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Cabinets & furniture · Cabinet Door Cut List

Rail and stile lengths for a shaker cabinet door

Stiles run the full height of the door; rails are the door width less both stiles plus the tongue on each end. For a 16" × 25" shaker door that is 25" stiles and 12 3/4" rails.

Short answer
Door, width × height
16" × 25"
Stile length (cut 2)
25"
Rail length (cut 2)
12 3/4"
Panel, width × length
12 1/2" × 21 1/2"

Worked for an opening of 15" × 24" with a 1/2" overlay on every side, 2" wide stiles and rails, 3/8" tenons, 3/8" grooves and a 1/8" panel gap. The 16" × 25" door, 2" stiles and 3/8" tongues and grooves are the flat-panel shaker door in DIY Montreal’s table-saw tutorial, which prints the same 12 3/4" rails. The opening and overlay are chosen here to give that door, the rails are taken as the same 2" stock, and the panel gap is Rockler’s. Change any input below for your own door and bit set.

Opening and door
in
in
Measure the clear opening in the cabinet or face frame, inside edge to inside edge. Inches with fractions, like 14 1/2. A number on its own is always read as inches; for millimetres type mm after it, like 368mm.
How the door sits
in
How far the door laps over the edge of the opening, the same on all four sides. It has to match your hinges and, where two doors share a frame member, be under half that member's width.
Doors on this opening
Frame and joint
in
in
in
Width is the full face of each piece, edge to edge, moulded or grooved edge included.
in
in
Measure both on a test cut from your own bits or saw setup. Rockler and Freud show the tenon as long as the groove is deep (3/8" and 13/32"); CMT and infinitytools.com give 7/16" for the tenon or profile.
in
in
Room left between the panel edge and the bottom of the groove so a solid-wood panel can swell. Leave the second box empty to use the same gap all round.
Show the cut list in

This changes the cut list only. What you type above is still read as inches unless you add mm to it.

Cut list
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Door (W × H)
Rail length, tenons included
Panel, width × length
Panel edge inside each groove
PartQtyWidthLength

Front of the door. Dashed lines are hidden inside the joint: the edge of the panel in the groove, and the end of each rail tenon in the stile.

    These are finished sizes for straight rails and a rectangular panel, shown to 1/16" or to 0.1 mm; a size that had to be rounded is marked ≈. Stock thickness is your choice and does not change any length here. Cut one test joint and measure the tenon and the groove before you cut the rails.

    Whole-kitchen cut list

    Building a whole kitchen? Enter every opening once and get one cut list for all the doors: every stile, rail and panel grouped by size, with how many to cut and which doors they are for, to print or to download as a spreadsheet file. The calculator above stays free and complete for one door or one pair; the whole-kitchen sheet is a one-time purchase.

    The purchase covers this tool's whole-kitchen sheet only. After you pay, the tool shows an order id: save it, because it is what opens the sheet again on another device or after this browser's data is cleared. One frame and joint setting applies to the whole list (only the overlay can differ from opening to opening), a list holds up to 60 openings, and the list you type is kept in the browser you typed it in. The price is shown before PayPal opens. Questions about a payment: handytoolshubnet@gmail.com.

    The order id is the one this tool showed right after you paid. Restoring never charges you and works on any device; it opens the sheet, not a list typed in another browser. Trouble with a payment? Write to handytoolshubnet@gmail.com with the order id.

    SampleThis is what the sheet gives you, worked for a made-up kitchen of 6 openings and 10 doors with a 1/2 in overlay and 2 1/4 in wide stiles and rails. Your own list uses your openings and your frame settings.

    Doors

    OpeningOpening read as, W × HDoorsEach door, W × H
    Sink base33" × 22"2 (1 pair)16 15/16" × 23"
    Base left of range15" × 22"116" × 23"
    Base right of range15" × 22"116" × 23"
    Wall cabinets30" × 30"4 (2 pairs)15 7/16" × 31"
    Over the fridge33" × 12"2 (1 pair)16 15/16" × 13"

    Read as: overlay doors, 1/2" overlay on each side, 1/8" between the doors of a pair; stiles 2 1/4" wide, top rails 2 1/4", bottom rails 2 1/4"; tenon 3/8"; groove 3/8" deep; panel gap 1/8" all round.

    Doors
    10
    Pieces to cut
    50
    Frame stock 2 1/4" wide
    61 ft (732 in)
    Panel stock
    16.8 sq ft

    Stock totals are the finished parts laid end to end. They leave out saw kerf, end trim and waste, so buy more than this.

    Stiles 20 pieces

    QtyWidthLengthUsed by
    82 1/4"31"Wall cabinets × 8
    82 1/4"23"Sink base × 4, Base left of range × 2, Base right of range × 2
    42 1/4"13"Over the fridge × 4

    Length is the door height.

    Rails 20 pieces

    QtyWidthLengthUsed by
    82 1/4"13 3/16"Sink base × 4, Over the fridge × 4
    42 1/4"12 1/4"Base left of range × 2, Base right of range × 2
    82 1/4"11 11/16"Wall cabinets × 8

    Length includes the tenon on both ends.

    Panels 10 pieces

    QtyWidthLengthUsed by
    212 15/16"19"Sink base × 2
    212 15/16"9"Over the fridge × 2
    212"19"Base left of range × 1, Base right of range × 1
    411 7/16"27"Wall cabinets × 4

    Length runs with the stiles. Each panel is rounded down so it fits its grooves with the gap you set.

    Based on: Rockler · Tested against 17 worked examples, 9 printed in a published source · How this is worked out →

    Questions people ask

    How long do I cut the rails for a shaker cabinet door?
    Door width, minus the width of both stiles, plus the length of the tongue (stub tenon) on both ends. DIY Montreal’s table-saw shaker door is a worked example: a 16 inch door with 2 inch stiles and 3/8 inch tongues needs 16 − 4 + 3/4 = 12-3/4 inch rails. Rockler’s sheet works the same sum for a router-cut cope-and-stick door: 12 − 4-1/2 + 3/4 = 8-1/4 inches. Stiles are simply the full height of the door.
    Why is the tenon length added twice?
    A rail has a tenon on each end. The part of the rail you see only spans the space between the two stiles; the tenon at each end sits inside the stile. Freud’s sheet gives its stub tenon as 13/32 inch, so its rails are 13/16 inch longer than the space between the stiles. Measure the tenon your own bits cut, because it differs between makers.
    What is the difference between sizing an overlay door and an inset door?
    An overlay door is larger than the opening: add the overlay to each side, so a 1/2 inch overlay makes the door 1 inch wider and 1 inch taller than the opening. An inset door sits inside the opening and is smaller: subtract the gap from each side. Eagle Woodworking’s measuring guide uses a 1/8 inch gap, which makes an inset door 1/4 inch smaller than the opening each way.
    How much smaller than the groove should the panel be?
    The sources differ. Rockler leaves 1/8 inch on each side in both directions. CMT makes the panel 1/4 inch narrower than the rail length. MWA Woodworks leaves 1/16 inch all round on its shaker door. Freud takes 1/8 inch in total off the width and 1/16 inch off the length, noting that a panel expands more across its width than along its length. Rockler and Freud both say the panel must float in the groove and not be glued to the frame.
    How wide is each door when two doors share one opening?
    Work out the width one door would need, subtract the gap you want between the two doors, and halve the result. Eagle Woodworking’s example: a 30 inch opening with a 1/2 inch overlay and a 1/8 inch centre gap gives (30 + 1 − 1/8) ÷ 2 = 15-7/16 inches per door. The height is the same as for a single door.