How To Measure Your Kitchen For RTA Cabinets

Accurate measurements are the single most important step in a successful RTA cabinet project. Ready-to-assemble cabinets ship in fixed widths — typically 3" increments from 9" to 42" — so a wall that is off by even half an inch can throw off filler placement, appliance clearance, and countertop overhang. Getting your numbers right on the front end costs nothing. Getting them wrong costs re-orders, delays, and awkward gaps that never quite hide.

This guide walks you through the exact process we use with every South Florida customer who submits a design help request. Follow it end-to-end and you will have everything our design team needs to return a finished layout, a full SKU list, and a firm quote within one business day.

What you'll need

You need a 25-foot tape measure, a pencil, a notepad or tablet, and a phone camera. A laser distance meter is helpful but not required. A second person makes long walls easier but is optional. Do not use a cloth or fabric tape — they stretch, and stretched measurements are how kitchens end up with 3/8" gaps behind the range.

Step 1: Sketch the room

Draw a clean overhead floor plan of your kitchen on graph paper or a tablet. Draw every wall to rough scale — one graph square per 6" is a good ratio for most rooms. Label each wall with a letter (Wall A, Wall B, Wall C) and note which direction is north so we can understand your natural light.

Mark every door, window, HVAC vent, outlet, switch, plumbing rough-in, and gas line on the sketch. Draw them where they are, not where you wish they were. If you're removing or moving anything, mark the current location in solid lines and the planned location in dashed lines.

Step 2: Measure each wall three times

South Florida homes — especially older condos in Miami-Dade and Broward — rarely have plumb walls or level floors. To catch this, measure each wall wall-to-wall at three heights: 6" off the floor (base cabinet height), 36" off the floor (counter height), and 90" off the floor (upper cabinet height).

Write all three numbers on your sketch. When the numbers disagree, always design to the smallest measurement. A 122-1/4" wall at 36" and a 122" wall at 90" is a 122" wall for cabinetry purposes — the extra 1/4" becomes scribe.

Step 3: Locate every rough-in

Note the exact centerline of every plumbing stub-out, gas line, and electrical outlet. Measure from a fixed reference point — usually the corner of the room — to the center of each rough-in. Record both the horizontal distance from the corner and the height off the finished floor.

This is what your installer uses to plan sink base and range cabinet placement. A drain that is 1" off from where the design assumed it lives can force the entire run of cabinets to shift, so this step is worth doing twice.

Step 4: Record ceilings, soffits, and obstructions

Measure ceiling height in each corner of the room, plus the middle of the longest wall. South Florida ceilings vary from 7'6" in older condos to 10' or more in new construction, and they are almost never perfectly level. Note any soffits, bulkheads, or dropped ceilings — they determine whether you can run 42" tall wall cabinets or need to step down to 30" or 36".

Note any structural columns, HVAC chases, or shear walls that intrude into the cabinet run. These almost always need custom filler or scribe panels, which we'll spec into your layout.

Step 5: Inventory appliances

Measure every appliance you plan to reuse. For a refrigerator: width, depth with door closed, depth with door open at 90°, and total height including hinges. For a range or cooktop: width and required side clearances. For a dishwasher, wall oven, or microwave: manufacturer rough-opening specs, not the visible cabinet opening.

Leave 1" of breathing room on each side of a freestanding range and follow the manufacturer's clearances above cooking surfaces. If you're buying new appliances, send us the model numbers instead of measurements — we'll pull the rough-in specs directly.

Step 6: Photograph and submit

Take one wide photo of each wall and one close-up of every rough-in, outlet, and obstruction. Keep the photos with your sketch — they answer 90% of the follow-up questions our design team would otherwise have to ask.

When you submit your measurements to Design Help, include your sketch, your wall photos, your appliance list, and your ceiling heights. We'll return a cabinet layout, a full SKU list, and a firm quote within one business day.