I’ve been fabricating kitchen cabinets for over thirty years. There are standard dimensions that suppliers use. These sizes are the accepted norm for the cupboard manufacturing industry.
Kitchen Cupboard Widths
Most suppliers work on a three-inch incrementally progressive scale for widths. Base and uppers start at nine inches (9″) wide and progress to twelve, fifteen, eighteen, twenty one and so on… until they reach forty-eight inches (48″) wide.
Base Cabinet Standards
The lower cupboards in the kitchen are always thirty-four inches and one-half inch (34-1/2″) high. This is the correct height that corresponds with standard appliance dimensions. The height of the dishwasher and range should always be taken into consideration when any alterations to the base cabinets are being made during the installation process.
The correct depth is twenty-four inches (24″) to the face-frame. The overall depth is twenty-four and three quarters inches (24-3/4″) over the doors. A standard countertop should be installed at twenty-five and one quarter inches (25-1/4″) deep. This will produce a one-half inch (1/2″) overhang from the face of the base cabinet door to the front edge of the countertop.
Whenever there is a desk area in the kitchen, a vanity cupboard should be selected that is thirty inches high and twenty-one inches deep. The width of the boxes still works on the progressive three-inch scale. Some production faculties make twenty-four inch deep desk base-cupboards.
Toe Base
The toe-kick area of the base cabinet is generally set back three inches from the face of the door. The heights can vary from four to six inches.
Knee Space or Lap Drawers
The heights of these can vary from company to company. The dimensional ranges fall between four inches high and six inches. The standard widths generally start at twenty-one inches and progress to forty-eight wide. These desk/pencil drawer sections can be purchased in twenty-one and twenty-four inch depths.
Kitchen Wall Upper Cabinet Dimensions
The range hood and refrigerator cabinets start at twelve inches high and progress in three inch (3″) increments.
Standard height uppers begin at thirty inches (30″) high and increase to forty-eight. The normal incremental increase is by six inches (6″). The wall cupboard height increase like this: 30>36>42>48.
The standard depth dimension for a kitchen cabinet “upper” is twelve inches. Some companies sell sixteen inch deep wall cabinets.
Tall Kitchen Pantry Type Cupboards
Eighty-four, ninety, ninety-three and ninety-six inches seem to be the norm for kitchen pantry cupboard height dimensions. The widths will start at twelve inches and move upward to forty-eight wide. The depth of the pantry cabinets will start at twelve and progress in three inch increments.
The best thing to do is select the cabinet brand that you want to order from and then see what they have available for kitchen cupboard dimensions. Although I have listed the industry standards, every company will have their own set of sizes.
