# New kitchen almost done and oops -



## Bullet (Apr 14, 2009)

Hey LJ's,

I ran into a problem while installing appliances in my new kitchen. When I designed it I didn't take into account that the dishwasher would have a handle (my old one didn't). So now the top drawer will hit it. The other two will be fine. What do you guys suggest?










And while I'm here - a few before and afters.

Before (actually, right after I put a fresh coat of nice orange peely white on the cabinets about ten years ago)










About half way through demolition (Thanksgiving evening). The kitchen holds the washer and dryer - that was difficult to design around. I pulled out a couple walls that held the W/D and refrigerator - and frankly just took up space. It's a fairly small kitchen and we wanted as much room as we could get.










Fresh sheetrock and paint and the start of 850 sqft of red oak flooring to go through the entire first floor. Notice later how I boxed out the drain pipes that were hidden in the original soffit.










First cabinets set. I built simple frameless cabs with shaker style doors.










All cabinets set. Still need to build cab for stacked W/D.










W/D cab, countertop, crown moulding and appliances in (except for dishwasher!) There's a 6" deep broom closet on the facing-you side of the W/D cabinet. And flooring completed! Ouch my hands hurt.




























Now it's on to adding cabinet inserts and doors. Touch-up painting and we're pretty close to home. Goal is to be finished by Christmas.

If I can just figure out how to fit that drawer in…

Oh - and in case anyone is wondering, that is a real cat.


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## RockyTopScott (Nov 16, 2008)

Make a pull-out cutting board that rest above the DW handle and make a small drawer that clears below the DW handle.


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## distrbd (Sep 14, 2011)

Unfortunately that seems to be a common mistake,I know ,I made the same mistake when I installed our cabinets.

The only difference was ,I noticed the problem before the counter was put on.All I needed to to was to move the cabinets over by two inches and add a strip of wood as a filler ,but you can't do that since your counter is already installed.

I hope some one will chime in and give you an acceptable solution,my only suggestion is to remove the drawer and add a fake drawer front (non functional)to cover the hole and make it look good like a real drawer with a handle and all. ,use the extra space you gain for not having a drawer, to store taller items in the bottom cabinet.


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## MrTweedle (Dec 7, 2013)

Make a low profile wood handle to replace the existing metal one if there is any amount of clearance?


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## BentheViking (May 19, 2011)

I had a similar experience to Ken once when installing a kitchen (it hit another drawer pull rather than the dishwasher.

I think if I were you I wouldn't rush into anything. Assuming you can still access the drawer if the dishwasher was open then I'd just run with that solution and see how bothersome it is and then think of a solution. Call it "charm"


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## DS (Oct 10, 2011)

The drawer really needs to be spaced over to clear the handle.
If you are able to modify the drawers your could insert a filler on the left side and reduce the drawer width to clear.

Unfortunately there is no easy fix at the stage you are at. Your door and drawer front would also need to be smaller.

Even without a handle on the dishwasher, I would want the clearance to the adjacent cabinets. Most of the time, it is a situation of two adjacent cabinets having pulls or knobs that would interfere with each other. Same solution-space the corners with fillers.

Best of luck to you.


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## david_larch (Feb 5, 2012)

I would remake the drawer narrower and under mount slides. With a drawer face and matching filler it would look pretty normal. In a corner like that it will be harder to notice.


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## waho6o9 (May 6, 2011)

There's some door hardware that can open and miss the handle and then

make pull outs that miss said obstacles.


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## Bullet (Apr 14, 2009)

Waho - I was thinking that too. Put the drawers behind a door.

I was also thinking to just eliminate the top drawer and make an open shelf there. Maybe with a pull out basket or something for a junk drawer.


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## waho6o9 (May 6, 2011)

Bingo


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## oldnovice (Mar 7, 2009)

Don't feel too bad I have seen the DW/drawer issue a number of times even on old instalations, not remodels.

We bought a Bosch DW that does not have a handle to not have that issue!


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## copcarcollector (Aug 8, 2012)

No suggestions - but nice work! Like to see some finished shots when you are done.


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## renners (Apr 9, 2010)

Make the drawers narrower and put in a divider for a tray space. You could pocket screw the divider into that as the drawers will obscure the hole.
Alternatively, you could just open the dishwasher before opening the drawer.


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## Earlextech (Jan 13, 2011)

For those of you hoping to avoid this in the future there should always be a 3" filler in both directions out of a corner. Usually doing this happens only once. 
Otherwise it's a beautiful project!


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## wiwildcat (Jan 10, 2013)

1.Put in a filler in both the drawer opening and door opening. Make a new drawer and door that is not as wide. 
2.Another option would be not to use that drawer. 
3.Remove the drawer and make a taller door to fit the entire opening.
4.Remove drawer, turn the space into a wine rack for 3-4 bottles. 
5. Remove the cabinet, build another.

