Guide to Measuring Your Kitchen Cabinets Before Designing the Layout

14 Apr Guide to Measuring Your Kitchen Cabinets Before Designing the Layout

All kitchen renovation projects start and end with one thing: measurements. To ensure you correctly install your kitchen cabinets, you need accurate measurements. It can be easy to get distracted by designs, colors, styles, and everything that makes the kitchen feel like home when you get started. But the simple truth is if it doesn’t fit, nothing else matters. This guide will help you get all the correct measurements for your kitchen layout to install your new RTA kitchen cabinets successfully.

Tools Needed

Before we get too far, let’s go over everything you need to accurately measure your space and limit the number of trips you need to take to the hardware store. You’ll need:

• A 25′ retractable steel tape measure

It needs to be quite long to measure lengthy surfaces and sturdy to measure those long distances without much support. A flimsy measuring tape will only give you inaccurate measurements when you need as much accuracy as possible.

• Pencil

You have a lot of surfaces to measure, and you need to keep track of them. Remembering probably won’t be good enough.

• Eraser

No one’s perfect, right?

• Grid paper

To sketch out your kitchen and keep track of measurements to better visualize what the final kitchen layout will look like. You can use any paper if grid paper isn’t available, but it will help your layout sketch be more accurate.

• Calculator

You might need to do some math, and a calculator is more manageable than writing everything out. And more accurate.

• Ladder

Or at least a step ladder. You’ll need to measure up near your ceiling, so some people may be able to get away with a stepping stool while others need to climb high. For safety, have someone spot you and help keep the ladder steady.

• Laser measuring tool

Laser measuring tools are more of a nice-to-have than a need-to-have. It can make accurate measurements and is excellent for double-checking that everything is correct. You’ll be just fine if you don’t have one, though.

Sketch Your Kitchen Layout

Before measuring, break out the pencil and paper and sketch your kitchen layout. Make sure it is large enough to have room for notes and all the measurements you take. Don’t worry about drawing it perfectly to scale, including all the measurements is more important.

Measuring Tip: Write all your measurements in inches, not feet and inches, to prevent confusion.

Note the placement of all permanent fixtures, including windows, doors, gas lines, water lines, refrigerator, stove, oven, sink, electric outlets, hood vents, and light switches; anything you will have to build your RTA kitchen cabinets around. These notes will help make your life easier when installing and using your new RTA cabinets.

Measuring Walls

Start by measuring your walls horizontally, going around the room clockwise. Measure the whole wall until you hit a corner. After all wall lengths are recorded, measure, at 36-inch height, the walls from the corner to any obstruction. Stop when the tap measure hits a door, oven, or breaks in the wall. Be sure to measure the width of all these breaks as well.

Then, move on to vertical measurements. Measure the wall’s full height from floor to ceiling in at least three places on the wall to account for variations and uneven floor. Then, measure the height from the floor to the bottom of the windowsill, the bottom of the windowsill to the top, and then the top of the windowsill to the ceiling. If your kitchen has soffits, measure to the bottom of the soffit and how far out it extends.

Measuring Tip: Round everything to the nearest 16th of an inch to be as accurate as possible.

Doors and Windows

Measure the width and height of all windows and doorways in your kitchen. When measuring, include the frame and trim. This way, you know how much flat wall space you have for your RTA cabinets. Also, if you have a door that swings into the kitchen, measure how far it swings in, so cabinets don’t get damaged by a violent door swing.

Measure Fixtures

So, you know where your new RTA cabinets will fit, you need to measure all the fixtures that are permanent parts of your kitchen layout. You’ve already measured your windows and doors, but you’ll also need to find the length, width, and depth of your stove, countertops, sink, and other fixtures you aren’t planning on moving. Also, measure and record the center points of fixtures like your sink to find where plumbing and gas lines end and allow you to center cabinets around these fixtures when necessary.

It also helps to measure the distance between objects and the floor as well as the ceiling. These measurements help you see how much space you have above and below fixtures for your RTA kitchen cabinets, preventing you from being ready to install your wall RTA cabinets, only to find they extend below an outlet or light switch.

Measure the Existing Cabinets

You already know they fit, right? Measuring your current cabinets can be an excellent reference for when you are finding the right size for your new RTA kitchen cabinets. This step isn’t as necessary if you are changing your kitchen layout, though, and not just replacing your current kitchen cabinets.

Walkways and Kitchen Work Triangle

Your RTA kitchen cabinets need space, but so do you. Measure the width of your current walkways within the kitchen layout to be sure to maintain enough space for you to move about and work in your kitchen.

Marking your kitchen work triangle is key to ensuring kitchen functionality. The three points of your kitchen are your sink, refrigerator, and stovetop/oven. For a kitchen to be functional, you need to move easily between these three points. It may seem trivial, but it needs to be accounted for before any changes to your kitchen’s layout become permanent, and you’ll thank yourself later.

Finding the Right Kitchen Cabinets

I know, that’s a lot of measuring and numbers. However, doing all that work will help you see what size cabinets work and where you can best place them.

RTA Cabinets 365 has a wide selection of assembled and RTA kitchen cabinet sizes, so you’ll be sure to find the cabinets that can perfectly fit into your kitchen’s layout. Find the right cabinets for your kitchen today!