Shortening the Drawer Box - Pro Tip
Style Drawer Flush and USB Narrow outlets are ideal for narrow and shallow drawers but they do require at least 5" of space behind the drawer box, which may require a shortened drawer box to make space available for the in-drawer outlet to fit.
Two Methods to Shorten the Drawer Box
There are a couple of ways to shorten your drawer box – dropdown a drawer box size (works with both undermount and sidemount slides) or move up the back panel of the drawer box.
1. Drop down a drawer box size
For Undermount Soft Close Slides
Undermount Soft Close slides come in standard sizes in 3" increments. For example -
- A 24" base cabinet will use a 21" drawer box on 21" under-mount slides.
- A 21" base cabinet will use a 18" drawer box on 18" under-mount slides.
- A 18" base cabinet will use a 15" drawer box on 15" under-mount slides.
Recommendation - Drop down a standard drawer box size. So if your cabinet has a 21" deep drawer box, drop down to an 18" drawer box which creates 5" of space behind the drawer box.
For Sidemount Slides
Sidemount slides come in a variety of sizes typically in 1" increments.
Recommendation - Reduce the drawer box and slide size until it creates the space needed behind the drawer box.
2. Move the back panel of the drawer box (Cut the back out)
Using the drawers existing slides, it is possible to move the back panel of the drawer box forward to create the space needed behind the drawer box.
Use Filler Space Behind the Back Wall of the Cabinet
Instead of shortening the drawer box, another option is to go in the opposite direction and utilize potential extra space that may be behind your cabinets.
Blade and Blade Duo outlets only require 2" of space behind the drawer box. While this works for most standard drawer boxes, some types have even less space available. If there is a filler gap between the back wall of your cabinets and the drywall, you can add a cutout to utilize that space and mount the Docking Drawer bracket directly to the drywall.
Here is an example of the cutout size needed for the Style Drawer 24 Blade:
If installing a Docking Drawer outlet into a piece of furniture, you can gain more space behind the drawer box by cutting out the back wall and mounting the outlet to a metal brace attached to the back of the furniture piece, instead of mounting the outlet to the wall.
