DIY Pull-out Cabinet For Dog Food Storage

It’s week 3 of the One Room Challenge and my pantry renovation is right on track.  I’ll have a busy next week wrapping up this custom cabinetry build but I’m super happy to have this DIY pull-out cabinet for my dog’s food finished.  We like to keep her food in an airtight container to keep it fresh but I won’t have room on the pantry floor with my new layout so I wanted to build a pull out base cabinet to hide away her dog food container.  While I’m using this for a dog food container, it would be perfect as a pull-out trash cabinet or for a recycling bin.

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How to Build a Pull-out Cabinet for Dog Food Storage

Before you get started with the build, make sure that the container that you are using is going to fit within your space.  Since I’m incorporating this into my pantry, I don’t have a lot of room to work with and had to purchase a taller dog food storage container to fit within the depth of the cabinets that I am building.  I just don’t have enough space to build standard 24″ depth cabinets.

Here is what you’ll need for this project.

Tools

Miter Saw 

Table Saw 

Pocket hole jig 

Drill

Brad Nailer 

Drawer Slide Jig

Speed Square

Level

Face Clamps

Materials

pet food storage container

3/4″ hardwood plywood (48″x96″ sheet)

1×2 x 72″ board

Drawer Slides

Brad Nails

1-1/4″ Pocket screws

Wood glue

Step 1 – Build a base to support the container

I found the perfect pet food storage container on Amazon to fit my space.  I can store an entire 25lb bag of dog food in this airtight storage container.  It tapers a little bit from the top to bottom so the bottom is actually a little bit smaller than the top.  Since the cabinet is only 1″ wider than the pull out shelf it was important that the largest dimensions at the top of the container did not exceed the outside dimensions of the base support shelf.  If that happened, the top lid would be too wide to fit in the cabinet.

I used a scrap 1×10 for the bottom and some 1×2 for the sides as shown below.  You could also use some of the 3/4″ plywood sheet for the bottom if you don’t have a xxx on hand.

I attached the 1×2 with wood glue and brad nails.

Step 2 – Build the Side Supports and Front Face

Now that the base support is built, it’s time to mount it to a front face piece/cabinet door.  I’m not building inset doors so I will be attaching a separate cabinet door to the front of the pull-out shelf.

For the sides supports, I used some scrap 3/4″ plywood boards and cut a 45 degree angle off the corner that you could have possibly hit your knuckles on when you reach into the cabinet.  I used my Kreg Jig to drill pocket holes into the side supports so that they could attach the base support shelf to the front face.

The front face board is a scrap piece of 1×12 ripped to match the exact width of the base support shelf.  You could use 3/4″ plywood in place of the 1×12 if you don’t have one on hand.

Since the container is a little under 19″ tall but my cabinets are 34″ tall, I raised the base support shelf a bit so that I didn’t have to bend over as much when I’m getting dog food out.  Below is how I positioned all of the pieces prior to actually attaching them.

I ended up installing the side supports with the pocket holes facing the inside (as shown below).  This is opposite of how I had laid it out in the above picture.  I went with the pocket holes on the inside because the container would cover them this way.

Here it is with the two side supports attached and the front face attached.  As you can see, the container doesn’t extend past the top of the the front face board.

Step 3 – Build a Cabinet

For the drawer slides that I was using, the cabinet should be 1″ wider than the pull-out shelf.  I used 3/4″ plywood to construct the cabinet.  The overall height is 34″, and the depth is 18-3/4″.  The inside width is 11-3/4″ which is exactly 1″ larger than the pull out shelf that I built.  Working with drawer slides requires everything to be very square so be sure to use a speed square when building the cabinet.

Here is a view of the cabinet from the front.  As you can see, there is a 4″ tall x 2.5″ deep toe kick on the bottom.  I’ll be installing a 1×2 face frame on all of the cabinets so that will extend the toe kick out to the standard 3.5″ depth.

Below is a view from the right side.  I used scrap 3/4″ plywood pieces to create two top crossmembers.  These function to not only attach the two sides but will also support the countertops.

Lastly, here is a view from the back.  I also attached two crossmembers on the back.  These keep the cabinet square and will also allow me to secure the cabinets to the wall studs behind the cabinet.

Step 4 – Install Drawer Slides

I’ve only built one piece of furniture with drawers so I won’t lie, I was a bit intimidated by this step.  It actually ended up being super easy though!  My husband bought me a Kreg Drawer Slide Jig for my birthday last year and I used it for the first time on this project.  It made my life so much easier and the soft close glides work perfectly!

How to use a Kreg Drawer Slide Jig for Frameless Cabinets

First, mark on the cabinet where the bottom of the slides need to be installed.  I would recommend drawing a solid line from the front to the back of the cabinet.

Next, position the left and right jig so that the top lines up with your mark.  The “B” piece goes on the left and the “A” piece goes on the right.  If you look closely at the photo below you can see the A and B marks on the blue plastic grids.  Secure the two left and right jigs using clamps.  I would highly recommend Face Clamps such as the one shown on the right.  My standard clamp didn’t do a great job holding the jig tight and it ended up sagging a bit toward the back.  I’ll definitely be buying a second face clamp for next time.  I used my level to make sure that the jigs were level from front to back and also across the width of the cabinet. 

Lastly, rest the drawer slides on top of the jig and align and attach per the drawer slide manufacturer’s instructions.  For mine, I need to inset the drawer slides 1/16″ from the front of the cabinet.

Install Drawer Slides on the Pull-out Shelf

Attach the drawer slides to the pull-out shelf following the slide manufacturer’s instructions.

That’s it!  Just lift the pull-out shelf in place now. Here is the cabinet opened…

and closed…

This DIY pull out cabinet doesn’t look very pretty right now but once the other cabinets are built and the face frame is on I’ll be making a shaker style cabinet door to cover it.  I also have the cutest drawer pulls that I bought on clearance at Anthropologie several years ago.  They may be a little too small so I’m hopeful that I can make them work but I’ll just have to wait and see.

This coming weekend I am going to finish up all of the cabinets.  My wallpaper is supposed to be here tomorrow so if that arrives before the weekend I may get that up a week earlier than expected!  I actually changed my mind on the wallpaper since my original design plan.  I can’t wait to show you what I went with!

Renovation Plan

• Week 1: October 8th – Design Plan
• Week 2: October 15th – Remove existing shelving and prep walls
• Week 3: October 22nd – Cabinetry Build
• Week 4: October 29th – Cabinetry Build
• Week 5: November 5th – Wallpaper/painted accent wall & open shelving
• Week 6: November 12th – Final Reveal!

You can visit the One Room Challenge blog to see room transformations from all of the participants.  Everyone will be sharing progress updates each week with the final reveals on November 11th-12th.

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I hope that you found this tutorial helpful!  Let me know if you have any questions in the comments section.  I’m always happy to help.

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