Whether a box fits the bay is usually settled in the shop with a tape measure, or not at all, and then it sticks out by three centimetres. We have worked it out once, with the clear dimensions of our grid and the dimensions the manufacturers themselves state. With this table you choose the box at home.
The clear dimensions
A KUUDU board is 75 centimetres wide, but the bay is not. The posts stand two centimetres behind the board edge and are 1.5 centimetres thick, which leaves 69.5 centimetres between them. You measure boxes against that number. The height is the gap between two boards, and with us that is the clear dimension: 16.7, 25, 35 or 60 centimetres of air, with the board thickness added on top. The depth is 35 centimetres, or 15 on the half board. The bay is open at the front; a deeper box sticks out, and you see it.
Then there is a bay we build ourselves: the KUUDU box. It fills a 35-centimetre bay with a back panel and two sides and stays open at the front. Inside it measures 61.8 centimetres in width, and the sides are 26 centimetres deep. If you want a box that belongs to the shelf, that is it; if you want a different one, read on.
Nine boxes in the bay
We took boxes people know, plastic, cardboard, fabric, and copied their dimensions from the product pages, width by depth by height. Two rules for the table: side by side fits whatever stays under 69.5 centimetres together. And the same number does not mean it fits: a box 25 centimetres tall does not belong in a bay with 25 centimetres of air, because fabric bulges, lids sit proud and you want to reach in from above. It needs the next bay up.
| Box | Size in cm | Smallest bay | Side by side | On 35 cm depth |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| IKEA SAMLA 5 l | 28 × 19 × 14 | 16.7 cm | 2 | fits, also on the half board with 4 cm overhang |
| IKEA SAMLA 11 l | 39 × 28 × 14 | 16.7 cm | 1 | fits |
| IKEA SAMLA 22 l | 39 × 28 × 28 | 35 cm | 1 | fits |
| IKEA SAMLA 45 l | 56 × 39 × 28 | 35 cm | 1 | sticks out 4 cm |
| IKEA KUGGIS | 26 × 35 × 15 | 16.7 cm | 2 | flush |
| IKEA TJENA | 25 × 35 × 20 | 25 cm | 2 | flush |
| IKEA DRÖNA small | 25 × 35 × 25 | 35 cm | 2 | flush |
| IKEA DRÖNA for KALLAX | 33 × 38 × 33 | 35 cm | 2 | sticks out 3 cm |
| Leitz Click & Store Cosy M | 28.1 × 37 × 20 | 25 cm | 2 | sticks out 2 cm |
| Leitz binder, 8 cm spine | 8 × 28.5 × 31.8 | 35 cm | 8 | fits |
| KUUDU box | inside 61.8 × 26 × 35 | 35 cm | 1 | belongs to it |
The KUGGIS box measures 35 centimetres in depth, exactly like the board, and sits flush with the front edge; two side by side still leave 17.5 centimetres free. The small DRÖNA is 25 centimetres tall and therefore needs the 35 bay; in the 25 it jams. The large DRÖNA, built for the 33 by 33 centimetres of a KALLAX compartment, fits two across but sticks out three centimetres because it is 38 deep. And the Leitz archive box is built for A4 with room to spare at 37 centimetres of depth; it sticks out two centimetres, which bothers nobody on an archive box.
Box first, then bay
The order is the reverse of the one most people buy in. Choose the boxes first, then the bay heights. Because with us the heights can be chosen freely per section and per level, and the box cannot. If you plan two bays of 35 centimetres at the bottom for fabric boxes, a 25 above them for cardboard boxes and 16.7s at the top for flat plastic boxes, you have a shelf in which every box has its bay and no air is wasted. The grid does something useful here: because the boards are 1.6 centimetres thick and the gaps are clear dimensions, the heights add up without surprises.
For the width a simple rule of thumb applies: boxes up to 34 centimetres fit two to a bay, boxes up to 23 three. Binders with an 8-centimetre spine stand eight abreast, as worked out in the article on office shelving. And for the depth: everything up to 35 centimetres stands flush or behind, everything above sticks out. If you take the 15-centimetre half board, in the hallway say, you have room for the small SAMLA with four centimetres of overhang and for not much else; what does fit on 15 centimetres is in the article on shelf depth.