How to make a cabinet cut list, step by step

A cut list is the list of every part that makes up a piece of furniture, with its finished sizes. It is what you need to order cut-to-size panels from your supplier, to cut them yourself, or to know how many sheets to buy. Here we build one step by step for an 80 cm kitchen base unit.

What a good cut list includes

For each part, write down:

• Name: side panel, base, shelf, door… It saves confusion during assembly.
• Length and width, in millimetres. If the board has a grain, the length is the measurement along the grain.
• Quantity.
• Material and thickness: 16 mm white melamine, 19 mm oak, 3 mm HDF…
• Grain: whether the part has to follow it or can be rotated to make better use of the sheet.
• Edge banding: which sides get an edge.

The example cabinet

A kitchen base unit with two doors and one shelf:

• Outside dimensions: 800 mm wide, 720 mm high and 560 mm deep. Legs or plinth are extra, and a 600 mm worktop overhangs at the front.
• Carcass (sides, base, top and shelf) in 16 mm white melamine.
• Doors in 19 mm oak melamine, with the grain running vertically.
• Back panel in 3 mm HDF, nailed on at the back.
• Construction: the sides run full height, and the base and top sit between them.

How you join the parts changes the sizes more than anything else: decide on the construction before you calculate anything.

Working out each size

1. The side panels

They run full height, so they match the outside of the cabinet: height × depth.

Side panel: 720 × 560 mm, 2 pieces

2. The base and the top

They sit between the sides: take both thicknesses off the outside width, 800 − 16 − 16 = 768 mm.

Base and top: 768 × 560 mm, 2 pieces

In kitchens, the top is often replaced by two rails about 100 mm wide, since the worktop covers it: that would be two pieces of 768 × 100 mm.

3. The shelf

So that it slides in without forcing, 1 mm less on each side: 768 − 2 = 766 mm. In depth, about 40 mm less than the cabinet so that it clears the door: 560 − 40 = 520 mm.

Shelf: 766 × 520 mm, 1 piece

4. The back panel

Nailed on at the back, it is cut 2 mm smaller on each side so that it doesn’t show: 800 − 4 = 796 mm wide and 720 − 4 = 716 mm high. If it sits in a groove instead, measure the inside opening, add the depth of the groove on each side and take off 1 or 2 mm of clearance.

Back panel: 796 × 716 mm, 1 piece, in 3 mm HDF

5. The doors

They cover the carcass at the front and need a gap to open: 2 mm between the two doors and 1 mm at each outer edge, which makes 2 mm again next to the neighbouring cabinet. Each door is (800 − 4) ÷ 2 = 398 mm wide and 720 − 4 = 716 mm high.

With the grain running vertically, the length is the height of the door.

Door: 716 × 398 mm, 2 pieces, in 19 mm oak, following the grain

Grain and edge banding

Grain. On a board with a grain, whether real wood or a melamine that imitates it, the length of a part is always the measurement along the grain. Mark the parts that must follow it, like these doors; the rest can be rotated, which makes better use of the sheet. White melamine has no grain: all its parts can rotate.

Edge banding. On a carcass like this one, the front edge of the sides, base, top and shelf is enough: it is what you see with the door open. The doors get it on all four sides and the back panel on none.

With the edges marked, you will know how much to buy: for this cabinet, about 3.7 m of white edging (2 × 720 + 2 × 768 + 766 mm) and 4.5 m of oak edging, around both doors. Always buy a little extra for trimming.

Should you take the edging off the size? Ask your supplier: most work with finished sizes and allow for it themselves. If you cut and edge the panels yourself, thin edging (0.4 mm) needs nothing taken off; with thick edging (1 or 2 mm), subtract it on every side that gets it.

The complete cut list

Dimensions in millimetres.

From the cut list to the sheets you need to buy

Once the cut list is done, you still need to know how many sheets to buy, and adding up areas is misleading: every cut eats the thickness of the saw blade (3 or 4 mm), the edges of the sheet are trimmed and parts with a grain cannot be rotated.

An example with this same cabinet: in a kitchen with four of them, the white parts add up to 8.3 m², less than three 2440 × 1220 mm sheets. But you need four, because only two 560 mm deep parts fit across the width of a sheet.

That is what a cutting optimizer is for: it lays out the parts on the sheets with guillotine cuts, like those of a panel saw, allows for the saw kerf and the trimming, respects the grain and tells you how many sheets you need, how many metres of edging and which offcuts are left over.

Try it in SliceLab with this cabinet

SliceLab is free and you do not need to sign up. The button below opens this cabinet in the optimizer, with its sheets, its parts and its edges, so that you can calculate it and change it as you like. If you already have a project, you can also paste this into the CSV / Excel import:

Sheet;Length;Width;Quantity;Grain;Material;Thickness
S1;2440;1220;0;0;White melamine;16
S2;2440;1220;0;1;Oak melamine;19
S3;2440;1220;0;0;HDF;3

Part;Length;Width;Quantity;Rotate;Grain;Material;Thickness;Edge L1;Edge L2;Edge W1;Edge W2;Sheet
Side panel;720;560;2;1;0;White melamine;16;1;0;0;0;S1
Base and top;768;560;2;1;0;White melamine;16;1;0;0;0;S1
Shelf;766;520;1;1;0;White melamine;16;1;0;0;0;S1
Back panel;796;716;1;1;0;HDF;3;0;0;0;0;S3
Door;716;398;2;0;1;Oak melamine;19;1;1;1;1;S2

A quantity of 0 on a sheet means no limit: SliceLab tells you how many you need. Enter the sheet sizes from your supplier and multiply the quantities by the number of cabinets you are making.

Common mistakes

• Forgetting to take off the panel thickness for parts that sit between others.
• Leaving no clearance for doors and shelves.
• Swapping length and width on a part with a grain: the grain ends up running the wrong way.
• Working out the sheets by area, without allowing for the saw and the trimming.
• Mixing centimetres and millimetres in the same list.