# Forum Home Renovation Kitchens  Custom doors on Ikea kitchen

## henlan77

I have recently installed Ikea cabinets and hardware in a new kitchen with the hope of making my own door and drawer fronts. 
What is the easiest way to design a template for door and drawer sizes, mounting holes for the hinges etc? Does such a template exist? I am using standard Ikea drawer runners and hinges. 
I would go and buy one of each door type from Ikea to copy but I am 500km from my nearest store! 
Any help much appreciated.

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## Dirty Doogie

I have done this - never again though! 
Yes the best way is to buy a  drawer and take your measurements from these. As regards the drawer fronts I think the connector bracket that fits into the front of the drawer slides comes with the drawer fronts. This is crucial bit of hardware for getting the drawer fronts fixed and adjusted. I dont know if you can buy these separately. 
As for the cupboard doors (unless they are pull out fronts) you can simply make up whatever door you want and go and buy the hinges anywhere. The new hinges will come with a template or measurements. If you have ikea hinges on hand they may need to be replaced if you dont have a door to use as a template.

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## henlan77

Thanks for the tips Doogie. I have already bought Ikea hinges, drawer runners, brackets and fittings etc.  
I was hoping someone in cyberspace might have a drawing or know the specs.... such as: Are the doors normally the exact same size as the carcases, or a few mm difference maybe? Are the hinges mounted in the same position on all carcases? What is the clearance gap between drawer fronts etc etc. Any idea how to fit Ikea hinges in custom doors? 
Cheers.

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## SilentButDeadly

You've done what we are planning to do in a very short space of time.  However, we'll be going with an all drawer kitchen and I expect to end up with the complete basic white cabinet unit inc. drawer fronts which I will then go to school on. 
You can get a Euro hinge fitting template from BlumHafeleHettich but you'd be better off making your own based on your work with the first one...

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## henlan77

Thanks SBD. I think the Ikea carcasses and Blum fittings are very good value. I will be adding custom doors and bench tops. Let me know if you find anything useful re custom drawer fronts. Good luck.

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## racingtadpole

SNAP!
Im about to do the same thing.
I went to IKEA, tape measure in one hand and screwdriver in the other.  When I wanted an Allen Key the sales dude gave me a hand to pull the display to bits.  They were cool with me pulling the displays to bits, apparently its quite common that people buy carcasses from them and do the the custom made front thing. 
Good luck

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## Dirty Doogie

OK - the single door and drawer fronts Widths are the carcass width MINUS 4 mm. So the carcass width is 600 - the single drawer or door front is 596.  In the case of double doors the width of each door is half the carcass width Minus 4 mm. 
The door heights are also 4 mm shorter than the carcass height. 
As for the measurements to set the hinges into the doors - I've got all that stuff written down somewhere but I will have to look it up so I'll get back to you. 
SBD - are you going to keep the same size drawer fronts as the standard Ikea issue? My experience here is that you dont have to - but it requires you to play around with the runner positions.  In my case I put a  250mm deep drawer directly under the benchtop and a 450 deep drawer below it - works an absolute treat for pots, pans etc - but it took some stuffing around. 
cheers doog

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## SilentButDeadly

> SBD - are you going to keep the same size drawer fronts as the standard Ikea issue? 
> My experience here is that you dont have to - but it requires you to play around with the runner positions. In my case I put a 250mm deep drawer directly under the benchtop and a 450 deep drawer below it - works an absolute treat for pots, pans etc - but it took some stuffing around.

  Doog.....the answer to that at this point is 'not necessarily'.  I suspect what we'll do is buy a selection of two & three drawer cabinets and then mix and match in terms of where the drawers end up.  If we don't have to move stuff around then we won't.   
What I do hope to avoid is the construction of too many unique drawer fronts because I'll go spare if I have to think too much during construction!!!

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## Dirty Doogie

"What I do hope to avoid is the construction of too many unique drawer fronts because I'll go spare if I have to think too much during construction!!! "  
I understand completely LOL

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## henlan77

Doog, brilliant. Thanks for your help and look forward to the hinge details if you can find them. 
Racingtadpole, if you can add to this info after your trip to Ikea please let us know. 
Much appreciated guys, cheers.

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## totoblue

I recommend you make some test doors and drawer fronts from MDF or chipboard of the same thickness as your doors, so you can make the mistakes on something cheap. 
Assuming the hinges need a 35mm hole, in my experience you will need a drill press (or perhaps one of those Triton cordless drills) to hold the Forstner drill bit, or use a router jig. 
To use a router, see http://www.renovateforum.com/showthr...=router&page=2
post 30 and 31.

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## journeyman Mick

If you make all your doors/drawer fronts 4mm narrower than the box they fit you'll end up with 4mm gaps in most places and 2mm gaps at the ends. Besides the difference being noticeable and unsightly I think 4mm is way too big. I make all my kitchens with 1.5 to 2mm gaps between doors/fronts/panels. This looks much neater. It will require a bit more thinking out and arithmetic to get right though. 
Mick

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## Kanga

> OK - the single door and drawer fronts Widths are the carcass width MINUS 4 mm. So the carcass width is 600 - the single drawer or door front is 596. In the case of double doors the width of each door is half the carcass width Minus 4 mm. 
> The door heights are also 4 mm shorter than the carcass height. 
> As for the measurements to set the hinges into the doors - I've got all that stuff written down somewhere but I will have to look it up so I'll get back to you. 
> SBD - are you going to keep the same size drawer fronts as the standard Ikea issue? My experience here is that you dont have to - but it requires you to play around with the runner positions. In my case I put a 250mm deep drawer directly under the benchtop and a 450 deep drawer below it - works an absolute treat for pots, pans etc - but it took some stuffing around. 
> cheers doog

  Your almost right about the door gaps, but by deducting 4mm will leave you with huge gaps.  Generally speaking you need 2mm between the doors and panels, and 2mm gap between the top of the doors and the benchtops.

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