the base cabinets, he and his
wife had to practically get down on their knees to see what
was inside. And if they saw something they wanted in the back
of the cabinet, they would have to first unload the items in
the front. Ron knew there had to be a better way, so he went
online and found a product called Quik Tray. The manufacturer
claimed the product was easy to install, and could be custom
fit into just about any opening and offered adjustable shelf
spacing. |
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| The QuikTray
system is available from Rockler.com
and the pull-out shelf kit is also available |
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Ron's first step was to remove the doors
and the narrow half-shelf that was nailed into the cabinet.
He then took out the drawers so he would have better lighting
visibility while he worked. |
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| The base cabinet had previously been
set up with five rather narrow individual doors and at first
he was going to put in five sets of pull out shelves. But then
he realized that each one of those shelves would be so narrow
that they would not be able to put larger objects on it. So
he decided to remove two of the vertical space frames, which
would leave him with two wider pull-out shelves and just one
set of narrow shelves in the center. |
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| Due to the weight of Ron's granite countertop,
he decided to add a reinforcement strip, before removing the
vertical supports. Ron applied glue to a strip of oak, and then
slipped the piece of wood up behind the rail that formed the
top of the cabinet opening. |
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With the reinforcing strip in place, he used
a Japanese handsaw to cut away the vertical face frame section.
Ron was careful not to damage the vertical face frames so he
could reuse them.
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| The shelving system required four support
posts or pilasters for each pair of sliding shelves. Ron attached
the first one to the side of the cabinet in the front. |
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| On the left side there was no cabinet wall,
so Ron installed a partition and then attached the left front
support post to it. He also created a partition in the rear
of the cabinet to make up for the non-existent wall. |
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| Next, Ron snapped two drawer glides into the
slots on the rear support post, set the whole assembly in place,
and then snapped the opposite ends of the glides into the corresponding
slots on the front support post. This would ensure that everything
was in alignment so he could screw in the rear supports. |
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| Ron repeated the process with the
left side of the cabinet, completing the base cabinet preparation. |
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| The shelf kit consisted of a front, a back,
two sides, a bottom and some glides. The interesting thing about
this kit is that it can be sized to fit just about any opening.
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| The first step was to cut the front and back
of the shelf to length, based on the size of cabinet opening.
Ron trimmed the bottom shelf to the same dimension. |
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| The front and back came with dovetailed slots
cut along their entire length. The sides had matching dovetails
cut into the ends. Once the front and back had been cut to the
desired length, the sides simply slipped into the grooves. |
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| To assemble the sliding shelf, Ron brushed
glue on the dovetails, pushed the parts together, and then tapped
them into position. With the frame complete, Ron applied glue
to the edges and set the bottom in place. He then secured the
bottom to the frame with screws. |
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| The final step was to attach the metal glides. |
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| The rolling shelves installed in seconds and
could be easily repositioned to accommodate whatever he wished
to store on them. |
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| Ron added a slip resistant shelf liner on
each shelf to prevent any contents from sliding around when
the shelves were opened and closed. |
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| All that was left was to remount the cabinet
doors. Ron attached the frame section he removed earlier to
the backside of the left door. When closed, the cabinet doors
looked exactly the same as before. |
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| Not only did Ron improve his storage with
the pull-out shelves, but he also doubled the size (and capacity)
of the upper base cabinet shelves! |
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| And, if Ron ever wants to change the shelf
position, all he has to do is unhook the door glide, reposition
it, and then snap it back in place. |
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| Sometimes getting more storage space in your
kitchen is not a matter of adding more cabinets, but getting
better use out of the ones you already have. |
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