How to Measure Your Overlay

A face frame cabinet is a cabinet which has a front panel into which an opening has been cut out. An overlay door is a door which sits on top of the cabinet opening in the face frame. When the door is closed, no part of the door goes into the opening (the door is larger than the opening). The overlay dimension is simply how much bigger the door is than the cabinet opening. Always measure on the hinged side of the door. Here is how to measure;

Overlay Door (Note; door sits on face frame and is larger than cabinet opening)

Line up the edge of your door with the edge of a piece of tape and apply the tape to the face frame of the cabinet (must be on the hinged side of the door).

Now, measure from the edge of the tape (inside edge) to the edge of the opening of the cabinet. In this case the overlay is 1-1/4″. The example shown above is of a European hinge but the process is the same for any kind of overlay hinge.