How To Measure Kitchen Cabinet Doors
Courtesy of www.kitchenrefacing.org

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Be sure to double check you measurements.  If you are not using your old doors to order sizes, just add 1" to the height and width of your cabinet openings for both doors and drawer fronts. This gives you a 1/2" overlay all the way around the door or drawer front.  List each door separately.  If  you have a door opening that uses two doors butted together, measure the width of the opening, divide that in half and only add 3/8" (not 1/2") for each door.  For example:  A 20 inch opening with two butting doors would need two 10 3/8" wide doors.  This will give you room to adjust the center gap between the two doors after they are hung.  You still add 1" to the height of the doors.

Very Important!

Always list the width first.  (Example 16*28 door / 16*4 drawer front )  What can happen when you don't?  A good example of what can happen concerns the sets of doors over most refrigerators and sometimes over stoves.  The openings in these two places in the kitchen are often wider than they are tall.  That means, if you make the mistake of listing the height first,  the wood grain will be running the wrong way and you will have to re-order.  This is the number one mistake people make when ordering.  So please double check.  Remember, measure twice so we only have to cut once.  (Of course this is not a problem with our solid color doors since there is no grain.)

Lazy Susans doors are simple to measure.  Simply measure from the front edge of each side to the farthest point in the back (A) and from the top to bottom (B) and mark your measurement with LS (Example: 11*27 LS ) List lazy susans as 2 doors.  We will miter the back edges of the 2 doors to create the 90 degree angle you will need when installing them.

Other Things to Consider

Our hinges are designed to fit 1 1/2" minimum styles.  (Styles run vertically and rails run horizontally)  If you have 2 doors that hang hinge-to-hinge, you should have a 3" style.  If yours is narrower,  you can simply screw a length of oak or pine stained to match your frames to each side of the opening before you measure for the doors.  Adding about 3/4" to each side usually does the trick and keeps the door centered.  You need a minimum or 2" where doors meet hinge-to-hinge.

Prepping Drawers

To prepare your drawers for the new drawer fronts, simply saw off the existing front making sure to leave square ends.  Add a piece of pine to the front of the drawer to screw the new drawer front to.  It is usually a good idea to pre-drill holes in the sides of the drawer for this purpose.  Some extra sturdy drawers are even easier to prepare.  Just cut off the overhang of the drawer front so the drawer will slide back into the cabinet flush with the frame.  Make sure the remaining front is still solidly attached before installing your new drawer front with screws.  One final note of caution: Be very careful not to put a screw through your new drawer front when attaching it. Pre-drilling the drawer itself is always a good idea.