Buying guides / No. 002

Your Cabinet Opening Is Not Your Drawer Size. This Is How Arguments Start.

By The Boring Drawer Company

The opening in a cabinet is the space available for a drawer and its hardware. The drawer box is the wooden container that fits inside that space. Those measurements are related. They are rarely interchangeable.

This is the sort of distinction that seems fussy until a very nice drawer arrives and refuses to enter the cabinet.

First, decide what you are measuring

There are two useful starting points: an existing box that fits correctly, or an empty cabinet opening. Label your measurements accordingly. Write "outside box width" or "clear opening width," rather than just "width."

The decorative face is a third object. It may cover part of the surrounding cabinet, so its width and height do not establish the box dimensions. [1]

Three objects. One tape measure. An entirely preventable misunderstanding.

Replacing a box that already fits

Remove the drawer using the release method for its hardware. Measure the wooden box from outside face to outside face: width across the sides, depth from the box front to its back, and height of the box itself.

Exclude the attached decorative front and handle from those box measurements.

Record the slide brand, model and any visible part numbers. Photograph the underside, rear corners and locking devices. If the old box binds, sags or was modified, describe the problem instead of treating its dimensions as proven correct.

A replacement is an opportunity to preserve what works. Reproducing the original mistake is optional.

Starting with an opening

Measure the clear width at the front and farther inside where the drawer will travel. Check available height and usable depth. Record any differences; do not average them away. Note face-frame projections, hinges, pipes, brackets and other obstructions.

For a face-frame cabinet, show both the front opening and the interior. A wide cavity behind a narrow face frame does not allow a wider drawer to pass through the front. Photographs help explain this geometry.

The slide model then determines the relevant allowances and preparation. Manufacturer requirements may reference internal drawer width, outside box width or a particular datum. Read the labels, not just the number. [2]

A deliberately ordinary example

Suppose a measured opening is 600 mm wide. That does not mean "order a 600 mm drawer." It means the drawer and selected hardware must fit that opening, subject to cabinet geometry and the manufacturer's requirements.

We have intentionally supplied no universal subtraction. One convenient wrong answer is still a wrong answer.

Keep the whole order in one unit system. If you convert, remember that 1 inch is exactly 25.4 mm; avoid repeatedly rounding back and forth.

Before submitting

Check that your order identifies the measurement basis, width, depth, height, hardware and cabinet type.

Include an obstruction photo where relevant. Compare the final calculated box size with the space it must occupy.

If the hardware is unidentified, stop the sizing decision there and ask for help. A photograph is considerably cheaper than confidently manufacturing the wrong rectangle.

Bring us the measurements you actually have. We will be interested in which kind they are.