Move the walls. We’ll fill them.
An L: two runs, 12 modules, 22 drawers, a 50 mm corner filler, a 30 mm filler, scribes of 20 and 50 mm, 5980 mm of bench.
Drag the green handles to move the walls, the window and the door. Our rules of thumb fill each wall in 50 mm steps. It’s a first sketch; we measure properly on site.
Kitchens, wardrobes and built-ins, drawn to the room and made by one small team in our Lonsdale workshop, for homes from Adelaide to the Fleurieu. The drawer boxes are dovetailed by hand.
Oiled white oak. Oiled, not lacquered: it deepens a little each year and can be re-oiled at home. Honed stone. We template it; a stonemason cuts it.
Arrow keys turn the run; F changes the fronts and B the bench.
What we make
If it stands against a wall and has a door or a drawer, we draw it to the room and make it in Lonsdale.
Kitchens
The run, the pantry, the island, and drawers wherever a drawer will do.
600 deepWardrobes and walk-in robes
Long hanging 1700 mm clear, double hanging 2 × 1000, and drawers 450 or 600 deep for what folds.
600 deepLaundries
A tub, a bench over the machines, and a tall cupboard for the broom and the ironing board.
900 highStudies and bookshelves
Shelves 300 deep and never more than 900 between supports, so they don’t sag under the books.
300 deepWindow seats and built-ins
A seat with drawers under it, drawn to the window and the wall around it.
450 highThe awkward gap
The 380 mm nobody knew what to do with.
380 wide
Made for the room it’s in
Inside, where you don’t look
Every raw board edge gets a band of timber or matching edging, trimmed flush and eased by hand, so it doesn’t catch a sleeve or soak up water by the sink.
- Board
- Moisture-resistant, under the sink and everywhere else, so one leak doesn’t cost a cabinet.
- Edges
- 1 mm inside the cabinets, 2 mm where hands and hips go.
- Runners and hinges
- Full-extension runners that close softly; hinges that adjust three ways, so the doors hang true.
From our bench to your wall
Why we’re called Drawbore
A drawbore is an old way of pinning a mortise and tenon. We bore the hole through the tenon 1.5 mm nearer the shoulder than the hole through the leg, then drive an oak peg through both. The peg bends a little to line them up, and pulls the shoulder tight as it goes.
We peg the frames of our islands and window seats this way, and dovetail every drawer box by hand. Pull this drawer out by its front and the peg goes in.
One drawer box, in the order we make it. Read on, and it goes together part by part.
Sides
Two lengths of solid oak, planed to 15 mm and cut to the depth of your cabinet less 10 mm, so the back clears the carcass.
Dovetails
Marked with a gauge and a knife and cut by hand at 1 in 8: tails on the sides, pins on the front and back. It’s slower, and it’s the joint we’d choose for a drawer that carries pots, because the tails hook against the way you pull.
Base
A 12 mm base slides into a groove on three sides and is screwed at the back, so it can be changed one day without taking the box apart.
Runners
Full-extension runners with a soft close, set so the drawer comes out far enough to reach the pot at the very back.
Front
The last thing on. We hang the fronts on site and set every gap to 3 mm and every line to the bench, so the bank reads as one.
Why the pantry sits at the end
Six rules of thumb we draw every kitchen by. Each little plan is yours, taken from the plan up top; where your room has nothing to show a rule on, it’s one of ours.
- 900
The sink base is centred under the window, so you look out while you wash up.
Yours: centred under the window. - 300
The cooktop sits at least 300 mm from a corner, so pot handles clear the wall.
Yours: 1050 mm from the corner. - 600
At least 600 mm of bench between the sink and the cooktop, for the chopping board.
Yours: 2250 mm of bench between them, round the corner. - 2
The pantry and the fridge stand at the end of a run, so the bench runs unbroken.
Yours: the fridge and pantry close the back run. - 50
A blind corner unit plus a 50 mm filler where two runs meet, so the drawers clear the handles next door.
Yours: a blind corner, then a 50 mm filler. - 1000
An island keeps 1000 mm clear all round, so two people can pass with the oven open.
On an island plan: 1000 mm clear between the run and the island.
In a small room something gives. We drop the dishwasher first, then one of the tall units, then the cooktop’s elbow room, and the plan tells you which.
These are our rules of thumb. The plan up top follows them; the real drawing follows your room, and we measure properly on site.
What we keep, what goes
Timber is dear and good board is heavy to cart about, so very little leaves the workshop as rubbish.
What we keep
- Oak offcuts become drawer bases, spice inserts and shelf cleats.
- Board offcuts become kickboard returns and the backs of small drawers.
- Anything long and straight goes back in the rack, pencilled with its size.
What goes
- Shavings go to a garden supplier nearby, for mulch.
- Packaging comes back from site with us, and gets used again where it can.
- Your old kitchen comes out in pieces, not in splinters, and sound doors are passed on.
Before we measure
What people ask us before we come out with the tape.
How long from first sketch to fitted?
We give you dates once we’ve measured and you’ve signed off the drawing, and we’ll tell you then how many days we need on site.
What do you need before you measure?
Photos of the room, rough wall lengths, where the water and power come in, and the sizes of any appliances you’re keeping.
Can you fit around a sloping ceiling?
Yes. We scribe tall units and shelves to the slope, and draw it so every door still opens past it.
Do you make wardrobes without a kitchen?
Yes: a wardrobe, a robe, a study wall or one window seat, drawn and made the same way.
Do you take the old kitchen out?
We can. We take it apart carefully, and anything sound goes on to someone who’ll use it.
Why drawers instead of cupboards?
You see into a drawer from above. Nothing hides at the back, and nobody kneels on the floor to find the big pot.