How to Measure Your Kitchen for New Cabinets

You don’t need to be a contractor to measure your own kitchen — you just need a tape measure, a pencil, and about 30 minutes. These are the exact measurements TLC needs to price your J&K cabinets accurately. A hand-drawn sketch with these numbers is all it takes to get a fast, accurate quote.

What You’ll Need

• A tape measure (25 ft is plenty)
• Plain paper or graph paper, and a pencil
• A step stool for high measurements
• A helper is nice but not required

The Golden Rule: Inches Only, to the Nearest 1/8″

Write every measurement in inches — never “12 feet 6 inches.” Pick one unit and stick with it. Round to the nearest 1/8 inch. Cabinetry is built to the fraction of an inch, and mixed units are the #1 source of quoting mistakes.

Step 1 — Measure Each Wall

Measure every wall at countertop height (about 36″ off the floor), from corner to corner or wall to wall. Write the full length of each wall on your sketch. Label the walls (Wall A, Wall B…) so we can talk about them.

Step 2 — Mark Every Opening

For each window, door, and doorway on every wall, measure:

• Windows: measure the outside edge of the trim to the outside edge of the trim (not the glass). Then measure from the floor to the bottom of the trim, and from the top of the trim to the ceiling.
• Doors: the width of the opening, and — this one gets forgotten — which way the door swings. A door swinging into a cabinet run changes everything.
• Doorways and cased openings: the full width of the opening.

Also mark each opening’s distance from the nearest corner.

Step 3 — Note Everything on the Walls

Mark the position of every outlet, light switch, vent, pipe, radiator, and thermostat. For each one, measure from the nearest corner to its center, and note its height off the floor. Anything sticking out of the wall matters for cabinet placement.

Step 4 — Ceiling Height and Soffits

Measure the ceiling height in two or three spots (ceilings are rarely perfectly level). If you have soffits or bulkheads, measure how far they stick out from the wall and their height from the floor — wall cabinets hang around them.

Step 5 — Appliances and the Sink

Mark where each appliance sits: range, refrigerator, dishwasher, microwave. For the sink, note whether it sits under a window — if so, mark the window’s centerline, since the sink cabinet centers on it.

Step 6 — Check Your Corners

Stand in each corner and eyeball whether the walls meet squarely. A corner that’s off by even an inch matters when cabinets wrap around it. Just write “corner looks off-square” on your sketch and we’ll account for it.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Mixing feet and inches — pick inches, always.
• Forgetting door swings — an unmarked swing is a classic layout-killer.
• Measuring the window glass instead of the trim — cabinets meet the trim, not the glass.
• Skipping the ceiling height — wall cabinets need it.
• Not marking what’s on the walls — outlets and vents constrain where cabinets can go.

What to Send Us

Your sketch with all of these numbers is enough. Email it to sales@tlckitchencabinets.com, or plug your layout into our quote builder and we’ll price it from there.