Measure Kitchens Correctly for Cabinets: Plan Kitchen Cabinets Space with Accurate Measurements

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Photo: By Darren Hester

Most folks tremble at the thought of measuring for kitchen cabinets. The responsibility of accurate measurements shifts to the homeowner, and fault if the new cabinets don't fit correctly. Be ye not afraid homeowners. Measuring correctly for kitchen cabinets is not difficult at all.

Not all walls are created square, so when measuring wall lengths be sure to get them at various heights. Grab one at the floor, one at 3 feet, and one at about 6 feet. If wall cabinets are going all the way to the ceiling, there should be another measurement taken at ceiling height.

A small note on floor to ceiling cabinetry... Many ceilings are not flat. While most people don't notice this, it becomes apparent when something square is put high enough. There are several ways to combat wavy ceilings, and these are beyond the scope of this article, but the easiest one is to just avoid putting cabinets so high. Floors that are not flat MUST be dealt with, unless someone invents hovering cabinets, but usually contractors can finagle things with shims and still make everything look nice in the end.

Windows and doors must be accounted for, and don't forget in a new house or remodel job to figure where the trim (in case it is not up yet) is going to begin and end. With doors, only right and left boundaries are generally important, but windows must be measured vertically as well.

Water and gas line locations should be measured, as well as electrical outlets and switches.

As far as vertical measurements, there are only a few. Floor to ceiling lengths should be measured at a couple of different places. As noted before, figure out how far from the floor to the bottoms of windows, and from the ceiling to the tops of windows.

These measurements are not hard to get. Two people on the job helps, especially if there are very long measurements to take, and having one of the wider tape measures helps too. Running a tape out six feet only to have it snap and fold is very frustrating; some of the wider tapes can extend fifteen feet before they do that.

Once you've got the measurements, you can take them around to as many cabinet showrooms as you want and get prices. This is preferable to having someone come out and measure. Often they either won't give customers the measurements, to prevent them from shopping around, or they will code their notes (like adding two inches to each measurement) so that someone else looking at them will see the numbers as incorrect.

For more information on how to measure kitchens for cabinets, as well as diagrams, visit www.thecabinetfolks.com or email info@thecabinetfolks.com