A cabinet overlay refers to how much of the cabinet door is sitting on top of the face frame. There are typically 3 types of overlay — partial overlay, full overlay, and inset.
If you are within 1 1/2 hours of Hattiesburg, we are more than happy to come out and measure your cabinets for doors at no charge.
The partial overlays are 1/2″, 3/4″, or 3/8″. This means that the cabinet door sits on top of the face frame that amount all the way around the hole.
A full overlay cabinet door will almost completely cover the cabinet so that the doors and drawers appear seamless. To achieve this we use the 3/4″ overlay hinges and use smaller cabinet face frame material.
An inset cabinet door does not have an overlay; instead, the entire door fits inside the face frame opening. This is achieved by blocking the back side of the face frame to mount the hinges so that the face of the door is on the same plane as the face of the cabinet.
Below are some visual examples for each type and additional information.
Typically 1/2", 3/4", or 3/8" of the door will sit on top of the face frame all around the hole. The easiest partial overlay to calculate is 1/2" -- take the height and width of the hole and add an inch to both measurements. For an opening with 2 doors, add the same amount do the same thing on the height but on the width add the 1" to the width, subtract 1/8", and divide by two.
The size of the full overlay doors is the same as the 3/4" overlay -- what is different from the partial overlay is the size of the face frame material.
ASH Millworks, 65 Springfield Road Petal, MS 39465 | Made by Creative Computer