Melissa wrote:

I got so many helpful replies about a corner tv cabinet measurement, I'm
hoping there might be help to this question as well.

My plan is to build furniture for my living room, the tv cabinet was one
piece. Another is a large bookcase with a drawer for hanging files on the
bottom. There will be two of these on either side of a desk with hutch
unit. My question is about the file drawer. I would like to make a drawer
that is 11" high x 13 3/4" deep x 38 1/2" wide. This part I have already
worked out. I will have a shelf mounted directly above this drawer, that
will also slide out, for a printer and scanner to sit upon. For aesthetics,
I'd like to make the drawer face to cover both the front of the drawer, and
the slide shelf, which would make that drawer face very large - 29 1/2" high
x 40" wide. I don't think the drawer operation will be a problem, there
won't be a lot of weight and I'll get heavy duty glides. My concern is the
drawer face. Is that just too large to be practical? Any thoughts? The
drawer would likely be opened only once a day at most if that makes any
difference. On my hand sketched drawing it looks okay, but I don't want to
just rely on the drawing.

If I have understood your description correctly, it seems kind of
inconvenient. Having the drawer face cover the shelf means that every
time you want to use the shelf you have to open the drawer. Also, by
making the drawer face so large, it will be difficult to access the
files from in front of the drawer. Have you considered splitting the
face in two pieces with part attached to the drawer and the other part
attached to the shelf? This would give you almost the same look.