Monday, August 23, 2010

Measuring drawer boxes from the cabinet opening


Measuring for new drawer boxes.


Example cabinet opening of:
10" wide, 6" tall, and 24" deep.

Using drawer box standards from BARKERdoor.com


1. WIDTH OF THE DRAWER BOX. The width of the drawer box depends on two different factors. First, is the opening of the cabinet. Second, is the type of drawer guide to be used. For this tutorial we will be assuming that a side mounted KV soft closing drawer slide will be used for the drawer guide. The KV drawer guide is available for purchase on barkerdoor.com. Let's take an opening width of 10" wide by 6" in height. With this opening you will need to subtract a certain amount for the thickness of the drawer guide on the left and right side of the drawer box. Our KV side mounted slide is exactly 1/2" thick. Therefore we will take the opening of 10" and subtract 1/2" from the left side of the drawer box and 1/2" from the right side of the drawer box. This gets us a finished width of 9" (calculated by 10" - 1/2" on left - 1/2" on right= 9"). Now we have our drawer box width that needs to be ordered at 9" wide.



2. HEIGHT OF DRAWER BOX. To calculate the height of the drawer box you should take the actual height of the opening and subtract a certain amount to allow for a bit of clearance both above and below the drawer box. I personally like to subtract about 3/8" to 1/2" from the opening height to get the drawer box height. For this example let's say that the opening height is exactly 6" tall. We will take this opening height and subtract 3/8" to get 5 5/8" usable drawer box height. Since Barker Door has set heights of 3.75", 5 1/2", and so on, we will need to select the closest box height that is just under the 5 5/8" usable height area. This drawer box height would be 5 1/2". Now we have our drawer box height set at 5 1/2".



3. DEPTH OF DRAWER BOX. The depth of the drawer box is calculated by looking at the depth of the opening. Let's say that the depth of the opening is 24" deep from the front of the face frame to the back of the cabinet. In this example you will need at least 1" of clearance behind the drawer box to allow enough room for adjustment. Take 24" and subtract 1" for extra clearance and we get 23". Now find the deepest drawer guide you can fit into this 23" deep opening. In this example a 22" KV slide will work just fine. Due to the fact that you are using a 22" slide in a 23" usable depth opening, you will need to order a 22" deep drawer box. Always order the same depth drawer box and the depth of the drawer guide. For example if you order a 16" deep drawer guide, make sure you order a 16" deep drawer box. This will eliminate any confusion and ensure a working drawer box and guide combination. Rear mounting brackets can be used in most applications by attaching the bracket to the inside back of the cabinet.


Finished drawer box
Width= 9"
Height= 5 1/2"
Depth= 22"

Drawer Boxes are available in many wood types as seen below:




Written by:

Chad Barker

Measuring cabinet doors from the face frame opening




How to measure cabinet doors from the cabinet opening.

Measuring cabinet doors from the cabinet opening brings about a few obvious scenarios. One, you have either lost or the existing doors have been removed and are no longer available. Two, you are tired of the existing cabinet doors and wish to apply new doors to your existing cabinet boxes. And three, most likely you are changing or updating the hinge type to something other than the existing hinge used on the old cabinet doors.

There are many different hinges that can apply a cabinet door to a cabinet box. For this example we will assume an industry standard hinge, like the blum clip top. This is a great hinge that works very well in a lot of different applications. It also has a huge amount of adjustment so your doors don't have to be perfect. We will assume an industry standard goal a 1/2" overlay.


The door "overlay", is how far the actual door overlaps the face frame of the cabinet. Typically most cabinets (even cabinets built with exposed hinges) will stay true to the ½” overlay standard. If this is true, you should make sure to measure an opening, and therefore the cabinet door, by the following rules:

Lets say your opening is 10” wide and 20” tall. If I wanted to put 1 door on this opening I would take 10” and add 1/2” to the left and 1/2” to the right. This gets me an 11” wide cabinet door width. You would do the same with the height as well. Take the 20” height and add 1/2” to the bottom, and 1/2” to the top. This gets us a 21” tall cabinet door. Thus, you will need to order a door with a width of 11” wide by 21” tall for this single opening.

If you have an opening with a pair of doors to be installed, it is actually very easy to calculate. Say you have an opening of 20” wide by 30” tall. To calculate the width of each door you would take 20” and divide by 2 (two doors). This gets us 10”. Then simply add 1/2” to the width to account for the overlay of the cabinet door which gets us 10 1/2”. The width of each cabinet door you need to order will be 10 1/2” wide. The height of the cabinet door is calculated the same as it would be on a single door opening. Take the opening height of 30” and simply add 1/2" to the top and another 1/2” to the bottom to get 31” for the cabinet door height. To clarify, for this opening, you will need to order 2 doors at 10 1/2” wide by 31” tall.

Keep in mind that the Blum concealed hinges are very adjustable. You have about a ¼” adjustment in all ways. This means that you can adjust the doors up, down, left, right, in, and out.


Written by,
Chad Barker