Design Your Dream Kitchen
Cabinets and Countertops are a central feature of just about every kitchen. Whether you’re installing new cabinets or changing up your existing ones, it’s important to get complete, accurate measurements to prevent unnecessary spacing issues.
When measuring a kitchen, first make a sketch of the room that includes any existing features. To see how much space you have, find the distance between the highest points on your installation floors and the ceiling. Then, measure your walls from corner to corner. Make sure to get the measurements of any objects connected to the wall, as well as the distance between them and both the floor and ceiling. Always note the placement
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Step 1
Take digital pictures with your phone of all the walls floors and ceiling.
Step 2
Make a general sketch of the kitchen.
When it comes time to install your cabinets, you’ll need to have a clear, accurate drawing of your kitchen and everything in it. On a blank sheet of printer or graph paper, sketch out the shape of your kitchen and make marks indicating where your windows and existing appliances are. You don’t need to nail the exact placement of everything since you’ll be making separate notes indicating distance of any important lines and fixtures.
Step 3
Find the height of your kitchen.
With a tape measure go around the room measure from floor to ceiling. Most kitchens are 96 inches 8 feet. Most modern homes are 108 inches 9 Feet, and some are 120inches 10 feet
Step 4
Find the width of your kitchen.
Step 5
Get measurements for any objects connected to the wall.
Even in stripped down, bare-bones kitchens, you’ll typically find a sink, an oven, windows, and other major accessories fixed to the wall. To see how much space they take up, grab a tape measure and find their length and width and depth. Remember to record the measurements on your drawing.
Step 6
Find the distance between objects on the wall and both your floor and ceiling
This will help you make sure there are no obstacles in the way of your cabinet installation. If something located over an installation spot, such as a window or sink, sits lower than the top of a base cabinet or higher than the bottom of a wall cabinet, look into moving your cabinet or purchasing a custom cabinet designed to accommodate the object
Make note of any existing lines, jacks, outlets, and other fixtures.
Like all parts of your house, your kitchen can only function properly if it has access to water, electricity, and other utilities. To avoid damaging your kitchen’s infrastructure, make notes on your drawing indicating the location of all important lines and fixtures, including:
- Water lines, Drain lines
- Power outlets, Range, Hoods, Microwave, Switches, Phone Jacks
- Light fixtures, Vents
Step 7
Measure the width of each cabinet.
Just like when finding the height and depth, determine the width of each cabinet using a tape measure. Keep in mind that even if a cabinet looks like a single unit, it may be made of multiple cabinets that each have their own width. Unlike with the previous measurements, kitchen cabinets usually come in 3" increments (3,6,9,12,15,18…)
Step 8
Make a list of the cabinets you have
Step 9
List and measure your appliances
Step 10
Find the distance between your kitchen cabinets and other fixtures.
If you plan on adding, removing, replacing, or extending a kitchen cabinet, you’ll need to know the distance between it and any surrounding fixtures. To do so, run a tape measure from your cabinet to adjacent or nearby objects like windows, sinks, ovens, dishwashers, and other cabinets
Step 11
Make a nice folder and e mail it to brad@bradshomecenter.com along with your selections of cabinets and countertops from our site.
We will get back to you with a quote and any questions we may have!