Resources
Measuring & cabinet sizing
The dimensions cabinets are actually built to, the clearances a kitchen needs to work, and what to measure before you start. Every figure here is the one the designer lays your kitchen out with.
The standard heights
Kitchen cabinets are not sized to your room. They come in fixed heights and depths, and the room is fitted around them with fillers. These are the numbers everything else follows from.
- Counter height36"
- Floor to the top of the worktop.
- Base cabinet34.5" high × 24" deep
- The worktop adds the last 1½". Its bottom 4.5" is the toe kick, recessed so you can stand at the counter.
- Wall cabinet hangs at54"
- 36" counter plus 18" of working clearance. This number doesn't move — anything lower is unusable worktop.
- Wall cabinet30", 36", 42" high × 12" deep
- Which one depends on your ceiling. See below.
- Tall and pantry cabinets84", 90" and 96" high × 24" deep
- Floor to near the ceiling, in one piece.
Which wall cabinet fits your ceiling
Because wall cabinets hang at a fixed 54", your ceiling height decides how tall they can be. Running flush to the ceiling is possible; coming down a few inches leaves a reveal, keeps the top shelf reachable, and avoids scribing against a ceiling that isn't level.
- 90" ceiling30" cabinets
- 30" leaves a 6" reveal above. 36" runs flush to the ceiling if you'd rather have the storage.
- 96" ceiling36" cabinets
- 36" leaves a 6" reveal above. 42" runs flush to the ceiling if you'd rather have the storage.
- 102" ceiling42" cabinets
- At 102" there's more wall than cabinet — 42" is the tallest made, leaving 6" above.
- 108" ceiling42" cabinets
- At 108" there's more wall than cabinet — 42" is the tallest made, leaving 12" above.
Enter your own ceiling height in the designer and it picks the size for you.
What to measure
Six things. With these the designer can lay the whole kitchen out, and a quote from it will be the right quote.
Each wall, corner to corner
Measure at counter height, not at the floor or the ceiling — skirting and uneven floors will lie to you. Write down every wall, going round the room in order.
Floor to ceiling
In more than one place. Old ceilings are rarely level, and the lowest figure is the one cabinets have to fit under.
Windows and doors
How far along the wall each one starts, how wide it is, and how far off the floor. A window is what stops a run of wall cabinets; a door needs its swing kept clear.
Where the water comes in
The sink has to go where the drain is, or a plumber has to move it. Measure along the wall to the stub.
Where the gas comes in
Same for the range, if you cook on gas. On an electric range, measure to the outlet instead.
Anything that can't move
A radiator, a boiler, a structural column, a vent. Measure it like a window: position along the wall, width, and height off the floor.
The clearances a kitchen needs
These are the National Kitchen & Bath Association's planning guidelines. They are what separates a kitchen that works from one that merely fits, and the designer reviews your plan against every one of them.
- Walkway36" least
- A passage nobody is working in. Below this, two people can't get past each other.
- Working aisle42" least
- Between two facing runs, or a run and an island. It's wider than a walkway because someone is standing in it with a drawer open.
- Aisle for two cooks48" least
- The same aisle when two people work in the kitchen at once.
- Counter beside the sink24" and 18" least
- Somewhere to stack what comes out of the water. The wider side takes the draining.
- Counter beside the range15" and 12" least
- Somewhere to put a hot pan down without turning around first.
- Counter beside the refrigerator15" least
- Somewhere to set the groceries while the door is open.
- Dishwasher to sink36" least
- Measured edge to edge. Further than this and you're carrying dripping plates across the room.
- Standing room at the dishwasher21" least
- Beside its open door, so you can load it without straddling the corner.
- Microwave, highest shelf54" least
- Off the floor. Above this you're lifting something hot down from over your head.
- Work triangle, each leg48"–108" least
- Sink to range, range to refrigerator, refrigerator to sink. Too short and they crowd; too long and you walk all day.
- Total counter frontage158" least
- Everything added up. Less than this and the kitchen has nowhere to work, however it's arranged.
Corners are the part people get wrong
Where two runs meet, an ordinary base cabinet on each wall either collides with the other or leaves a cavity nothing can reach. A corner unit is what solves it.
Lazy Susan
Two doors hinged together in the corner and a shelf that spins, so everything comes to you. The most usable corner there is, and the widest.
Easy Reach
One door across the corner at 45°, with fixed shelves behind it. Takes the same square corner as a susan and costs less.
Blind Corner
A straight box whose far half runs in behind the other run. For corners too tight for the other two. It needs a 3" filler beside it, or its door and the next cabinet's drawers hit each other.
Already drawn it in 2020 Design?
Open the .kit file here and it reads the whole job: every cabinet, every panel, every appliance, and what 2020 calls each one. It then matches what it can to cabinets sold here and prices them. The file is read in your browser and never uploaded.