Beds with Storage: Drawer Guides

While designing the platform bed with the storage drawers, I wanted full extension drawer guides. The three quarter drawer guides are ok, but not for this project. The drawers are to be used as a dresser. It frustrates me when I have to try to get to the last garment at the back of the drawer that is still inside of the bed frame.

I settled on a pair of 100 pound full extension drawer guides are more than strong enough to hold the weight of the cloths and just about anything else a person would put into the drawer.

Now, if one of my kids decides to store their life’s collection of rocks in the drawer… well that is going to be a problem. I will cross that bridge when I get to it, hopefully never.

I started my search for the full extension drawer guides at the local major chain home improvement stores… you know the blue guys and the orange guys. I ran into two problems 1) limited selection, 2) way to expensive. At the time they were asking more than $15 for one pair of 24 inch full extension drawer guides. They didn’t have a 14 inch but they did have a 16 inch for around $12 a pair.

Some quick math later I was looking at spending over $160 plus tax for the all of the drawer guides. That was too much for me. I was sure I could find quality drawer guides at the lengths my projected required for a more reasonable price.

I finally found a more reasonably priced full extension drawer guides at Amazon.

The guides are of good quality and a good fit and finish to them.

I built a couple of jigs one for lining up the drawer side of the guide on the drawer body. The other jig was to set the offset of the frame side of the drawer guide when mounting it on the body.

A year later these drawer guides have held up beautifully. Even when my two year old son decided to climb into the top drawer that was fully extended, he only weighs 30 pounds. Fortunately the 1/4 inch plywood drawer bottom was able to support his weight without cracking.