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Cabinet Door Cut & Overlay Layout

Calculate exact fractional cut dimensions for cabinet doors based on face frame opening, hinge overlay, and center reveal gap. Get precise fractions like 15 7/16" for saw cuts — works for both face-frame and frameless European cabinet boxes for single and double door configurations.

Cabinet Frame

Door Configuration

Opening Width

Opening Height

Hinge Overlay

Ex: 0.5 (1/2"), 1.25 (1-1/4")

Center Reveal

Gap between the two doors

Door Cut Dimensions

Target Cut Size

Quantity to Build

2Doors Needed

Total Width x Height

15 7/16" x 25"

Decimal Width

15.4375"

Decimal Height

25.0000"

Overlay Math:If the opening is 30", and you are using 1/2" overlay hinges, the door total coverage footprint is 31" (30" + 0.5" left + 0.5" right). If using standard double doors, subtract the center gap reveal (e.g. 1/8") from 31", resulting in 30.875", and simply divide by two doors (15.4375" or exactly 15 7/16" per door).

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What is Cabinet Door Overlay Math: Face-Frame vs Frameless, Hinge Overlay, and Fractional Cut Dimensions?

Cabinet door sizing is a precision joinery problem. Unlike furntiture dimensions that can tolerate 1/16″ of ambiguity, cabinet doors must be cut to the correct fraction or they will bind against adjacent doors, leave unequal reveals on the face frame, or look visually misaligned across a 10-foot kitchen run. The key concept: a cabinet door does NOT equal the opening size. The door must be larger than the opening by exactly the hinge overlay amount on each side, and smaller by exactly the center reveal on each side where two doors meet. Every dimension in cabinet door layout flows from one number: the hinge overlay rating stamped on the concealed cup hinge.

Mathematical Foundation

Single Door Width

\text{Door Width} = \text{Opening Width} + (2 \times \text{Overlay})

\text{Opening Width}

= The clear opening inside the face frame from stile to stile (or between plywood panels for frameless cabinets). Measure at the narrowest point — face frames are rarely perfectly square. Measure three times: top, middle, and bottom. Use the smallest dimension to prevent a door that binds.

2 \times \text{Overlay}

= Each side of the door overlaps the face frame (or cabinet box edge) by the overlay amount. A 1/2″ overlay hinge adds 1/2″ on the left and 1/2″ on the right = 1″ total added width. Common overlays: 1/2″ (standard face-frame concealed hinge), 3/4″ (half-overlay frameless), 1-1/4″ (full-overlay frameless on plywood box). For a single door on a face-frame cabinet: full door width covers the opening plus both overlay returns.

Double Door Width (per door)

\text{Width per Door} = \frac{\text{Opening} + (2 \times \text{Overlay}) - \text{Center Reveal}}{2}

\text{Center Reveal}

= The gap between two meeting doors in the center of a double-door opening. Without a gap: doors bind against each other when opened even slightly (wood expansion, hinge tolerance). Standard center reveal = 1/8″ (3.175mm). Some cabinetmakers prefer 3/16″ for soft-close hinges that need clearance on the soft-close return stroke. Never set to 0″ — temperature/humidity swings will cause doors to bind within months of installation. The reveal is subtracted from the total (opening + overlays) before dividing by 2, giving each door an equal but slightly reduced width.

\text{Width per Door}

= The exact rip dimension for each door panel. This number must be converted to the nearest usable fraction for table saw setup: 16ths are the standard minimum graduation on a standard tape measure. 32nds are achievable with a quality fence and sharp blade. The calculator outputs both the decimal and the exact fraction (e.g., 15.4375″ = 15 7/16″). Set your table saw fence to the fraction, not the decimal.

Door Height

\text{Door Height} = \text{Opening Height} + (2 \times \text{Overlay})

\text{Door Height}

= Door height uses the same overlay-addition formula as single-door width: the door covers the opening plus the overlay amount on the top and bottom edges. For frameless (European) cabinets: doors typically cover the full panel height with a small gap (usually 3/32″–1/8″) at top and bottom between adjacent doors in a column. Measure the full panel height and subtract the gap, rather than measuring the 'opening' for frameless. For top and bottom cabinets in a kitchen run: cabinet height uniformity is critical — measure each opening individually because floor cabinets set on unlevel floors can vary 1/4″–1/2″ across a 10-foot run.

