Standard Cabinet Dimensions Part 2: Wall Cabinets

This is part 2 of the series: Standard Cabinet Dimensions. Part 1: Base Cabinets, covers the standard dimensions of base cabinets. In this part of the series of standard cabinet dimensions we will be covering the wall cabinets. There are more wall cabinets than base cabinets, this is because these cabinets have to be accommodated in kitchens with different ceiling clearance.

Cabinet Height

There are different cabinet heights available but first we will discuss what I consider the three main heights: 30″, 36″ and 42″ tall. These are the height of cabinets that are widely used and that can be accommodated in almost any kitchen space. The clearance available in most kitchens ranges from 8′ (96 inches) to 10′ (144 inches) from floor to ceiling and in some new constructions the clearance exceeds 10′.

The cabinet height that must be used for your kitchen depends on the clearance that your kitchen has. The rule of thumb that I follow for the most part is the following:

• 30″ for kitchens with a clearance of ~88+ inches
• 36″ for kitchens with a clearance of ~94+ inches
• 42″ for kitchens with a clearance of ~100+ inches

Why is that? lets do the math…(see picture)Base cabinets are 34 1/2″ tall + 1 1/2″ thick counter top + 18″ standard clearance = 54″ from the floor to the bottom of the wall cabinets. Now if we use the 30″ tall cabinets we have a total height of 84″ from floor to the top of the wall cabinet. However I said that we need approximately 88″ when we use 30″ cabinets and the math came to 84″; the thing is that normally people want crown moldings on top of the cabinetry and crown moldings(regular) usually have a height of approximately 3″ so we add those 3″ to the 84″ and we end up with 87″. My numbers on the previous list allow space for some irregularities that might happen when putting the kitchen together, you dont want to have the cabinetry dimensions be the exact same as what you measured. –Walls, floors and ceilings are never 100% leveled. through out–

Now that is not to say that the previous rule has to be followed ALL the time. Some times we can make some changes to the kitchen layout to try to accommodate the customer’s requests. An example would be to make the space between the counter top and the bottom of the wall cabinets less than the standard space of 18″, if the clearance is low and the client wants a crown molding on top of the cabinets.

There are other heights available but I consider them “secondary” since they are used to complement the “main heights”. The secondary heights are: 12″, 15″, 18″, 21″, 24″ and 27″ tall. These cabinets are used on top of microwave ovens, refrigerators, extractors and other similar appliances. However these “secondary” cabinets do not come in all the widths as regular but I will cover that later.

Cabinet Depth

Wall cabinets come in two depths: 12″(standard) and 24″. The 12″ depth is standard and it is widely used, the 24″ deep cabinets are normally used above refrigerators and are not available for all heights.

Cabinet Width

The widths of wall cabinets are a exactly the same as base cabinets. The widths range from 9″ to 42″ with 3″ increments (9, 12, 15, …, 36, 39 and 42). These cabinets can be divided into two categories:

Cabinets with 1 door which range from 9″ to 21″.

And Cabinets with 2 doors which range from 24″ to 42″.

Corner Cabinets

Just as base cabinets, wall cabinets have specialty cabinets that go in the corners. They are very similar to the base cabinets counter parts and they are:

The Wall Diagonal Corner, arguably the most used corner cabinet of them all. It is very popular for the ease of use and large space. This type of wall corner cabinet comes in two sizes 24×24 and 27×27 wide, the former being the most used.

Wall Blind Corners are the second type of wall corner cabinets. This cabinet type is smaller and less convenient to use compared to the wall diagonal corner, which may be the reason that it is not used as much as wall diagonal corners. However this type of cabinet is more useful than having dead space in the corner. This cabinet comes in various dimensions but there are two which are the most common: 27″ and 30″ wide.

“Secondary” Cabinets

Previously I said that there wall cabinets can be divided into two categories depending on their height the “main” cabinets and the “secondary” cabinets. The former are those of height: 30″, 36″ and 42″ which come in all the widths; the latter come in other heights: 12″, 15″, 18″, 21″, 24″ and 27″ but do not come in all widths. These cabinets are used on top of appliances such as microwave ovens, extractors and refrigerators. For this reason the widths that are widely available for secondary cabinets are: 30″ and 36″. All the secondary cabinets come in the two depths 12″ and 24″.

Continue to…

Part 1: dimensions of base cabinets.