Cabinet door size calculator
Enter the face frame opening and how the door hangs. This sizes a single door or a pair for full overlay, partial overlay or inset, and cuts a five-piece door into stiles, rails and a panel.
Inside the face frame
Advanced settings1/2" overlay · 1/8" reveal · 2 1/4" stiles · 3/8" tongue · 3/8" groove · hinges 3" in
= 0.5"
= 0.125"
Door end to cup centre
= 2.25"
= 2.25"
= 0.375"
= 0.375"
= 0.063"
Make two doors
Each door wide
14 7/16"
Height
25"
Reveal between
1/8"
Pair covers
29"
Hinges per door
2
Where the size comes from
- Overall width28" opening plus 1/2" each side
- 29"
- Each doorHalf of what is left after the reveal, rounded down to the sixteenth — the reveal takes the difference
- 14 7/16"
- Check14 7/16" + 1/8" + 14 7/16"
- 29"
- Height24" opening plus 1/2" top and bottom
- 25"
Cut list, for both doors
- Stiles2 1/4" wide, the full door height
- 4 × 25"
- Rails2 1/4" wide — between the stiles plus 3/8" into each
- 4 × 10 11/16"
- PanelsInto the 3/8" groove less 1/16" each side, rounded down to fit
- 2 × 10 9/16" × 21 1/8"
All 2 checks passShow the numbers
- The stiles and rails leave a panel — passes9 15/16" between the stiles and 20 1/2" between the rails.
- The panel stays in its groove — passes5/16" of panel edge sits in the groove on each side.
- The stiles and rails leave a panel — passes9 15/16" between the stiles and 20 1/2" between the rails.
- The panel stays in its groove — passes5/16" of panel edge sits in the groove on each side.
Hinge cups, from the top of each door
- Hinge 1
- 3"
- Hinge 2
- 22"
The count is the hinge table the hinge calculator uses; the cup's distance from the door edge is the hinge maker's figure, and it changes with the overlay.
Hinge setback gauge, at true size
Only the setback — the one mark that repeats at both ends of all both doors and has to match the plates on the cabinet. The middle hinges are a tape measurement. Print at 100%, check the ruler, butt the 0 against the door's end.
Put a tape on the printed ruler. If it does not read exactly 6 inches, the print was scaled — set the print dialog to 100% or “Actual size” and print it again. Do not cut wood from a template that failed this.
Exactly 3" from the end of the door to the centre of the cup. Use it at the top and the bottom of every door so the plates on the cabinet line up with every one.
The hinge decides the overlay
A concealed hinge is made for one overlay, and the figure on its packet beats any default here. Set the hinge first, then size the doors to it. For a solid-wood panel, the clearance is the wood movement calculator's job: a 1/16" gap suits plywood, not a wide oak panel through a humid summer.
Where to buy this
- 4 concealed hingesHome DepotLowe's
Buy hinges for the overlay you sized the doors for — 1/2" overlay — and check the packet before boring.
Plain search links, nothing sponsored. Prices and stock are the shop's, and a local lumberyard will usually beat both on solid stock.
Worked example: a pair for a 28" × 24" opening
A 28" × 24" face frame opening with a 1/2" overlay takes two doors 14 7/16" × 25", with a 1/8" reveal between them.
Built five-piece with 2 1/4" stiles and rails and a 3/8" tongue, each door is two 25" stiles, two 10 11/16" rails and a 10 9/16" × 21 1/8" panel, and hangs on 2 hinges.
It passes all 2 of the construction checks the calculator applies.
- Each door
- 14 7/16" × 25"
- Stiles
- 4 × 25"
- Rails
- 4 × 10 11/16"
- Panels
- 2 × 10 9/16" × 21 1/8"
- Hinges
- 4
These are the figures the calculator above opens on. Change any field and it works the same problem for your numbers.
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About cabinet door sizes
- How do I size cabinet doors for a 1/2 inch overlay?
- Add the overlay to each side of the opening. A 15" × 24" opening takes a 16" × 25" door. For a pair, add the overlay to the outside edges, take off the reveal between them and halve it: a 28" × 24" opening makes two doors 14 7/16" × 25" with an 1/8" gap in the middle.
- How big is an inset cabinet door?
- The opening less a gap on every side. With a 1/16" gap a 15" × 24" opening takes a 14 7/8" × 23 7/8" door, rounded down to the sixteenth because it has to fit inside the frame. Inset is the unforgiving style — the gap shows every out-of-square corner — which is why many makers build the door a hair big and plane it to the opening.
- How long are the rails on a shaker cabinet door?
- The door width less both stiles, plus the tongue that goes into each stile. A 15" door with 2 1/4" stiles and a 3/8" cope-and-stick tongue has rails 11 1/4" long. The panel is the width between the stiles plus the groove depth each side, less a little clearance: 11 1/8" × 26 1/8" for that door. The stiles run the full 30" height.
- How many hinges does a cabinet door need?
- By height, on the table most concealed-hinge makers print: two up to 30", three up to 48", four up to 72". So a 30" base cabinet door takes two and a 40" pantry door takes three. The calculator gives the count for the door it sizes and where each cup goes; the hinge calculator does the same for any door you already have.
- Should a wide cabinet opening get one door or a pair?
- A pair, once a single door would be wide enough to swing into the room in your way or to sag on two hinges — most cabinetmakers switch somewhere past 18" to 24" of door width. It is a judgement, not a rule, so the calculator does both and leaves the choice to you: flip between Single and Pair and compare the door widths.
You might also need
- Cabinet hinge count and placementHinge count from door height, and where each one sits down the door.
- Cabinet face frame calculatorStiles, rails and mullions to cut for any number of openings across and rows down, pocket-screwed or tenoned, and the opening each one leaves.
- Cabinet boxesA carcass cut list from the finished outside dimensions, face-frame or frameless.
- Knob and pull placementWhere the bores go for a knob or a pull, in inches or millimetres, centred or set down from the edge.