Easy Measurement of New Cabinet Doors on Face Frame Cabinets

Step-by-step instructions for measuring your new cabinet door face frame cabinets. Most cabinet companies want you to provide actual door sizes rather than approximate openings. The approximate openings are the actual measurements of the rectangular holes in your cabinets that you want to cover with cabinet doors. You will need to take these measurements and convert them to door sizes before ordering.

Check your cabinet openings to see if they are square. This is easily accomplished by measuring diagonally from corner to corner both ways. If the measurements are the same, then your opening is square. If they aren’t, you’ll want to measure the width at the top and bottom and take the larger of the two. The same goes for the height, measure the height on the left and right sides and take the larger of the two. You now have the approximate opening measurements. To make it easier to match your new doors with the existing openings, you may want to sketch your cabinets and number them on paper. This will make mounting the new doors much easier, especially if you have several doors that are almost the same size.

Now that you have the approximate opening measurements, what do you do with them? Now you have to make a decision. How much overlap do you want on your face frame cabinets? Please note how wide the styles are between the openings. Studs are the vertical strips that cover the edges of the cabinet box. If two doors are next to each other and hinge to hinge, both will need space to open without hitting the other door, even if that door is also open. The amount of clearance depends primarily on the hinge you are using. Check with your hinge manufacturer to find out how much you need. Most hinges will need zero to a quarter inch clearance. You will also need to see how much clearance is between the top of the opening and the top of the counter or drawer fronts. Check the bottom for any decorative trim that could hit the bottom of your doors and adjust accordingly.

Most face frame overlay doors have an overlap of one quarter inch to three quarters of an inch. On rare occasions you may have overlaps outside of this range, but they do happen and are usually just for a few doors on an odd cabinet. A half inch overlap is probably the most common and the one we will use for our examples. We will also assume that there are no obstructions such as narrow mullions, drawer fronts, countertop edges, or accent molding interfering with our half-inch overlap.

For individual openings, meaning any opening in your cabinets that has a door spanning the entire opening, take the height and width of the opening and add one inch to the height and width and that will give you a half inch overlap on all four sides For example, if your rough opening is sixteen inches wide and thirty-two inches high, you will need a door that is seventeen inches wide and thirty-three inches high.

For split openings, meaning any opening in your cabinets that will have two doors next to each other covering the entire opening, take the height and add one inch. Take the width and add seven eighths and divide by two. This will give you a little space between the two doors so they don’t bump when you open and close them. You will still have a half-inch overlap on three sides of each door and an eighth gap between the two doors in the center. For example, if your rough opening is thirty-two inches wide and thirty-four inches tall, you’ll need two doors that are sixteen and seven-sixteenths wide and thirty-five inches tall. The mathematics can be written as follows:

32 + .875 (7/8) = 32.875 32.875 / 2 = 16.4375 (16 7/16)

As you list the door sizes on the paper, note what type of hinge you are using and also whether the door hinges should be on the right or left side of the door. The left or right note is only relevant for arched top doors, or if there are finger pulls, special hinge placement, or some other reason for specifying left or right. Your typical door with a square profile will not need to be marked left or right.

Final thoughts: If you have some very tall cabinet doors, you may need to add one or more extra hinges for extra durability. This is usually done for doors taller than three and a half feet, or forty-two inches. Be careful with very wide doors, they may need extra support even if they are not very tall. Another thing to consider on tall doors is the hinge location of those extra hinges. If there are shelves in the cabinet, you’ll want to check and make sure the hinges aren’t sitting flush with a shelf.