Galaxy Horizon 2 Drawer Base Cabinets

The two-drawer configuration exists only at the widths where a deep drawer is worth having: 24″, 30″ and 36″. Each cabinet is 34½″ high and 24″ deep, split into two tall fronts, and each is also sold as a bare carcass, which matters later in this article.

The difference between the two columns is roughly what the fronts, drawer boxes and runners add, if the carcass listing ships without them, which it does not state; ask before relying on that reading. Prices are our displayed figures on the review date; the grid above the article is the authority if they have moved.

The front is the only stained part of the drawer. Fabuwood builds it the same way as the doors: a five-piece front, solid-wood frame around a recessed ½″ centre panel that the spec book lists as MDF/veneer, so the grain of the veneer shows through the grey-taupe. On a two-drawer bank the fronts are tall enough that the panel is a real panel, not a thin strip, and each front shows its own figure.

Behind the front is the drawer box: ⅝″ solid wood, dovetailed at the corners, with a ⅜″ plywood bottom, left in natural wood rather than stained. Behind that is the cabinet interior, ½″ veneered plywood with a natural wood-veneer finish. Fabuwood does not name the species of either, and we will not guess.

So an open pot drawer is a light grey-taupe face over pale wood, and that contrast surprises some people on delivery day. It is normal and it is the better choice: a stained interior would show every scrape from a cast-iron pan, while natural wood shows a scrape as little more than a paler line, and the light interior makes it easier to see what is at the back of a deep drawer.

A deep drawer full of pans is pulled open by its front, and the load sits at the back. Every time you yank it, the front is being pulled away from the sides of the box. That is the exact force a dovetail is shaped to resist: the flared pins lock into the tails, so the harder you pull, the tighter the joint wedges.

Cheaper drawer boxes are stapled, doweled or glued at a butt joint, and they rely on the glue and fasteners to hold the front on. They work for a cutlery drawer. In a pot drawer carrying cast iron, that is the joint that eventually loosens, and a front that drifts forward from its box is the first sign. The dovetail guide shows the difference joint by joint.

Fabuwood lists the runners as Blum Tandem plus Blumotion, full extension and concealed. Each of those words describes something you can check with the drawer open.

• Concealed. The runners sit under the drawer box, not on its sides. You see clean wood sides when the drawer is open, and the load is carried from below rather than hanging off the side walls of the box.
• Full extension. The drawer comes all the way out past the face frame, so the back of a 24″-deep drawer is in the light and in reach. In a pot drawer, that is the whole point; the back row is where the lids go.
• Blumotion. The damping at the end of the travel catches the drawer and closes it gently, even when it is full and pushed hard. On a heavy drawer that protects the front and the frame from years of impact.

What is not published is a load rating per drawer, and we do not quote one. If you are planning to store something unusually heavy, a full set of cast iron or a stand mixer, tell us and we will check the current runner specification. The soft-close guide explains how soft-close and self-closing runners differ.

A two-drawer base is usually under a cooktop, next to a range or close to the dishwasher, so it is exposed to the two things that damage cabinets: heat and water. When that happens, the damage is almost always to the cabinet body and not the fronts. That is why the carcass-only listings are useful on a stained kitchen: DB24-2-BO at $464.75, DB30-2-BO at $536.25 and DB36-2-BO at $653.25.

Keeping the original fronts matters more on a stain than on a paint. Fabuwood says colour variation between stained pieces is normal, and its warranty says a replacement may not match existing cabinets. If the two fronts you see every day stay from your original order, the new box is invisible. What we cannot tell you from the listing is whether a drawer-base carcass ships with its drawer boxes and runners fitted or bare; ask before you order, because it changes the repair.

All carcasses, shelves and clips are on the loose parts page.

The front gets all the attention, but a pot drawer’s box and the cabinet around it do the hard work. A few habits keep them sound for as long as the stained face lasts.

• Put pans away dry. A wet pot set down in a wooden drawer leaves a ring, and water that sits on the ⅜″ plywood bottom is the one thing the box does not like. Let lids and pans dry on the rack first.
• Wipe oil and crumbs out while they are fresh. A damp cloth with a mild cleaner is enough for a natural-wood box; strong degreasers and abrasive pads are not needed and can raise the grain.
• Consider a liner under cast iron. A thin mat is general advice rather than anything Fabuwood requires, but it spares the drawer bottom from the scrape of heavy pans being pulled in and out.
• Close it with the handle, not the knee. The soft-close does its job whatever pushes it, but the lower front is at knee height and a stained front shows a scuff there sooner than it shows anything else.

For the stained fronts themselves, Fabuwood’s care advice is to blot spills, use mild cleaners and never spray a cleaner onto the wood directly. The cabinet care guide has the full routine for fronts and interiors, and the cabinet lifespan guide shows which parts of a drawer tend to wear first.

Because the box is natural wood and full extension, an insert in a deep drawer is easy to see and reach. The catalogue lists several sized for these widths; the ones with Blum in the name come with their own hardware and add a second level inside the drawer.

Before adding one of the tiered inserts, compare it with a three-drawer bank: GH DB30, with three drawers, is only $9.75 more than GH DB30-2, while the tiered insert for the 30″ is $884.00. And check height: the listing does not give the interior height of each drawer, so tell us which insert and which cabinet and we confirm the fit before the order goes in. All inserts are on the drawer insert page.

For three tiers, one shallow and two deep, go to the three-drawer page. For four shallow tiers beside the range, the four-drawer page. If the storage is bulky but rarely used, a two-door base with a roll-out tray costs less. How Fabuwood builds all of this is covered in who makes Fabuwood cabinets, and the finish is on the collection page.