How to Make DIY Pull out Shelves for Cabinets

Upgrade your kitchen storage with DIY pull-out shelves. Learn how to maximize space, improve accessibility, and make deep cabinets more functional with this easy step-by-step guide.

DIY pull-out shelves installed inside a deep green kitchen cabinet. The wooden sliding drawers are mounted on metal drawer slides, making storage more accessible and organized.

The thing about lower cabinets in the kitchen is that they get really hard to reach in, especially when they’re deep and narrow.

You know the kind I’m talking about — the ones that make you feel like you need a flashlight, a map, and maybe even a search-and-rescue team to find that one missing lid or jar.

Yup, I had that one cabinet in my kitchen.

Kitchen cabinet before with no shelf and unusable storage.

We were lucky enough to have inherited most of the old cabinets with retrofitted slide-out shelves. But there was that one cabinet that was narrow and missing its shelf. It was pretty much useless. I had a plastic bin with a few water bottles in there. Honestly, the cabinet was just wasted precious storage space.

It was time to finally do something about that!

Making and installing shelves in this cabinet was pretty challenging because of multiple reasons-

  • It was narrow – like 14″ wide.
  • The face frame was retrofitted around the original cabinet (before we bought the house). This made it have a large overlap on one side and a smaller overlap on the other.
  • The hinges were on the face frame and added to the overlap.

Given these constraints, if I could install two very functional pull-out shelves in the cabinet, you can install it in any cabinet.

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Material Needed

Tools Needed:

How to Build the Pull-Out Shelves

The pull-out shelves are essentially very shallow drawers. They are built and installed exactly like drawers.

Step 1: Evaluate the Layout

Every kitchen cabinet is different, and your cabinet may be built differently than mine. Take a look to see if you need any spacers to account for overlay.

In my case, the cabinets are old cabinets that had been refinished with a new face frame – which I then painted during the kitchen makeover.

One side had a larger overlay than the other. Plus, I had a hinge that needed to be taken into account as well. After a little bit of iteration, I figured out that I needed a total of 2″ offset from the cabinet walls – this meant a 2×4 board and a ½” board.

Showing that the 2x4 board and 1/2

On the other side of the cabinet, the overlay was very small, and ½” board was enough.

Showing that the  1/2

Step 2: Calculate the Size of the Drawer.

  • Once you have the offset figured out, measure the exact space you have to add the pull-out shelf or drawer. This will help you calculate the exact width of the shelf/drawer.
  • Subtract 1″ from the measurement (to account for the drawer slides), which is the total width of the drawer. Then, you subtract twice the thickness of the boards you are using to get the width of the board in the front.

The long sides of the drawer will depend on the depth of the cabinet. I built mine at 18″.

See how to build a drawer for beginners for more details.

Step 3: Build the Drawer

This is straightforward. These shelves are pretty small, and I don’t expect them to hold very heavy weights. I used the simplest method to build these shelves or drawers – wood glue and finish nails.

Attaching boards to build a box using a brad nailer

Since I am using prefinished plywood, wood glue cannot penetrate the wood fibers to make a strong joint. Instead, I used this glue.

  • Attach the bottom using wood glue and finish nails. I used ¼” plywood for this.
Attaching the bottom of the pull out shelf using a brad nailer

Step 4: Install the Shelves

This is probably the most tricky part of the project.

  • Install any boards you need to install for the offset. In my case, it was 2×4 boards on one side that I attached using 2″ wood screws.
Attaching the 2x4 to the side using 2
  • For the second level, if you have a situation like mine, you can use two pieces of the board as a spacer to support the boards and attach them. Make sure it is level.

To install the drawer slides, I knew it was going to be a challenge to attach the slides inside that tiny cabinet. So, I attached them to the mounting board and the drawers outside.

  • Use two identical-sized mounting boards for each side of the drawer. In my case, I used 4″ wide and 20″ long pieces of ½” plywood.
  • Measure and mark where you want to attach the drawer slides on both mounting boards. I measured them to 1¼” from the bottom edge.
marking the location to attach the drawer slides
  • Align the drawer slide to the markings and attach.
Attaching drawer slides to the mounting boards
  • Repeat the step for the other part of the drawer slide on the drawer. I measured ¾” from the bottom of the drawer.
Attaching the slide to the side of the drawer
  • Attach the mounting boards inside the cabinet. Be sure to start the screws outside so it is easy to attach in the tight space. It is very important to make sure they are attached level. User spacer blocks for the top set of boards.
Attaching the mounting boards to the cabinet using a spacer and a level

The drawers should now slide into place easily. If they don’t, double check if all the mounting boards and slides are attached level and aligned and make any adjustments as needed.

Adding the drawer into the drawer slids attached in the cabinet

Step 5: Finish

I used prefinished plywood (which I highly recommend using), so I didn’t have to worry about adding a top coat. However, if you are using regular plywood, you can seal it with a top coat.

The ¼” plywood was not prefinished, so I added liners inside to make it not only easy to keep clean but also make sure things don’t slide around and clatter as the shelves are pulled out.

DIY Pull out shelves inside a green cabinet in the kitchen.

You can even build and add dividers and organizers like the simple DIY drawer organizers.

Woman pushing the DIY pull-out shelves installed inside a deep green kitchen cabinet.

No more stretching, squatting, or blindly fishing around in the depths of your lower cabinets. These pull-out shelves make every inch of storage actually usable!

DIY pull-out shelves installed in a deep green kitchen cabinet, organizing blender jars and accessories. The sliding wooden drawers with metal slides make storage more accessible and efficient

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Anika's goal is to inspire and empower beginners with woodworking, DIY, home improvement, and home decor ideas.
She wants everyone to unlock their creative potential and experience the feeling that comes with making something. Nothing feels better better than seeing something and saying "I can make that!"

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