If you already have drawings or a bit of experience, you’ll likely find it easy to calculate your cabinet lineal feet — similar to the example shown below. If that’s you, feel free to head back and resume your estimate.

If no drawings are in hand and you don't have any experience with this, that's no problem either. First let's understand what the types of cabinets are.

Lower cabinets- These are the cabinets that are underneath your countertops. They are typically comprised of drawers, doors with shelves or pullouts.

Upper Cabinets- These are the cabinets that typically hang on the wall 18" above your countertop. These cabinets usually have doors with shelves inside.

Tall Cabinets- These are full height cabinets. They typically stand close to 8ft tall (in some cases even taller). They sit on toe kicks like lower cabinets and receive crown moulding like upper cabinets. These cabinets can function as a linen or pantry or encompass appliances like double ovens and refrigerators.

Now that you have a basic understanding of the cabinets, all that is left to do is measure the walls and windows that you want the cabinets to be installed on.

 

Quick Formulas:

• Maximum Lineal Feet of Upper Cabinets = Wall width - Window Width

• Maximum Lineal Feet of Tall Cabinets = Wall Width - Window Width

• Maximum Lineal Feet of Lower Cabinets = Wall Width 

• Leftover Lineal Feet of Lower Cabinets = Wall Width - Desired Lineal Feet of Tall Cabinets

• Leftover Lineal Feet of Upper Cabinets = Wall Width - Window Width - Desired Lineal Feet of Tall Cabinets

• To calculate your available space for tall cabinets, subtract your window width from the total wall width. Then subtract either your lower cabinet footage, your upper cabinet footage, or — if you have both — whichever is greater.

A few simple examples:
Let's say you have a 10ft wall with a 3ft window and you want uppers and lowers across the whole wall:
-Your lineal feet of lower cabinets will be the width of the wall: 10 ft

- To calculate your upper cabinets you'll subtract the window width from the wall with. 10ft wall minus the 3ft window leaves 7ft of space for upper cabinets. Your upper cabinet lineal feet is 7.

Let's say you wanted just lower cabinets with tall cabinets on the same wall:
-To calculate your maximum lineal feet of tall cabinets you'll use the same formula for the upper cabinets.  10ft wall - 3ft window = 7 lineal feet of tall cabinets. 

-To calculate your left-over space for lower cabinets simply subtract how many lineal feet of tall cabinets (in this case it's 7) from the wall width. 10ft wall minus 7ft of tall cabinets leaves 3ft left over for lower cabinets. 

There are plentiful combinations based on your design and desires. Don't be afraid to get a piece of paper and sketch out your ideas to help it come to life.  Refer to the rendering below to get a visual aid, and if it all still feels overwhelming or too complicated, don't hesitate to reach out to us and let us help!


Estimating Tips:

-For lower cabinets do not include appliances such as dishwashers and ice makers (unless you want to overestimate). 

-If you want a custom-built wood hood, then include the width of your hood in the lineal feet of uppers.
-If you have a free-standing range, do not include this in the lineal feet of lower cabinets. If you have a range top that builds into a cabinet, then it should be included in the lineal feet of lowers (as shown in the image below).

- consider floating shelves to be upper cabinets (it will be overestimated)

- Typical dimensions for appliances: Dishwashers are 2ft wide, Fridge is 3ft wide, range is 3ft wide, range hood is 3ft wide, double over is typical 30 inches wide but use 3ft for estimating purposes.

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