Laws & Principles

The Overlay Hinge Rating Dictates Everything: Every concealed cup hinge (Blum, Grass, Amerock, King Slide) is rated by overlay — the precise distance the door edge protrudes beyond the face frame stile when the door is closed. A 1/2" (or 'half-overlay') hinge literally positions the door so its edge sits 1/2" past the inside edge of the stile. This means: the door is 1/2" WIDER on each side than the opening. For double doors on a 30" opening with 1/2" overlay hinges: each door covers 15.4375" (15 7/16") — not 15". Getting this wrong by even 1/4" makes doors either gap (under-size) or bind (over-size) against the face frame. Always confirm the exact overlay rating from the installation template provided with the hinge, as different manufacturers label similarly-named hinges with slightly different actual overlay distances.
Face-Frame vs Frameless (European): Face-frame cabinets have a solid wood frame attached to the front of the box, with the opening being the hole inside the frame. Frameless (European) cabinets have no face frame — the door attaches directly to the plywood or MDF box carcass. For frameless: 'full overlay' means the door covers the full cabinet side, leaving only a 3mm (1/8") gap between adjacent doors. 'Half overlay' on frameless means two cabinets share one partition wall, and each door covers half the wall thickness (typically 18mm / 3/4"). The math formula is the same but the 'opening' dimension changes: for full-overlay frameless, the opening IS the cabinet interior width. For half-overlay frameless, the opening is the cabinet interior width plus half the partition wall thickness on each shared wall.
Always Convert the Decimal to a Fraction for the Saw: Cabinet makers set table saw fences using fractions marked on their tape measure — not 4-decimal floats. The calculator outputs the exact fraction (e.g., 15 7/16") which you set directly on the saw fence. 15.4375" set to 4 decimal places is the same as 15 7/16" exactly (7/16 = 0.4375). The most common fractions in cabinet door sizing fall on 16ths and 32nds: standard graduated tape measures show 16ths clearly. A 32nd-precise measurement requires a quality Starrett or Stanley tape marked to 32nds. Never round to the nearest 8th (1/8" = 0.125") — a 1/8" error on door width creates a visible gap or bind that is immediately apparent when the kitchen is installed.
Measure the Opening Three Times, Use the Smallest: Face frames are rarely perfectly parallel or plumb. The stile closest to the hinge may be 30.25" at the top and 30.00" at the bottom due to cabinet installation or frame variation. If you cut the door to the top dimension (30.25" opening + 1" overlay = 31.25" door) but the bottom of the opening is only 30.00", the door will bind at the bottom of the hinge side. Rule: measure at top, middle, and bottom. Use the smallest measurement. The 1/4" overshoot at the top of the opening will be covered by the overlay onto the stile. Cabinets with out-of-square openings may need individually-sized doors rather than treating all openings as identical.

Step-by-Step Example Walkthrough

" A kitchen has a 36" wide wall cabinet opening for two doors (double configuration). Blum 110° concealed hinges rated at 1/2" overlay are installed. Standard 1/8" center reveal applies. What are the exact cut dimensions for each door? "

1. Opening Width = 36.000"
2. Add total overlay: 36.000 + 0.500 (left edge) + 0.500 (right edge) = 37.000" total coverage.
3. Subtract center reveal: 37.000 − 0.125 (gap between doors) = 36.875".
4. Divide by 2 for double doors: 36.875 / 2 = 18.4375" per door.
5. Convert to fraction: 0.4375 = 7/16. Cut each door to exactly 18 7/16".
6. Height: opening = 28.000". Add top/bottom overlay: 28.000 + 0.500 + 0.500 = 29.000". If single row (no vertical gap needed), cut doors to 29".

Final Result: Cut 2 doors to 18 7/16" wide × 29" tall. Set table saw fence to 18 7/16" (= 18.4375"). Each door will overlap the face frame stile by 1/2" on the outside edges, and the two doors will have a 1/8" reveal gap at the center — exactly what Blum hinges mount at their standard installation template position.

Quick Answer: How do I calculate cabinet door size from the opening?

