From a Sketch to a Cabinet Cut List
You have the outside dimensions of a cabinet. Turning them into a list of rectangles you can cut is a fixed sequence of decisions, and doing it in the right order is what stops the second cabinet from taking twice as long as the first.
Making a cut list at a glance
Work from the outside in. Fix the cabinet height, width and depth first, then choose the joint at each corner, because the joint is what decides which parts run full length and which are cut short. Size the carcass, then the back, then the shelves, then the fronts. Subtract the edgebanding last, mark the grain, and check that the parts add back up to the outside dimension before anything reaches a blade. Nothing here is proprietary, but the order is what makes it fast.
| Step 1 | Fix the outside height, width and depth |
|---|---|
| Step 2 | Choose the corner joint, sides-through or top-and-bottom-through |
| Step 3 | Size the carcass parts from that choice |
| Step 4 | Size the back, which depends on how it is held |
| Step 5 | Size shelves, then fronts from the reveal |
| Step 6 | Subtract edgebanding, mark grain, then check the sums |
In this guide
What a cut list has to say
A cut list is not a list of sizes. It is a set of instructions that has to survive being read by a tired person standing at a saw, and it needs six columns to do that.
| Part | Left side, bottom, back, adjustable shelf, drawer front |
|---|---|
| Quantity | How many identical pieces |
| Material | Which sheet it comes out of, including thickness |
| Length and width | Finished size, with edgebanding already subtracted |
| Grain | Which dimension the grain runs along, or none |
| Edgebanding | Which of the four edges get it |
Add a seventh column naming the cabinet each part belongs to and you can cut a whole kitchen in one run and still put the right boxes together at the end. Without it, you have a pile of similar rectangles and a long afternoon.
The two columns people leave off are grain and edgebanding, and they are the two that cost real money. A side cut with the grain running the wrong way is scrap on a veneered job. A part cut at its finished size and then edgebanded comes out oversize, and on a shelf that means it does not go in.
Pick the joint before you pick a number
Here is the step that most first cut lists skip. Before you can size a single part, you have to decide which parts run through at the corners, because that decision alone changes every number.
In frameless casework the usual answer is that the sides run through: they are the full cabinet height, the top and bottom are captured between them, and the visible front edge of the side is the one you edgeband. That is the case worked below. Turn the box the other way and the formulas swap, so if your shop does it differently, swap them consistently and the rest still holds.
Plain-words keyRuns through means the part reaches the full outside dimension and its edge is visible at the corner. Captured means it stops short and lands between the parts that run through. Carcass is the box without any fronts, shelves or hardware.
The carcass parts, with formulas
Take a frameless base cabinet, sides running through, built from 3/4 in sheet goods. Call the outside dimensions H, W and D, and the sheet thickness T.
| Side, 2 off | H by D |
|---|---|
| Bottom, 1 off | (W minus 2T) by D |
| Top or stretchers, 1 or 2 off | (W minus 2T) by D, or by stretcher width |
| Fixed shelf, per shelf | (W minus 2T) by D minus back allowance |
| Adjustable shelf, per shelf | (W minus 2T minus a small gap) by a shorter depth |
Two of those rows carry a judgement rather than a formula, and they are worth stating plainly.
Top versus stretchers. A base cabinet under a countertop rarely needs a full top panel. Two stretchers, a few inches wide front and back, hold the box square, leave room to fasten the counter from underneath, and save most of a panel per cabinet. A wall cabinet does need a full top, because you can see it from below.
Adjustable shelves get a gap. A shelf cut to exactly the interior width will not go in, and a shelf that only just goes in will not come out again once it is loaded. Take a couple of millimetres off the width and a bit off the depth so the shelf clears the back and sits on its pins without fighting.
If your cabinet has a toe kick cut into the sides rather than a separate base frame, the sides are still H by D. The notch is a machining operation on a part you already sized, not a different part. A separate base frame is the other approach, and then the box sits on it and its own height drops by the frame height. Decide which, once, for the whole job.
The back, where people go wrong
The back panel is the part that generates the most rework, because its size depends entirely on how it is held, and there are two entirely legitimate ways to hold it.
Captured in a dado. A dado is cut in the sides, top and bottom, set in from the back edge, and the back drops into it. The panel has to be big enough to reach the bottom of the dado on both sides, so its width is the interior width plus twice the dado depth, and its height follows the same logic. This is the stronger option and it squares the box for you.
Butted inside the box. The back sits flat against the rear edges of the sides, top and bottom, or against a rebate, and is screwed or pinned. Then the back is simply the cabinet width minus two side thicknesses by the corresponding height. Simpler to cut, easier to get wrong on squareness, and normal on utility work.
Worth knowingWe went looking for the standard dado depth for a cabinet back and there is not one. KCMA's cabinet performance standard is exactly that, a performance standard, and it does not publish a dado dimension. The nearest real standards figure comes from architectural woodwork practice, which requires a minimum shoulder of about 3/8 in, 9.5 mm, on a plowed-in back, and that constrains the geometry without naming a depth. Everything else in circulation is trade consensus, and it is consistent enough to use: about 1/4 in, 6 mm, in North American plywood casework, and around 8 mm in an 18 mm side in European frameless work, with the dado set back roughly 12 to 19 mm from the rear edge.
