How to Install Your Kitchen Cabinets

Confirm your walls are marked for stud locations using a stud finder, and mark each stud with a vertical pencil line that extends above where your wall cabinets will sit. Shut off any electrical circuits you will be working near, and remove baseboards along the cabinet run if you plan to run cabinets to the finished floor.

Find the highest point of your floor along the cabinet run using a level, since base cabinets are set level from that point and shimmed up everywhere else. Measure up 34.5 inches from that high point (the standard base cabinet height) and snap a level chalk line around the room. This line represents the top of your base cabinets and is the single most important reference in the whole install.

Measure up from the base cabinet line to mark where the bottom of your wall cabinets will sit, typically 18 inches above where the counter surface will land.

Temporarily screw a straight board along the wall cabinet line to support the weight of the upper cabinets while you fasten them. This lets you position and level each cabinet without holding it in place by hand, and makes the install dramatically easier for one or two people.

Installing upper cabinets before base cabinets gives you room to work without leaning over counters. Start in a corner, rest the cabinet on the ledger board, and check it for level and plumb in both directions. Drive screws through the cabinet back rail into wall studs, using at least two screws per stud location.

Clamp or screw adjoining wall cabinets together through their face frames before fully tightening the wall screws, so the fronts stay flush and the door gaps stay even across the whole run. Work down the wall one cabinet at a time, checking level at each step since small errors compound quickly.

Starting again from a corner, set the first base cabinet on your level line and shim underneath as needed to bring it level front to back and side to side. Screw through the back rail into wall studs where possible. Attach the next cabinet by clamping the face frames flush and driving cabinet screws through the adjoining frames, then screw it to the wall and check level again before moving to the next cabinet.

Use a level across the tops of several cabinets at once as you go to make sure the whole run stays consistent, not just each cabinet individually.

Filler strips close small gaps at walls and corners and are trimmed to width with a table saw or circular saw before being screwed to the adjoining cabinet. Fit fillers snugly against the wall, especially in corners where walls are rarely perfectly square. Finish panels dress up any exposed cabinet sides and are attached the same way as fillers, with screws from the inside of the adjacent cabinet.

Once all base cabinets are set, level, and secured, attach the toe kick along the bottom front of the run, scribing it to the floor if the floor is uneven. Remove the wall cabinet ledger board and touch up screw holes. Do a final walk through checking that every door and drawer opens, closes, and aligns evenly, and adjust hinges as needed.

If you would rather not tackle installation yourself, our expert assembly service builds cabinets before delivery, which simplifies the install to setting and securing finished boxes.