There is a particular quiet that settles over a kitchen when a brand-new door is offered up to its cabinet and turns out to be 20mm short. We would like you never to hear it. Everything is cut to the sizes you supply — we do not adjust them, round them or interpret them — so the measuring is the one part of the job that belongs entirely to you. The good news is that it is genuinely straightforward, provided you sidestep a handful of mistakes that people make with impressive regularity.
The step-by-step instructions live in our measuring guide, and that is the document to have open when you actually pick up the tape. This post is about the why — and about the errors we would much rather you read about here than discover in person.
The golden rule: measure the door, not the cabinet
Kitchen doors sit proud of the cabinet and overlap its edges, which means the door is larger than the opening it covers. Measure the opening instead of the door and you will order a replacement that drops straight through the gap like a letter through a letterbox. So: measure the existing door itself. It is the one object in the kitchen with the correct dimensions built into it, and it is usually within arm's reach of the kettle.
If a door has gone missing entirely — kitchens have histories, and we do not ask questions — measure the opening and add a 2mm overlap on each side, which means adding 4mm to the width. That is the exception, though, not the method.
Millimetres. Only millimetres
Every size in the kitchen world is in millimetres, and so is every size on our order form. Inches still make occasional appearances, usually via a tape measure inherited from someone's shed, and the results are never happy — 596 millimetres and 596 of anything else are very different doors. Use a metal tape. Fabric tapes stretch, and a stretched tape is simply a machine for producing confident wrong answers.
Measure at least twice
Carpenters have been saying "measure twice, cut once" for centuries, and they were not saying it for fun. Take every measurement at least twice. If the two readings agree, you have spent an extra thirty seconds. If they disagree, that thirty seconds has just saved you a door. There is no version of this where measuring once was the clever option.
Height first, then width — the order matters
Sizes are recorded height then width. A standard door, for example, is 715mm H x 596mm W. Write those two numbers the other way round and you will have ordered a short, wide door for a tall, narrow gap — every digit correct, and the door still wrong. When you record a measurement, label it H or W on the spot rather than trusting yourself to remember which was which. Future you is not as reliable as present you believes.
Check which way the door hangs
Before ordering, check whether each door is hinged on the left or the right. It sounds too obvious to write down, which is exactly why it gets missed — the doors you live with every day are the ones you have stopped looking at. Stand in front of each one, open it, and note which side the hinges are on. It takes seconds and removes an entire category of surprise.
Hinge positions: measure them, do not remember them
Hinge holes are the detail people are most tempted to guess, on the grounds that they have opened these cupboards ten thousand times and surely know where the hinges are. They do not, or at least not to the millimetre, and the millimetre is what counts. Measure from the top of the door to the centre of each hinge, and from the bottom of the door to the centre of the lowest hinge. Write the figures down as you go. If you are wondering what happens after the doors arrive, our hinge fitting guide covers attaching them to your existing cabinets.
Is it a door or a drawer front?
One last definitional point, because it affects what you order: a front that is 175mm high or less is a drawer front; doors are taller than that. Measure the height and the category decides itself — no judgement required, which is rather the theme of this whole exercise.
Why it is worth doing properly
Because measuring carefully is the price of admission to the cheaper route: keeping the cabinets you already own and replacing only the fronts. We have set out the full comparison in new kitchen or new doors, and the honest numbers in what it costs to replace kitchen doors. Every front is made to measure, whichever style you choose from ranges like Bella — the sizes you supply are the sizes you get, exactly.
Measure the door, in millimetres, at least twice, height then width, note the hang, measure the hinges. Then follow the measuring guide step by step, and if anything about your kitchen refuses to fit the pattern, ask us before you order. We would far rather answer a question than commiserate over a door.