If you have started pricing kitchen units, you will have noticed the numbers repeat. 300mm, 450mm, 600mm, 1000mm. Kitchen cabinets in Ireland follow a standard sizing system shared across the UK and most of Europe, which is what makes it possible to order a door in one place and fit it to a carcase from another.
There is a catch, and it catches people out regularly. The sizes published in most guides are carcase sizes. The thing you order from a door manufacturer is the door, and that is a different number. A 600mm base unit does not take a 600mm door.
This guide covers both: the standard unit sizes used in Irish kitchens, and how the door and drawer front sizes are worked out from them.
Standard base unit sizes
Base units are the run of cabinets the worktop sits on. The carcase is 720mm high and 570mm deep, and only the width changes.
| Width | Typically used for |
|---|---|
| 150mm | Filler panel or a narrow pull-out |
| 300mm | Narrow storage, bottle rack |
| 400mm | Single drawer pack or a compact cupboard |
| 450mm | Compact sink base, small drawer set |
| 500mm | Standard single cupboard or drawer pack |
| 600mm | The most common size. General storage, oven housing, dishwasher space |
| 800mm | Large cupboard, double drawer pack, sink unit |
| 900mm | Wide storage, large sink base |
| 1000mm | Extra-wide cupboard, pan drawer set |
| 1200mm | Wide double-door cupboard |
The finished worktop height is not a unit size, it is the sum of three things: the 720mm carcase, the legs or plinth underneath (adjustable, usually between 120mm and 170mm), and the worktop itself (commonly around 38mm). That lands at roughly 870mm to 910mm, which is why kitchen worktops are generally described as about 900mm high.
Standard wall unit sizes
Wall units use the same width steps as base units. The height is the decision that matters, and there are two standard options.
| Dimension | Standard |
|---|---|
| Height | 720mm or 900mm |
| Widths | 300mm, 400mm, 500mm, 600mm, 800mm, 900mm, 1000mm, 1200mm |
| Position above worktop | Typically 450mm to 500mm |
720mm suits a standard ceiling height. 900mm makes better use of the wall in a room with high ceilings and gives an extra shelf. Mixing the two along one run is common, with the taller unit used above a fridge or on a feature wall.
Tall and larder units
Tall units run from the floor to near ceiling height at 2150mm, and are 570mm deep so they finish flush with the base run.
| Width | Typically used for |
|---|---|
| 300mm | Narrow pull-out pantry |
| 400mm | Compact larder with pull-out shelves |
| 500mm | Standard larder, single oven housing |
| 600mm | The most common size. Double oven housing, fridge housing, full larder |
Why a 600mm unit does not take a 600mm door
This is the part that causes the most re-orders, so it is worth being precise about.
Almost all kitchens in Ireland use lay-on doors. The door sits on the front face of the carcase and covers it, rather than sitting inside the opening. So the door is not sized to the opening, it is sized to the carcase width minus the gap you want to see between one door and the next.
A run of 600mm units sitting side by side needs a consistent gap down every joint. If you order doors at the full 600mm they will touch, foul each other on opening, and the run will finish long. The gap is small, commonly around 3mm, but it is deliberate and it accumulates: across a six-door run, ignoring it puts you most of a centimetre out.
The same logic applies vertically. A drawer pack does not get one door split evenly by eye. The opening is divided into the number of fronts, the gaps between them are deducted, and the remainder is shared. Change the number of drawers and every front in that unit changes.
What changes the door size
Before a door can be machined, a few things have to be settled. These are the ones that most often differ between one kitchen system and the next:
- The hinge and the overlay it gives. Different hinges and mounting plates sit the door at a different overlay on the carcase. The overlay determines how much of the carcase edge the door covers, and therefore the door size.
- Where the unit sits in the run. A unit in the middle of a run shares gaps on both sides. A unit at the end of a run, or against a wall or an end panel, does not. Those doors are often a different width from an identical unit mid-run.
- Corner units. Corner and blind corner units are the ones worth double checking. The door is set out from the usable opening rather than the nominal unit width.
- Handleless and J-pull profiles. If the design uses a routed grip rail or a J-pull, part of the door height is taken by the profile, and the front has to be sized and machined for it from the start.
- Appliance and sink units. Integrated appliance doors, and the fronts on a sink unit, are frequently not the same as the standard door for that width.
None of this is difficult, but it is the reason a door order is quoted from a drawing or a cutting list rather than from a list of unit widths.
What to send when you are ordering doors
The quickest way to get an accurate quotation is to send the information that removes the assumptions. In practice that means:
- A cutting list or a technical drawing, with the finished size of each door and drawer front rather than the unit widths, where you have them.
- The material and finish you want the fronts produced in.
- The door style, for example shaker or flat panel, and any profile detail.
- The hinge or overlay convention your carcases are built to, and the gap you want between doors.
- The quantity, and whether this is a one-off or something you expect to reorder.
If you are not certain your drawing carries all of that, send it anyway and we will tell you what is missing before anything is cut. Once a job has been programmed it can be run again from the same file, so a repeat order matches the original rather than being set out from scratch a second time.
Common questions
Are Irish kitchen sizes the same as UK sizes?
In practice yes. Irish kitchens use the same metric system as the UK and most of Europe, so 600mm units, 720mm carcases and 2150mm tall units are common to both. Where a difference shows up it is usually the room rather than the cabinets, particularly ceiling heights in older properties, which is what drives the choice between 720mm and 900mm wall units.
Can I get doors made to a size that is not standard?
Yes. Bespoke sizes are ordinary work for a CNC shop, because the machine is cutting to whatever the file says rather than to a fixed set of sizes. An older kitchen, a chimney breast or an out-of-square wall usually means at least one non-standard front, and it is machined the same way as the rest.
Do I need to replace the carcases to change the doors?
Not usually. If the carcases are sound, replacing just the doors and drawer fronts changes the look of the kitchen for a fraction of the work. This is why the door sizes, the hinge positions and the overlay matter: the new fronts have to suit the units that are already there.
What is the most common unit width?
600mm, by a distance, for base, wall and tall units alike. It suits a standard oven, dishwasher and fridge housing, which is why so much of a kitchen is built around that one number.
Getting a quotation
Zenith Manufacturing machines kitchen doors and cabinetry components for kitchen manufacturers, cabinet makers, joinery companies and fit-out contractors across Ireland, from our workshop in Dunleer, Co. Louth. Doors and drawer fronts are cut, routed, drilled and edged in house.
Send a drawing or a cutting list to info@zenithmanufacturing.ie, call 087 655 4203, or use the contact form and we will come back to you with a price.
More on how the machining side works is on our CNC routing services page, and there are examples of finished work in the gallery.