Drawer Spacing Calculator

Overall cabinet height, floor to top — including the toekick and the top/bottom panel material. Kitchen base cabinets are typically ~34.5" overall. Bathroom vanities are typically ~32"–36" overall. Kitchen wall cabinets vary widely, commonly 12"–42".

A standard toekick is 3"–4.5" tall (most commonly 4") and about 3" deep.

Thickness of the cabinet's own panels — top/bottom, sides, and front edges — and of any shelves. Used to compute interior height, cabinet opening width, cabinet interior depth, and the extra space each shelf takes up.

Standard overall depths: kitchen base cabinets are typically ~23"–25" deep. Bathroom vanities are typically ~19"–22" deep.

Thickness of the cabinet's back panel. It sits in a dado/rabbet near the rear edge, reducing the usable interior depth.

Thickness of the door/drawer front mounted in front of the cabinet box. It sits in front of the box (and face frame, if any), reducing the usable interior depth.

Framed cabinets have a face frame with a horizontal divider rail between each stacked drawer opening. Frameless (European-style) cabinets have no face frame and need no drawer dividers.

Width of the top/back stretchers, and (for framed cabinets) the drawer-divider rails between stacked drawer openings.

How far back the toekick is set from the cabinet's front edge — typically 3"–4". Used to size the bottom-panel cleats when no bottom dado is used.

Depth of the dado (groove) cut into the sides, front, and back that the bottom panel sits in — 3/8" is usually enough. Choose 0" if the bottom panel instead sits on cleats fastened with pocket screws; two bottom cleats are then added to the cut list. Limited by the cabinet material thickness — at least 1/4" of material must remain behind the dado.

Depth of the dado (groove) cut into the top, bottom, and sides that the back panel sits in. Limited by the cabinet material thickness — at least 1/4" of material must remain behind the dado, so the maximum depth is the material thickness minus 1/4".

Depth of the dado (groove) cut into the box sides and front that the bottom panel sits in. The bottom panel extends into these grooves, so it is wider and shorter than the open box cavity. Limited by the box material thickness — at least 1/4" of material must remain behind the cut.

Distance from the bottom edge of the drawer box (front and sides) up to the bottom panel — i.e. the height of the "skirt" below the bottom panel. The back panel sits on top of the bottom panel rather than in a dado, so its height is the box height minus the skirt height minus the bottom panel thickness.