How To Determine Cabinet Door Overlay

Sometimes it is necessary to calculate the "overlay" of a cabinet door that is already mounted on a cabinet. The overlay is the amount or distance that the cabinet door overlaps the cabinet opening on the hinge side of the door. Normally, this distance is the same on both sides of the cabinet opening and will range from 3/8" to 1-9/16".  This is a simple process that will be completed with just two quick measurements:

• Width of the cabinet door
• Width of the cabinet opening covered by that door

Gather measurements needed for calculating existing cabinet door overlay
(Click any image to enlarge)

Pick a cabinet door to measure	Singe door opening is easiest
Measure the cabinet door width	Measure to nearest 1/16" (23-5/8" in this case)
Open cabinet door and measure width of opening	Measure to nearest 1/16" (21" in this case)

Calculating the Overlay of Cabinet Doors

Now that you have obtained the meaurements of the cabinet door and the cabinet door opening, we can calculate the cabinet door overlay.

We will use the door measurement (D) and the opening measurement (O) to find the difference between the two (DF) to obtain the overlay.

D - O = DF, then DF ÷ 2 = Overlay

So, using the measurements from above...

23.625" - 21" = 2-5/8", then 2-5/8" ÷ 2 = 1-5/16"

In this case, the overlay is 1-5/16" and this is the hinge overlay that we would need.  This same formula for calculating cabinet door overlay can be used for mounted or unmounted cabinet doors.  For unmounted, just decide how much you want to overlap the opening on the hinge side and this is the hinge that you need to purchase.  You can see our selection of compact style hinges here.  

If you using "long arm" hinges and need to order replacement mounting plates, you will use the same formula as above.  With "long arm" hinges the standard overlays will be between 3/8" and 3/4", based on the mounting plate thickness and the "crank" of the hinge.