Door Width = Opening + (2 × Hinge Overlay). For double doors: (Opening + 2×Overlay − Center Reveal) ÷ 2. Example: 30″ opening, 1/2″ overlay hinges, 1/8″ center reveal: (30 + 1.0 − 0.125) / 2 = 15 7/16″ per door. Height: opening height + (2 × overlay). Use the fractional output (not decimal) to set your table saw fence. Never round to the nearest 1/8″ — 0.125″ rounding error creates visible gaps or binding in an installed kitchen.

Cabinet Hinge Overlay Types: When to Use Each

Overlay ratings are stamped on most concealed cup hinges and listed in the hinge installation template. All major brands (Blum, Grass, Amerock, Sugatsune) use the same overlay system. Verify your specific hinge’s overlay with the installation template before ordering door material.

Overlay Type	Amount Added per Side	Cabinet Type	Visual Result
1/2″ (Half Overlay)	0.500″ / 12.7mm	Standard face-frame	Half the stile visible between adjacent doors
3/4″ overlay	0.750″ / 19mm	Face-frame or frameless	3/4 of stile covered; 1/4 remains visible
1-1/4″ (Full Overlay)	1.250″ / 31.75mm	Frameless (European)	Doors nearly cover full cabinet face; thin gap only
Inset (0″ overlay)	0″ — door sits flush	Face-frame only	Door sits inside opening, flush with face frame surface
Compact (Blum 38N)	0.375″ / 9.5mm	Shallow boxes	For 3/4″ doors on shallow (under 12″ deep) boxes
Inset doors require precision gap fitting on all four sides (typically 3/32″–1/8″ all around) with no overlay margin for error — the hardest configuration to build. Full-overlay frameless is the most forgiving because the large overlay hides small opening dimension variations. Face-frame half-overlay (1/2″) is the most common in North American production cabinetry.

Pro Tips & Common Cabinet Door Mistakes

Do This

✓Always use the Blum or Grass installation template (the plastic jig that ships with the hinge) to position cup bore hole location — do not measure from the overlay spec alone. The overlay rating tells you what door width to cut. The installation template tells you exactly where to bore the 35mm cup hole in the door and where to position the mounting plate on the cabinet. These two dimensions work as a matched pair — the template is pre-set to position the door correctly for that specific hinge’s overlay. If you bore the cup hole 3mm off from the template position, the door will sit 3mm off its correct overlay position regardless of whether you cut the door to the correct width. Use a Blum Inserta self-centering jig or the printed template card at minimum — never eyeball the bore hole location.
✓Use a story pole (a long piece of scrap marked with all door sizes) when cutting multiple cabinets in a kitchen run — don’t remeasure from scratch for each cabinet. Kitchen runs often have 8–15 different openings that appear to be identical but vary 1/16″–1/8″ due to cabinet leveling, shimming, and face frame variation. A story pole is a straight piece of 1″×2″ held against each opening in sequence, with tick marks made for each opening’s actual dimension. These marks preserve all measured variations in one piece so you can sort similar openings and batch-cut the same size without reset. Professional kitchen cabinet installers use story poles on every job — it eliminates remeasurement error and speeds up layout for replacement doors.

Avoid This

✗Don’t measure the old door and copy it as the replacement size without verifying the overlay — the original doors may be worn, warped, or cut incorrectly when originally made. Replacement door projects are the most common scenario where this mistake occurs. An old door that has swelled from moisture, cupped, or been sanded on the edges may be 1/4″–3/4″ off from its theoretically correct size. If you copy the old door’s dimension directly, you perpetuate the original error — or add your own. Correct process: measure the face frame OPENING, confirm the hinge overlay type (check the existing hinge if still mounted — the overlay is molded into the hinge arm), and calculate the replacement size from scratch using the formula. Exception: if the old doors fit perfectly and cleared cleanly, measuring and matching is fine — but still verify the size falls within 1/16″ of the calculated dimension.
✗Don’t set all doors in a kitchen run to the same height without measuring each opening individually — floors are never perfectly level and cabinets installed on unlevel floors vary in height. A 10-foot kitchen base cabinet run on a floor that falls 3/4″ from one end to the other: the cabinet installer shimmed the low end to keep the tops level. This means the plywood floor of each cabinet box is at a different height from the actual floor, but the tops are all the same. The face frame/opening heights are therefore all the same if the frames were built to the same spec. HOWEVER: if any cabinet was shimmed AND the face frame was cut short to compensate, that opening height is different. Always measure each opening’s height individually. A “standard 30″ upper cabinet” opening that measures 29 7/8″ needs a door cut to 30 7/8″ (29.875 + 0.5 + 0.5 overlay), not the nominal 31″ of a theoretical 30″ opening.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the standard center reveal between two cabinet doors?

