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Home How To Measure For Pull Out Shelves

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How To Measure For Pull Out Kitchen and Pantry Shelves
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Measuring Guide and Mounting Style Guide

The two basic types of cabinets, Framed and Frameless

 

 

Framed Cabinets

Framed cabinets have a face frame usually made of a hardwood. When the doors of the cabinet are closed you can still see the cabinet face frames around the doors and drawer fronts and usually you can see the hinges. The interior of the cabinet is wider on both sides than the cabinet opening. The face frame usually extends into the opening about 3/4" or more. Framed cabinets are the traditional style of cabinets in the United States and they are found in more homes than the newer Euro style. Some newer  cabinets are hybrids, meaning they have a face frame but hidden hinges like the Euro style

 

"Euro" or frameless style"

Frameless cabinets do not have a face frame. The front edge of the cabinet sidewall is the front of the cabinet. When the doors and drawers are closed they cover almost the entire cabinet. The hinges are totally concealed when the doors are closed. Euro style hinges are larger than the traditional framed cabinet hinge and tend to interfere more with the cabinet opening. Frameless cabinets often use a 32mm hole system for the hinge mounting and shelf support. The interior width is the same as the opening minus the door and hinge interference. Many newer homes have frameless style cabinets.

 

 

Clear opening (the area required for the slide out shelf to slide through) is measured typically in three different ways, depending on your cabinet style and hinge placement.

Opening (a) is typical for a middle cabinet installation and will not have door hinge interference. Measure this distance from frame to frame on a face frame cabinet, and from inside wall to inside wall on frameless cabinets (open door and check if any part of the door edge protrudes into the opening, subtract this amount if it does)

Opening (b) is a base mount and because of the hinge protruding into the opening, the clear opening is measured from the edge of the hinge to the other side

Opening ( c ) is a base mount and has two hinges protruding into the opening, in this case the measurement is from hinge to opposite hinge.

Variance: if the hinges do not protrude more than 1/2” and are 2 3/4” or more above the cabinet floor, then they do not become a factor and the measurement would be clear opening (a)

All pull out shelves are custom made in 1/8” widths, if you are in doubt always round down

Our Shelves come with standard drawer slides which are 3/4 extension slides, there are several mounting methods and hardware that make installing easier that are optional and explained below

Measuring Depth: Measurement should be from cabinet back wall to cabinet front minus 1”, Typical base cabinets will be 23-23 1/2” deep, in this case, we recommend ordering a 22” deep shelf

Mounting Definitions

SIDE MOUNT: Drawer slides are mounted directly to the cabinet wall in frameless cabinets or to either spacers or built out walls to match the cabinet reveal on framed cabinets ( cabinet reveal is the distance from the inside cabinet wall to the edge of the clear opening. This is typically 3/4”-1”

Base Mount : Drawer slides are mounted directly to either the base of the cabinet or to a full depth shelf with the use of Zinc L brackets. When this option is chosen at time of ordering, we will attach the drawer slides to the L brackets and will arrive ready to install with screws provided

Half Shelf Mount : Drawer slides are mounted onto the cabinets half shelf and into the face frame in the front. When thisoption is chosen at time of ordering, we will attach the drawer slides to the L brackets in the rear of the slide and will arrive ready to install with screws provided

Rear Socket Mount: Drawer slides are mounted to the back of the cabinet and to the face frame in front. When thisoption is chosen at time of ordering, we will attach the drawer slides to the rear sockets and will arrive ready to install with screws provided. Rear socket have a 2” adjustment allowance, so a 22” deep shelf with rear sockets can be mounted inside of a cabinet up to 24” deep

Other

Drawer Slide Sizes: Drawer slides are in even increments so if a 19” deep shelf is ordered then it will come with a 18” drawer slide, 21 with a 20” slide etc.

3/4 Extension Slides that come standard with our birch pull out shelves extend the drawer 3/4 out ( a 22” slide will extend the drawer 16”) and are only available up to 22”, so if a 26” deep drawer is ordered with 3/4 extension slides, the slides will be 22” long maximum

Full Extension Slides extend the drawer fully out the length of the slide. Full extension slides are available up to 26” deep

Full Extension with Soft Close is a full extension slide with a gas cylinder that softly closes the drawer itself in the last 1” of inward travel. These slides have to be installed properly or will not work as intended. If the slide is too tight it will not retract properly. Nice slide, but for confident installers

Rear Sockets, 3/4 extension rear sockets are a plastic nylon and subject to stress fractures, Full extension rear sockets are a zinc alloy and not subject to stress fractures

 

Framed Cabinets

Traditional Face Frame Cabinet Hinges mounted on door and face frame Click on picture to enlarge

Hinges mounted on door and frame edge Click on picture to enlarge

"Euro" or frameless style"

← Typical Frameless Cabinet- Notice The Hinges Are Attached Directly To The Cabinet Inside Wall Click on picture to enlarge

 

 

 

Full Shelf

Installing pull out shelves using L brackets on full shelf or cabinet base

Full shelf or base mounting is the easiest method of installing slide out shelves. When you choose the this option the glide hardware will have four L brackets attached, two on each glide. These L brackets allow you to attach the slide out shelf hardware directly to the cabinet base for the bottom shelf or on to an existing full depth shelf. The full shelf installation is not only the easiest way to install pull out shelves, it is also one of the strongest installations.

Half shelf

Installing slide out shelfs with L brackets on a half shelf

Many base kitchen and bathroom cabinets have a short "half" shelf for the upper shelf. This shelf is usually about 10" to 12" deep. You can install a full depth slide out shelf where your half shelf is. If you choose the half shelf option we will send the drawer glides with an L bracket attached near the rear of each glide. This L bracket can be screwed to the existing half shelf. The front of the glides can be attached to the cabinet face frame.

Cabinet with both base mount and half shelf mount

Rear Sockets

Rear sockets are  nylon or (zinc on full extension brackets) which the drawer glide slips into for attaching the glide to the cabinet back .The front of the glides can be attached to the cabinet face frame, they can be side mounted or they can be mounted using eurospacers. Rear sockets will not work with shelves over 22" deep .

Side Mount

As the name implies side mounting uses your cabinet sidewalls to mount your slide out shelves. Side mounting usually requires more work than the full shelf installation but it is the most space efficient. If your cabinet has a large difference between the opening size and the inside dimension side mounting may not be the right choice. As the distance from the sidewall increases so does the leverage on the mounting screws. Make sure you check your sidewall thickness before placing any screws. Side mounting can be done with spacers or you can use wood strips to build up the space as needed. The standard spacers are available in 1/8", 3/8" and 1/2".

There are also Euro spacers that  can be used on framed or frameless cabinets.

 

 

 

 

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