The two basic types of cabinets, framed and frameless

Framed Cabinets

Framed cabinets have a face frame usually made of a hardwood. When the doors of the cabinet are closed you can still see the cabinet face frames around the doors and drawer fronts and usually you can see the hinges. The interior of the cabinet is wider on both sides than the cabinet opening. The face frame usually extends into the opening about 3/4" or more. Framed cabinets are the traditional style of cabinets in the United States and they are found in more homes than the newer Euro style. Some newer newer cabinets are hybrids, meaning they have a face frame but hidden hinges like the Euro style

 Hinges mounted on door and face frame

Hinges mounted on door and frame edge

"Euro" or frameless style"

Frameless cabinets do not have a face frame. The front edge of the cabinet sidewall is the front of the cabinet. When the doors and drawers are closed they cover almost the entire cabinet. The hinges are totally concealed when the doors are closed. Euro style hinges are larger than the traditional framed cabinet hinge and tend to interfere more with the cabinet opening. Frameless cabinets often use a 32mm hole system for the hinge mounting and shelf support. The interior width is the same as the opening minus the door and hinge interference. Many newer homes have frameless style cabinets. 

       ← Typical Frameless Cabinet- Notice The Hinges Are Attached Directly To The Cabinet Inside Wall

There are two dimensions that you must have to order your pull out shelves, the cabinet width and the cabinet depth

Cabinet Width

The dimension you need is the clear opening of the cabinet, i.e. the space it takes for the slide out shelf to clear opening, door, and hinges. This is the distance from face frame to face frame minus any reduction for the hinges or door overlap. It is also important to make sure your door opens at least 90 degrees so the shelf can clear them when you slide it out. The picture above shows the opening measured from the hinge to the opposite frame, In this case: you would order your slide out shelf 14 3/4" wide. The size of the lower shelf is often smaller than the upper shelf as the hinge will not usually interfere with the upper shelf. We will make the actual shelf 1" smaller than the dimension you give us to allow for the sliding hardware which uses 1/2" on each side. Always refer to the clear cabinet opening when ordering shelves not the finished shelf size, we will make the adjustment. Please measure carefully, we make our shelves in increments of 1/8". Always measure your cabinet twice using an accurate tape measure.

Half shelf measurement:

With the door open, measure from sidewall to sidewall unless there is an obstruction such as the door or upper hinge that will interfere with the slide out shelf. In the picture above the measurement is made from the edge of the door to the opposite face frame. In this example the pull out shelf measurement would be 14 7/8" wide. If the upper hinge would interfere, then you would measure from the edge of the hinge. The 1/2 shelf is 5" lower than the position of the hinge, so a 2 3/8" shelf would fit with this measurement, but a 4 7/8" shelf would not

Cabinet Depth

The slide out shelves are available in depths from 12" up to 26" in 2" increments. Shelves deeper than 22" are mounted on 22" drawer slides. The safest way to measure depth is from the back of the cabinet face frame to the back wall of the cabinet. Watch out for electrical wires, pipes or anything that may reduce the available depth.

Mounting style

There are four basic mounting styles, side mount, rear sockets, half shelf and full shelf or base mounted

Full Shelf

Full shelf or base mounting is the easiest method of installing slide out shelves. When you choose the this option the glide hardware will have four L brackets attached, two on each glide. These L brackets allow you to attach the slide out shelf hardware directly to the cabinet base for the bottom shelf or on to an existing full depth shelf. The full shelf installation is not only the easiest way to install pull out shelves, it is also one of the strongest installations.

Half shelf

Many base kitchen and bathroom cabinets have a short "half" shelf for the upper shelf. This shelf is usually about 10" to 12" deep. You can install a full depth slide out shelf where your half shelf is. If you choose the half shelf option we will send the drawer glides with an L bracket attached near the rear of each glide. This L bracket can be screwed to the existing half shelf. The front of the glides can be attached to the cabinet face frame.

 Rear Sockets

Rear sockets are  nylon or (zinc on full extension brackets) which the drawer glide slips into for attaching the glide to the cabinet back .The front of the glides can be attached to the cabinet face frame, they can be side mounted or they can be mounted using eurospacers. Rear sockets will not work with shelves over 22" deep .

Side Mount

As the name implies side mounting uses your cabinet sidewalls to mount your slide out shelves. Side mounting usually requires more work than the full shelf installation but it is the most space efficient. If your cabinet has a large difference between the opening size and the inside dimension side mounting may not be the right choice. As the distance from the sidewall increases so does the leverage on the mounting screws. Make sure you check your sidewall thickness before placing any screws. Side mounting can be done with spacers or you can use wood strips to build up the space as needed. The standard spacers are available in 1/8", 3/8" and 1/2". 

    There are also Euro spacers that  can be used on framed or frameless cabinets.