How to Measure a Kitchen for Cabinets: The Shop Will Re-Measure, but Your Numbers Set the Price

Before you start: the sketch

Draw the room from above, as a rough rectangle, with every wall, door, window and opening in it. It does not have to be to scale; it has to have every feature on it. Label the walls A, B, C, D going clockwise from the door you walk in through. Mark north if you know it, because a shop designer will ask about the window light. Everything you measure goes on this sheet. Take a photo of each wall as well, from across the room, and one of the whole kitchen from the doorway.

Step 1: each wall, corner to corner

Hold the tape at the floor-to-wall corner and run it to the next corner. Do it three times: at the floor (about 4 in. up), at counter height (36 in.), and at upper-cabinet height (about 60 in.). Write all three. If they differ by more than a half inch the wall is bowed or the corner is out of square, and that is useful to know before anyone quotes a filler-free run. Write the smallest of the three as the wall length.

Measure over the top of any existing cabinets and counters where you can; if you cannot, measure to the face of the cabinet and add the cabinet depth (usually 24 in. base, 12 in. upper). If the old kitchen is coming out and you can wait, measure after demolition. Those are the only numbers a shop will cut to anyway.

Step 2: everything on each wall, from the left

On each wall, starting from the left corner, measure to the edge of every feature and write both edges: window frame left edge at 38, right edge at 74; door casing left edge at 96; and so on. For windows, also measure the height of the sill off the floor and the height of the top of the frame. A window sill at 40 in. means base cabinets fit under it; a sill at 34 in. means the counter has to be notched or the window trim changed, and that is a $300 to $1,500 difference depending on which.

• Windows: both edges of the casing, sill height, head height.
• Doors and openings: both edges of the casing, and which way the door swings.
• Plumbing: the centre of the drain and the two supply lines under the sink, from the left corner and up from the floor. The sink base has to land on them, or the plumber moves them.
• Outlets and switches: centre of each, from the left corner and from the floor. Anything between 36 and 54 in. is in the backsplash and fine; anything that lands behind a cabinet gets moved.
• Gas line, range hood vent, dryer vent: the same way. The vent location sets where the range goes unless you pay to move it.
• Radiators, baseboard heaters, cold-air returns, floor vents: both edges. A floor vent under a base cabinet needs a toe-kick vent kit; a radiator needs a decision.
• Bulkheads and soffits: how far they come down from the ceiling and how far out from the wall. A 12 in. deep, 12 in. tall soffit is the most common thing on a 1970s wall and it decides the upper height.

Step 3: the three heights

Floor to ceiling, in three or four places around the room, including the corners. Write the smallest and the largest. A room that is 95-1/4 in. in one corner and 96-1/2 in. in the other is normal and means the uppers get scribed; a shop will plan for it if they know. Then floor to the underside of any soffit, and floor to the bottom of the window frame if it is not already written down.

If you can, check the floor with a 4 ft level or a long straightedge across where the base cabinets will go. Note which way it falls and roughly how much. Over a half inch in a 10 ft run is worth telling a shop; it means more shimming and a taller toe kick on the low end, and sometimes a scribed toe kick, which is on the installation cost page under the things that make the bill go up.

Step 4: the appliances

Write down the exact model of every appliance that is staying or that you have chosen, and the width, height and depth from the spec sheet, not from the tape. A fridge that is 35-3/4 in. wide needs a 36 in. opening plus the manufacturer’s clearance, which is on the sheet and is often another inch. A 30 in. range needs 30 in. and nothing more. A dishwasher needs 24 in. wide and 34-1/2 in. tall under the counter. A built-in microwave or wall oven has a cut-out drawing in its manual and the cabinet is built to it. If you have not chosen appliances yet, say so on the sketch; the shop will size for standard ones and the quote will carry a note.

A quick scan of the standard cabinet dimensions page tells you which openings are fixed by the appliance and which are up to you.

Step 5: the island, if there is one

Mark where you want it and measure the clear space between it and every counter face and wall. The number you need is 42 in. on every side that has a working counter, and 36 in. absolute minimum on a side that is just a walkway. If the island will have a sink or a cooktop, mark where the floor drain, supply or gas would come up, and check what is under the floor (a basement ceiling you can get at, or a slab, which changes the plumbing cost by a lot). The island page has the sizes that work.

The eight things people forget

1. The door casing is not the wall. Measure to the edge of the trim, because the cabinet stops there, not at the drywall.
2. Which way the doors swing. The entry door, the pantry door, the back door. Draw the arc. A cabinet in the arc is a cabinet that gets hit.
3. The fridge door. A fridge against a wall needs 2 to 4 in. of clearance on the hinge side or the door will not open past 90 degrees and the crisper drawers will not come out. Mark the hinge side.
4. The dishwasher door, open. It sticks out 24 in. If an island is 36 in. away, you cannot get past it while it is loading.
5. Ceiling height under the soffit, not just the ceiling. The uppers go under the soffit unless the soffit is coming out, and if it is coming out, there may be a duct or a pipe in it. Knock on it. Hollow is good news.
6. Baseboard and flooring thickness. If the new floor goes in after the cabinets, the dishwasher opening shrinks by the floor thickness. Tell the shop which order the floor and cabinets will go in; the order of work page explains which is right.
7. The range hood duct. Where it goes up or out, and what size (6 in. round for most, 7 or 8 in. for a bigger hood). If there is no duct and you want one, that is the electrician and a hole in the wall, before the cabinets.
8. The path in. A 96 in. tall pantry cabinet does not go up a staircase with a landing, and a 42 in. deep island does not go through a 30 in. door assembled. Measure the route from the driveway to the kitchen.

What to do with the sketch

Take a clear photo of it and send it, with the wall photos, to each shop you ask for a quote. Say the measurements are yours and that you expect them to site-measure before ordering. A shop that will quote off a good homeowner sketch is normal; a shop that will order off one is not, and you should not let them. Then put the wall lengths into the cabinet calculator to get a number before the quotes arrive, so that when they do, you know which one is out of line. The quote comparison page takes it from there.