Kitchen Cabinet Sizes Explained

• Base cabinets: 34.5 inches tall, 24 inches deep, designed to bring your finished counter to the common 36 inch counter height once a countertop is added
• Wall cabinets: 12 inches deep, currently available in a 36 inch tall standard line, with a 30 inch tall line coming soon
• Tall or pantry cabinets: typically span from the floor close to ceiling height and share the 24 inch depth of base cabinets

These dimensions are shared across most North American cabinet manufacturers, which is part of why RTA cabinets fit so predictably into existing kitchen layouts.

Cabinets are typically available in widths that increase in 3 inch increments, commonly starting around 9 inches for a slim base or wall cabinet and running up to 36 inches or wider for larger base and sink cabinets. Wider cabinets reduce the number of seams in a run, while narrower cabinets offer more flexibility to fit a specific wall length exactly.

When planning a run, add up your available wall length and work backward from standard widths, saving any leftover space for a filler rather than trying to force a non standard cabinet width.

A filler is a plain panel, typically 3 inches wide, installed at the end of a cabinet run next to a wall, appliance, or corner. Fillers absorb the small measurement variations that are normal in any real kitchen, and they give doors and drawers room to open fully without hitting an adjacent wall or appliance handle. Every cabinet layout should include at least a small filler wherever a cabinet run meets a wall at an angle or a fixed obstruction.

Corners can be handled a few different ways. A blind corner base cabinet extends one cabinet partially into the corner with the adjoining cabinet covering the rest, giving usable if slightly harder to reach storage. A lazy Susan or corner carousel cabinet uses rotating shelves to make corner storage fully accessible. Diagonal corner cabinets present an angled door facing into the room and work well in open layouts. Your choice depends on your storage priorities and how much you want to spend on corner hardware.

Once you know your wall lengths from measuring, choose cabinet widths that get as close as possible to filling the space, then plan a filler for the remainder. The free 3D Kitchen Planner at /planner shows running totals as you add cabinets so you can see exactly how much wall length is left as you build your list, which makes fitting standard sizes into a real kitchen straightforward even without cabinetry experience.

Sink base cabinets are typically wider than a standard base cabinet, commonly 30 to 36 inches, to accommodate the sink bowl and plumbing while leaving room on either side for the cabinet frame. Appliance cabinets, such as those built around a dishwasher, range, or built in oven, follow the appliance manufacturer's specified opening dimensions rather than a standard cabinet width, so always check your specific appliance's installation manual for the required width, height, and depth before finalizing that part of your layout.

It is common to use a shorter wall cabinet above a range hood, refrigerator, or window than the standard height used elsewhere in the kitchen, simply because the space available above those areas is smaller. Our 36 inch standard wall cabinets cover most of a kitchen's upper storage, while shorter runs above appliances or windows may call for a different height, which our team can help you plan for when you request your quote.