WHAT TO DECIDE before you buy

There are three design decisions you’ll need to make:

  1. Finish
  2. Door and Drawer Front Style
  3. Door and Drawer Front Sizes (you may wish to keep them the same size as your previous doors or change the overlay by changing their size)

Determine the Overlay you want

When refacing cabinets, there are two different ways the doors and drawer fronts can lay on the front of the cabinet: Partial Overlay (1/2″ overlay) or Full Overlay (1-1/4″ overlay).

Partial Overlay is what you generally find in a builder-grade home. This style leaves 1” of the front frame exposed around the doors/drawers.

Full Overlay is a more modern and popular style. Here the doors and drawer fronts cover most of the cabinet’s front frame, leaving ¼” exposed around the doors/drawers.
You can refer to this image or this video for more help understanding the term “overlay”.

With your overlay choice made, you can begin measuring.

How to measure when Keeping SAME SIZE doors/drawer fronts.

1: Prepare to Measure

Take a photo of each section of cabinets, including all sides of any islands or peninsulas.
Next, number each of the doors and drawer fronts in the photos. 

2: Create a List & Begin to Measure

Create a numbered list for all of the doors and drawer fronts in your photos
This helps us communicate with you about the items, and will help you install them correctly when they are delivered.

Begin measuring your existing doors and drawer fronts, noting width followed by height.
For each door specify whether you want the hinging on the left or right (in some cases it could even be top).

How to measure when Replacing with larger or smaller doors/drawer frontS.

Stick with a standard overlay

Make sure you size the new doors according to standard overlays offered by hinge manufacturers. We suggest sizing your doors and drawers to conform to Partial Overlay (1/2″ overlay) or Full Overlay (1-1/4″ overlay). These are common overlays which are supported by all hinge manufacturers. Sizing your doors according to these common overlays will ensure you can easily find 6-way adjustable hinges for your doors, either from us or from another supplier. Here is our catalog information pertaining to our Hinge Boring Options.

Step 1: Prepare to Measure

Take a photo of each section of cabinets, including all sides of any islands or peninsulas.
Next, number each of the doors and drawer front openings in the photos.

Step 2: Create a List & Begin to Measure

Create a numbered list for all of the doors and drawer front openings in your photos.
This helps us communicate with you about the items, and will help you install them correctly when they are delivered.

Begin measuring your existing cabinet openings, noting width followed by height.
For each door, specify whether you want the hinging on the left or right (in some cases it could even be at the top).

For some more tips on measuring your cabinets openings Refer to this video.

Things to remember as you size your doors/drawer fronts:

  1. Remember to account for clearance in corners where doors need more space to operate freely. Because of knobs/handles, we generally suggest 2.5” of dead corner space (filler, etc) in all BASE corners, regardless of overlay. Wall cabinets can be tighter, 1.25” or so.
    You will want to leave more space where the opposing run of cabinets in a corner is actually a dishwasher or other appliance as these are typically deeper than 24”. We suggest at least 4.5″ to 5″ of filler space, but this will depend on your appliance specification.
  2. Consider using partial overlay sizing on left and right sides of diagonal corner cabinets so that the doors do not interfere with full overlay cabinets on opposing runs.
  3. Follow the same overlay principles for applied end panels or appliance panels.
    In other words, try to leave the same reveals on these inoperable doors.

If you have any questions give us a call and we’ll be happy to talk you through this process. Because we’re not on site, all measurements are the customer’s responsibility.
Care should be taken in being precise!

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