Undermount drawer slides are the way to go! This post will show you the simple method to mount your drawer slide hardware, get it into position perfectly level, and move on to building your drawer to fit it properly.
Before you begin, make sure that you check out How to calculate the size of under-mount drawer slides that you need.
Step 01: Cut Rear Bracket Mounting Pieces
Rather than doing some fancy complicated yoga moves while you try to measure and mark your mounting locations, do this instead – cut two pieces of wood that are about 3 to 4 inches wide and are the same height as the inside of your carcass for each column of drawers. These pieces will eventually be nailed to the upper and lower cabinet brace pieces (if you’re following our cabinet carcass build). Mark them so you know what is Left and Right, this will be important. Our cabinet project had two columns of drawers so we cut four pieces.
Step 02: Mark Locations on Mounting Pieces
On the left side of your cabinet carcass, bring the support piece all the way to the front inside part of your cabinet. It should be pressed against the inside wall of the cabinet. Use a pencil to trace where the piece shows through the face frame.
For the right side of the drawer, measure a set distance and place your support piece. You want at least 0.5 inch of this to be hidden by the middle support bar.
Step 03: Measure Offsets
Remove the pieces you just transferred your marks to and place them on a flat working surface. For the Left side, which was against the inner wall of the cabinet, place a mark 3/8-inch to the left of where you marked the cabinet edge (my photo is wonky because the line where my bracket will go is the larger of the two).
For the right side, place a mark that is 3/8-inch to the right of the cabinet opening.
Step 04. Mount Rear L-Brackets and Attach
The Blum undermount rear L-brackets get attached so that the bottom aligns with the horizontal line that was transfered from the face frame and the side is aligned with the 3/8-inch offset that were marked.
Now, simply attach the Left and Right pieces to the back of the cabinet support pieces on the inside. The Left piece is pushed against the inside of the cabinet and the Right piece is offset the distance that you measured from the front. Screw into place with 1-inch screws.
It’s that easy. No fancy jigs, no clamps, no contortionist moves … simple.
No Build Some Drawer Boxes For those Beautiful Drawer Slides!
We built our drawers from 1/2-inch baltic birch plywood using box joints at the front and nailing the back. We trimmed the tops with real wood veneer.
Building drawer boxes can be challenging and rewarding – see how we did it!