Thats all I got, hope these ideas help.


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## huff (May 28, 2009)

bullet,
Are you sure you're not going to run into the same problem with the range oven door hitting the knobs on the sink cabinet when those door are mounted?
Sam is correct when he mentioned having a 3" filler,each direction, in each corner. Beautiful work,hope all works out OK.


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## Bullet (Apr 14, 2009)

Thanks for the kind words and help guys!
I love the wine rack idea. 
Huff - I checked the oven door and it's no problem. The arc of the door misses the knobs by a few inches. That would've sucked too. It's already a tight timeline and that would have been tough to overcome.


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## JustplaneJeff (Mar 10, 2013)

You could shrink the size of the drawer{make a new one} that clears the handle, then make a drawer front that fits the cabinet opening. Cut saw kerf slots in the front of the drawer box, and mount the drawer front with truss headed screws that allow the drawer front to slide to the right to pass the DW handle. Did this one time to bypass some large drawer pulls in a Kitchen , good luck


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## JohnnyStrawberry (Jan 20, 2012)

You could also replace that handle with a shallower one. Or put one smaller on the left side of the DW.
Nice work!


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## Knothead62 (Apr 17, 2010)

Make a small blank drawer front on the left and a smaller drawer on the right.


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## Bogeyguy (Sep 26, 2012)

I would install a filler in the drawer cab. on the left side at the face, with a side panel to build out the interior side and ( to mount the glides)then simply narrow the drawers.


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## BinghamtonEd (Nov 30, 2011)

I believe the American way would be to file a lawsuit against the manufacturer of the dishwasher.


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## craftsman on the lake (Dec 27, 2008)

Lots of possible answers above. The filler is probably the most 'correct' and the hinged door/drawer is cool. I'll put forth a radical one. Not the easiest and kinda weird actually.

Looks like you have room on the left side inside the cabinet as it's a corner. Remake the drawer like a parallelogram with the back end of it tilting to the left in the corner. Put in drawer slides that are at the same angle as the drawer. When you pull the drawer out it would come out at an angle to the right. Of course it would mean adding/modifying the inside of the cabinet to accept the angled drawer slides.


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## Bullet (Apr 14, 2009)

After a talk with SWMBO, it looks like I will be doing a shelf to store - nicely and neatly folded - hand towels on. The top drawer will be eliminated and will end up in a closet somewhere im sure.


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## blackcherry (Dec 7, 2007)

Oh these are the mistake that make us all better woodworker, the solution is there, just sit and ponder it like solving a puzzle. By the way great work on all your remodeling, nice taste. I'm sure as the sun rises you figure out this easy fix….BC


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## Bullet (Apr 14, 2009)

OK, finally finished! Here's what I did with the drawer problem:










Added a trash pull out




























A lot of doors to align!


















Spice pull out


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## BG43017 (Jan 15, 2011)

I like the wine rack and the tray rack ideas suggested. If you go the tray rack route, considered dividing the space with a shelf to allow twice the tray storage. One other idea that comes to mind, is the cabinet wide and deep enough to fit one or two waste baskets? Good luck!


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## dhazelton (Feb 11, 2012)

Me, I would make the drawer boxes smaller and try to put a filler strip on the left side of the carcass. If that's already been said I apologize.


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## JohnnyStrawberry (Jan 20, 2012)

Great job - awesome kitchen! I won't let my wife see this…
I'm also about to finish ours. Less fancy though… 
Thanks for sharing.


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## russi666 (Jan 2, 2014)

The fake drawer suggestion is all I could think of. Issue aside, what a cracking looking kitchen. Excellent job!


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## reedwood (Jan 27, 2011)

edited: now I see what you did. good idea.

I had an idea:

reverse the drawer so it opens on the same side as the other one on the pennensula. Buy a drawer front and install it permanently, like a sink drawer front, by the DW. add 2 fake doors and another drawer front and get rid of that flat space.

That way you have a full size drawer that's a little less convenient but useable. No one will know.

cool cat.


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## Bullet (Apr 14, 2009)

Reedwood - I had though of that idea, a good one, but it wouldn't be a really useable drawer on the other side. The open space was more valuable to the flow of the kitchen.

A couple more pictures of the W/D cab. I will add a fold out ironing board into the broom closet - if you look closely you can see an outlet I added for the irion side - next to the dryer intake vent / access. The stacked W/D tends to wander a bit and I probably should have allowed for a little more room inside the cab. I have to get on the pair when it's in a spin so I can use it's motion to assist with me movng it back into the correct position once every couple days. A pain!


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