The drawer interior is roughly 24.75 inches (61 cm) wide and 15.5 inches (40 cm) deep. The inside height is 1.75" (4.5cm). For structural support I installed a center board to hold the front and back panels of the drawer box together. The drawer bottom is made of 1/4-inch (0.6cm) Oak plywood.

The size of the drawer is, of course, immaterial to whether or not it can be lined with foam. Also, the drawer doesn't have to be custom-built. You can use a drawer of an existing cabinet.

Here are the tools you need to do this kind of work. In the background (photo on the right) you see the roll of half-inch foam. It was roughly 24-inches wide. The photo shows Weldbond glue, but, when I ran out of that bottle, I switched to regular Elmer's white glue ("Glue All"), which worked just as well and is much cheaper. Other tools needed were a collection of new razor blades, a measuring tape, and a straight-edge. After a while, the razor blades got dull. It really depends on how many cuts need to be made.

I started off by cutting 1.5" (3.8 cm) strips of the foam. The size of the strip was determined by the inside height of the drawer. The trick to cutting straight strips, and it does take some practice, is to keep the razor blade perpendicular to the workbench. With one hand I pressed down on the blade, keeping the blade at less than a 45 degree angle to the workbench. With the other hand (not shown here for clarity), I provided horizontal pressure against the blade to keep it firm against the metal straight-edge. The weight of the metal straight-edge and the friction of the tool on the foam kept it in place.

I discovered that the pieces of foam were statically charged. Sometimes they were a challenge to let go off my hand!

For my particular drawers, I needed 15 strips of 24-inch length.

As shown in the first photo above, I have two sections in one drawer. Each section is approximately 12 inches wide, so I needed to cut the 24-inch strips down the middle.

The easiest way I found to do this was to line all 15 strips up against the foam sheet on the right, put the metal straight-edge at 12 inches from the edge, ...

...and cut it down the middle in the same manner as I cut the strips.

With a pile of these smaller strips, I am ready to install them in the drawer.

The tools needed for gluing the foam in the drawer are glue (WeldBond or Elmers), a disposable foam brush, and a wet towel. The wet towel or rag is needed to clean up any stray glue and to keep the fingers clean.

I always started at the front of the drawer because that is the area that is most often seen and so it needs to look the best. You can always fudge a bit near the back of the drawer. I proceeded by putting some glue on the foam brush.

Use the foam brush to apply a thin layer of glue on the inside, front panel of the drawer. The key is to apply glue everywhere, but only in a thin layer. The glue grips the foam very well, so there is no need to overdo it.

Next, I spread some glue on the bottom panel of the drawer. At first I worked in small 5-inch wide areas, but later on I covered the entire bottom for one half of the drawer at a time. The glue doesn't dry quickly, so you have plenty of working time.

Use the foam brush to spread the glue into a thin layer that covers the entire area.

And now I am ready to install the foam pieces. I put glue on the foam strips as well. No need to spread it out here, though. This provides a good initial bond between the pieces and the wood.

I carefully guided the piece into its place, the inside front edge of the drawer.

It is important to make sure it is flat up against the inside of the drawer box, otherwise all other pieces are going to be off.

And also tap it down to make sure that the bottom edge of the foam piece makes full contact with the drawer bottom panel.

The next piece will be flat on the drawer bottom. In addition to placing glue on its broad side, I also placed glue on the thin long edge of the foam piece that will make contact with the first piece already in the drawer. This makes sure that not only are all the pieces glued to the drawer itself, but that they are also attached to one another. This allows me to keep gaps between the pieces to a minimum. This is important to keep small parts from falling in between the foam in the future.

Again, I carefully placed the piece in its spot. It is important to not get any of the glue shown in the photo above to get on the first piece of foam until the second piece is flat on the drawer bottom. If it does happen, wipe the glue off the foam with the towel.

While tapping the piece down, I also made sure to push it against the first piece to minimize the visible gap between the two pieces.

The third piece of foam is again put upright like the first one. This one has glue applied to its thin long edge where it meets the bottom panel, on both thin short edges, and a thin bead applied to the area that will make contact with the second piece of foam.

I put glue on another section of about 5 inches, spreading the glue with the foam brush afterwards.

After that section has been covered with alternating vertical and horizontal pieces of foam, the last section will be done similar to the first section described above. I put some glue on the foam brush and applied it to the back board of the drawer box.

The last horizontal piece can be a bit of a challenge to put in. As the photo shows, I start by putting it in the middle and work out. Gradually pushing the strip down, patiently working back and forth worked for me.

And here is the final product. Doing one drawer of this size took me about 45 minutes, after I had done a couple. The first couple always take a bit more time.