# Forum Home Renovation Laundry  Fitting new cabinets into a cavity

## garfield

Hi all,  
I'm about to undertake a laundry rebo for the Mrs and I have a longish wall that sits between 2 walls, so in a sense it's a cavity. Just wondering how I'd measure that so that the cupboards fit in snug. Do I measure the inside corner to corner, and then out to the depth of the cupboards or do I do some sort of infill either end ?  
Thanks
Geoff

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## Bros

Are you building the cupboards?

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## droog

It is usual to leave a gap at each end and finish with an infill panel. The main reason is that most walls are not 100 percent straight or plumb. 
The size of the infill will depend on the the size of the cabinets or up to you if they are full custom size.

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## Bart1080

...maybe this will assist.  Ive also seen where they have a ~30mm wide filler piece at the ends to allow for error.  You can then cut the filler piece to a width that suits the final fitout without the need t be mm perfect for the cupboard width

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## garfield

> Are you building the cupboards?

  Yes I am   

> It is usual to leave a gap at each end and finish with an infill panel. The main reason is that most walls are not 100 percent straight or plumb. 
> The size of the infill will depend on the the size of the cabinets or up to you if they are full custom size.

  Looking at some pics of designs on google a lot seem to have no infill and finish up against the walls at both ends.... How would they get that so perfect?    

> ...maybe this will assist.  Ive also seen where they have a ~30mm wide filler piece at the ends to allow for error.  You can then cut the filler piece to a width that suits the final fitout without the need t be mm perfect for the cupboard width

  Thanks for the pics. I think you'd still have to be pretty spot on to achieve that result too...

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## David.Elliott

As bart says, 30mm or so is what you leave at each end. I also make one for the bottom. Nothing worse than looking from underneath and seeing a big gap. The key is to "scribe" the filler pieces. I usually scribe, then join the two pieces (front longest) and insert. Fix from inside the cupboard.

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## droog

> Looking at some pics of designs on google a lot seem to have no infill and finish up against the walls at both ends.... How would they get that so perfect?

  No idea ? Build the wall to match the cabinets ?
But having made the mistake in the past of trying to make cabinetry fit into a space such as described, good luck. 
If you do attempt it make sure the walls are perfectly straight and plumb before attempting it.

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## r3nov8or

Depends how long the wall is. But you could build and install the two end cupboards flush, square, perfectly level across the now-smaller 'cavity', and build cupboard/s to suit the remaining space. (simple to write  :Smilie:  )

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## David.Elliott

In my experience you will never find the two walls parallel for the whole depth that you want the cupboards to fill. They either flare out or close up at the front compared to the back.

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## damienh

Cabinetmaker here. The 30mm filler panels are industry standard, and is professional advice. That said, for me, and for my home only, for simplicity's sake I'd measure a few times to see if I can get a perfectly square/rectangle hole/void/cavity. Must be perfect in all 3 dimensions! Then I'd build a cabinet 1-3mm shy of that. But this is impossibly rare. Hence 30mm filler panels + packers/shims + underpanel. @Metrix's kitchen cleverly uses 5mm shadow gaps around his cabinets. This is very clever from design point of view. We usually do shadow gaps in custom furniture at 3mm max. And these gaps can run indefinitely deep and look great. But to do that with 1 or 2 cabinets in a room full of cabinets is risky. Just one poorly framed and poorly plastered wall can stand out like sore thumb, looking very wonky and wrong. 20-30mm fillers either side is the safest. Hope that helps!

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