Where to place dividers in kitchen cabinets

**Arron** · 24th February 2021, 05:40 PM

We’re talking standard melamine faced particleboard kitchen/laundry/bathroom cabinets and euro concealed hinges here.

I usually try to build each cabinet as a separate modular unit, but sometimes it make sense to combine several side-by-side cabinets into one. For example, say I want three 600mm wide cabinets side by side, but for reasons of speed and economy decide to build one 1800mm wide cabinet. Naturally there will be two end pieces, and 2 internal dividers. My uncertainty is around where to place the internal dividers, so that my 597mm wide doors will work equally well with with all three internal spaces. I know there is tolerance and flexibility within the hinges themselves, but I don’t want a situation where one door has heaps of overlap while the other doors have virtually none, or vice versa.

I know I should be able to work this out on logic alone but it isn’t happening - in fact it’s starting to do my head in.

So is there a rule out there.
Arron

**elanjacobs** · 24th February 2021, 06:02 PM

Place them so that the hinge side of the door will fully cover the divider and the handle side will not cover it at all. It will not be symmetrical. In the drawing below, the 2 wider sections are hinged on the left side, the narrow one can be hinged either side. Numbers are based on 16mm board and full overlay hinges.

Clipboard01.jpg

Alternately, shift them 8mm to the left (576mm space left and right, still 584mm in the middle) and use half overlay hinges for the middle door. In that case, the left and right hand doors will need half overlay if hinged off a divider and full overlay if hinged off an end panel.

**Arron** · 24th February 2021, 07:27 PM

That’s fantastic info. Thanks Elan - I was hoping you would see the question and answer.

Using the first format (full overlay hinges) are you ever tempted to move the dividers to the left just a tiny bit (say 2 mm) just so the handle side of the door covers the divider by just a smidgen - mainly to stop the passage of dust into the cabinet, and maybe also so you don’t see into the cabinet through the gap between door and divider. I know that gap is tiny (a little bigger with push to open) but it is still there I think?

Cheers
Arron

**elanjacobs** · 24th February 2021, 07:35 PM

I've never actually built one like that, just figured it would be easier to work it out by drawing it.

As for the gap, it's no different to having a single cupboard with 2 doors; you've got the same gap in the middle and no one is ever bothered by it. If you really want to, you can make the dividers 18mm and change both 584mm to 582mm; then you get the extra 2mm without having to adjust the hinges.

**Arron** · 24th February 2021, 07:47 PM

Ok, thanks. I’ll stick with the measures you gave in your original post as I can’t really remember ever being bothered by it either.

Cheers
Arron

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