Kitchen Cabinets — Cut List That Actually Fits
Kitchen cabinets look simple until you realize every base cabinet, wall cabinet, and filler strip is sized off the real thickness of your plywood — not the nominal 3/4 inch printed on the sticker.
→ Open the live cut list calculator
Why kitchen cabinets are unforgiving
A standard base cabinet is 34-1/2" tall, 24" deep, and any width from 9" to 36". Every interior part — bottom, stretchers, back, shelves — is derived from the outer width minus twice the side-panel thickness. Real 3/4" plywood is usually 0.703" to 0.720", so a plan that assumes 0.750" leaves a 3/32" gap across the run. Multiply that across eight cabinets and your countertop no longer sits flat.
What the calculator does for kitchen builds
- Set outer width for each cabinet — sides, top stretchers, bottom, and shelves all recalculate.
- Swap between 3/4" nominal plywood and 18mm Baltic birch and watch every part update.
- Kerf-aware sheet-good estimator so a run of 8 cabinets doesn't come up one sheet short.
- Fraction or three-decimal display so it matches your tape measure or calipers.
Typical kitchen cabinet cut list
- Sides — 2 per box, full height × full depth
- Bottom — 1 per box, (outer width − 2 × thickness) × depth
- Stretchers — 2 (front + back), same length as bottom, 4" wide
- Back — 1/4" plywood, rabbeted or nailed on
- Adjustable shelf — inner width minus 1/16" clearance
- Toe kick — recessed 3" from front, 4" tall
Common failure modes this app prevents
- Face frames misaligned — because interior parts were cut to nominal instead of measured
- Doors won't close — because kerf loss shrank the opening below the door width
- Runs of cabinets go long — because filler strips weren't planned in the cut list
Related
Skip the math — try the free calculator
WoodCraft Utility Engine builds a live cut list from your real measured wood thickness, kerf, and cabinet dimensions. Imperial or metric, fractions or decimals.
Launch the cut list calculator →