The practical rule that follows is simple. Pick a dado depth, write it on the drawing, and use it on every cabinet in the job. The number matters far less than the fact that every back on the run was sized to the same one. Mixed depths inside one kitchen is how a back ends up 3 mm short and nobody can say why.
One more: the back thickness is a real decision, not a leftover. A 1/4 in back is fine for a base cabinet that is screwed to a wall through hanging rails. A wall cabinet carrying weight wants a thicker back, or rails behind it, and architectural specs commonly call for 1/2 in where the back is doing structural work.
Shelves, drawers and fronts
Fronts come last because they are sized from the outside of the finished box and from the gap you want between them, not from the opening. That arithmetic has a guide of its own: see overlay and reveals for the frameless and face frame cases worked through.
Drawer boxes sit between: they are sized from the opening minus the slide clearance, and the slide you buy sets that number. Side-mount slides usually want about 1/2 in per side, undermount slides have their own published clearances, and getting this wrong is the most common reason a drawer binds. Read the slide's own instructions rather than a rule of thumb, and read them before you cut, because the drawer bottom groove position depends on them too.
Then take the edgebanding off. Every edge that gets it loses that thickness from the part before it is cut, per the edgebanding guide. Decide it per edge, not per part: a side is normally edgebanded on its front edge only, a shelf on its front edge, and the cabinet back on nothing at all.
Check it before you cut
Three checks catch nearly everything, and together they take about five minutes per cabinet.
Add the parts back up. Across the width, two side thicknesses plus the bottom's width must equal the cabinet width. Up the height, the parts plus the joints must equal the cabinet height. If a sum is off by exactly one sheet thickness, you have a runs-through error somewhere.
Put the biggest thing in it. Whatever the cabinet is for, check the opening against it now. A drawer bank meant to hold sheet pans, a cabinet meant to take a stand mixer on a pull-out, a bin cabinet meant to take two bins side by side. This is a thirty-second check that has saved more cabinets than any other habit.
Count the sheets. Total the area of the parts, divide by the area of a sheet, and add a third. If that number surprises you, something is wrong with the list before it is wrong with the order. The real layout comes next, and how the parts actually land on sheets is covered in nesting a cut list for yield.
Doing this by hand for one cabinet is a good way to learn where every number comes from. Doing it by hand for a whole kitchen is how a transposed digit gets into a parts list and stays there. Once you can derive the list, let something else derive it every time.
Try it
Get the cut list without the arithmetic
Draw the cabinets, pick your materials, and the cut list comes out with the grain, the edgebanding and the back already sized to your construction. Then send it straight to the sheet.
Frequently asked questions
What should a cabinet cut list include?
Six things per row, and a cut list missing any of them will cost you at the saw: the part name, how many of it, the material, the finished length and width, which way the grain runs, and which edges get edgebanded. A seventh column for the cabinet the part belongs to is what lets you sort a whole kitchen into one cutting run and still assemble the right boxes at the end.
How do I work out cabinet side dimensions?
Decide the construction first, because the answer changes with it. In the common frameless case where the sides run full height and capture the top and bottom between them, each side is the full cabinet height by the full cabinet depth, and the top and bottom are the cabinet width minus two side thicknesses. Flip the construction so the top and bottom cap the sides, and those two formulas swap places.
How deep should the dado for a cabinet back be?
No standards body publishes a number, which surprises most people. What exists is trade consensus: about 1/4 inch, 6 mm, is normal in North American plywood casework, and 8 mm in an 18 mm side is common in European frameless work. The one real standard figure nearby is an architectural woodwork requirement for a minimum 3/8 inch shoulder on a plowed-in back, which constrains the geometry without naming a depth. Pick a depth, write it down, and use it on every cabinet in the job.
Do I subtract edgebanding from the cut list?
Yes, whenever the finished dimension has to be exact. Edgebanding sits on top of the panel, so a part that must finish at 570 mm with 1 mm edgebanding on both long edges is cut at 568 mm. Plenty of shops ignore the 0.4 mm stuff on interior parts and live with the fraction of a millimetre, but at 2 or 3 mm it changes whether a shelf fits its opening.
Do I need a drawing before I can make a cut list?
You need the outside dimensions and the construction, and a sketch is the fastest way to be sure you have both. It does not have to be to scale. What it has to show is the height, width and depth of each cabinet, where the fixed shelves and the drawer splits go, and how the corners are joined, because every part size on the list is derived from those decisions.
Keep reading
Sources & references
The part formulas here are geometry, worked from the construction rather than quoted from a source, so you can check every one against a drawing. The back-panel section reports what the standards do and do not say; we went and read them, and the absence of a published dado depth is the finding, not an omission.
- KCMA, ANSI/KCMA A161.1 quality certification (the cabinet standard is a performance standard: it tests what a finished cabinet must survive, and publishes no dado dimension)
- Architectural Woodwork Institute, manufactured wood casework standards (the architectural specification tradition, including the minimum shoulder requirement for plowed-in backs and back thickness minimums)
- WoodWeb knowledge base, Cabinet Backs: Dadoed Versus Plant-On (dadoed versus butted backs as working shops build them)
- Festool Owners Group, shop cabinet build discussion (European frameless practice, groove depths in 18 mm stock)
- Decorative Hardwoods Association, ANSI/HPVA HP-1 (the panel standard behind the sheet goods every part on the list is cut from)