1/8″ (3mm) is the standard center reveal for face-frame cabinets with standard concealed hinges. This gap: (1) Prevents binding when doors open and close. (2) Accommodates wood movement in solid wood door panels (seasonal expansion of 1/16″–3/32″ in humid climates). (3) Provides visual consistency across the kitchen face. Some cabinetmakers use 3/16″ (5mm) for doors with soft-close hinges, as the soft-close damper requires a small clearance on the return stroke to avoid the door edge touching the adjacent door. Full-overlay frameless doors typically use a 3mm (metric) gap — a legacy of the European 32mm modular system where all gaps are multiples of 3mm. For inset doors (zero overlay): the gap is on all four sides, typically 3/32″–1/8″ all around, and the door is centered in the opening — no center reveal formula applies.

What is the difference between face-frame and frameless (European) cabinet door sizing?

Face-frame cabinets have a solid wood (typically 1-1/2″ wide) frame across the front of the box. The opening you measure is the clear hole inside the frame. Standard North American hinge overlay = 1/2″ per side. The door overlaps onto the face frame stile surface. The visible face frame width between adjacent double doors = stile width minus (2 × overlay) = 1.5″ − 1.0″ = 0.5″ reveal on each side of the center, plus 1/8″ center gap = total 1.125″ between door edges at center. Frameless (European) cabinets have no face frame — the door mounts directly to the plywood carcass using full-overlay hinges. The “opening” is the interior cabinet width. Full-overlay doors cover the entire front of the carcass side, with a 3mm gap between adjacent doors. The formula is identical but the overlay value is larger (typically 18mm = 3/4″ for half-overlay frameless on 18mm plywood, or 5/8″ for 16mm carcass). European frameless is the dominant system globally outside North America; face-frame dominates North American residential production cabinetry.

How many hinges do I need per cabinet door?

General rule: 2 hinges per door up to 40″ (1,016mm) tall; 3 hinges for 40″–60″; 4 hinges for 60″+. Blum’s official Tip-On recommendation: 2 hinges per door for doors up to 18 kg (40 lbs); 3 hinges above 18 kg. Hinge placement: top and bottom hinges should be positioned 2″–3″ from the door edge (not from the opening edge). For a 30″ door: top hinge 2.5″ from the top edge; bottom hinge 2.5″ from the bottom edge; middle hinge centered between them for 3-hinge applications. On shaker-style doors with a rail at the hinge side: position hinges to land on the rail (the stile/rail joint area) for maximum material thickness without interfering with the cope-and-stick joint. Always use the hinge manufacturer’s template for bore hole positioning — Blum’s Inserta jig or the paper template card ensures correct geometry regardless of how the hinges are counted or positioned.

Why does the calculator output a fraction instead of a decimal?

Table saws, tape measures, and woodworking fences use fractional inch graduations — not 4-decimal floats. The calculator converts the decimal result to the nearest standard fraction (in 16ths or 32nds) so you can set your saw fence directly. Example: 15.4375″ = 15 7/16″ exactly (7 ÷ 16 = 0.4375). Common cabinet door fractions and their decimals: 1/16 = 0.0625, 3/32 = 0.09375, 1/8 = 0.125, 3/16 = 0.1875, 7/32 = 0.21875, 1/4 = 0.25, 5/16 = 0.3125, 7/16 = 0.4375, 1/2 = 0.5, 9/16 = 0.5625, 5/8 = 0.625, 11/16 = 0.6875, 3/4 = 0.75, 13/16 = 0.8125, 7/8 = 0.875, 15/16 = 0.9375. Setting a fence to 0.4375″ on a decimal readout requires a digital caliper — setting it to 7/16″ on a standard tape is four tick marks past the 1/4″ mark, achievable by any carpenter. Both values represent the same cut.