How to Draw a Basic Kitchen Cabinet in SketchUp

In today’s SketchUp Tutorial, we’re going to learn how to build a basic kitchen cabinet. My hope is that you’ll be able to use the techniques and process demonstrated in this tutorial to build other styles of cabinetry so that you can use SketchUp for designing kitchen layouts.

Let’s Get Started

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I have chosen to model a traditional overlay cabinet with a simple Shaker style door and slab drawer front. In later tutorials, we’ll discuss how to model more complicated door styles as well as inset and frameless cabinet boxes.

Build the Cabinet Box

First, open a brand new SketchUp file in the architectural template, delete the figure, and zoom in so that the origin is clearly visible. We will model the cabinet starting from the origin and set the axes in the last step when we turn the cabinet into a component.

Most base cabinets are typically 24″ deep. We are going to model a cabinet that is 24″ wide by 24″ deep. Activate the rectangle tool and draw a rectangle 24″ x 24″, beginning at the origin and dragging up and to the right in the red/green plane.

Activate the rectangle tool and draw a rectangle 24″ x 24″, beginning at the origin and dragging up and to the right in the red/green plane.

Activate the Push/Pull tool. Click on the face in the rectangle and drag up. As you drag, enter 34.5″ – the standard height of a base cabinet – and hit enter.

Next, we’ll add the recessed toe kick. A typical toe-kick is usually around 4″ high and 4″ deep. Set a guideline, 4″ above the bottom edge of the cabinet. Then draw a line across the face, using the guide as your reference.

Using the Push/Pull tool, push the toe kick back 4″.

Now you have a basic cabinet box. We could stop here and go on to add the drawer and door, but I want to add a little more detail to the cabinet. First, we’ll create an opening inside the cabinet. Activate the Offset tool, click on the front face, and offset it towards the interior .75″. Then, push the inner face back 23.25″.

Add a Face Frame

We’re going to add a face frame to our cabinet box that is .75″ thick, so we must first push the front face of the cabinet back .75″ so that the cabinet remains 24″ deep. Use the Push/Pull tool to push the front face back .75″. Triple click on the box to select everything and then right click and select Make Group.

Next, activate the line tool. Use the line tool to draw a rectangle on the face of the cabinet that is 1.5″ wide from top to the bottom of the opening. Then extrude the rectangle out .75″ using Push/Pull. Triple click on the stile to make it a group. (A stile is a vertical section of a cabinet face frame.)

Activate the Move tool and make a copy of the stile aligned to the right corner of the cabinet.

Next, we’ll draw the rails (the horizontal sections of the cabinet face frame). Use the Rectangle and Push/Pull tools to draw a rail that is 1.5″ high along the top of the cabinet. Turn it into a group and copy it to the bottom of the cabinet.

We’re going to have a top drawer in our cabinet and a bottom door. Make a copy of the top rail and move it down 6.5″ so that it creates a 5″ opening at the top.

Holding down the shift key, select all five pieces of the face frame and turn them into a group.

We’re going to assume that this framed cabinet has a traditional overlay of .25″. Use the Tape measure to set guides that are .25″ from each of the opening edges. It should look like this when you are finished adding the guides.

Model the Drawer and Door

Using the Rectangle tool, draw a rectangle from corner to corner of the guides for the drawer. Then extrude the rectangle out .75″. Triple click on the drawer front and make it a group.

Repeat this process for the door but don’t turn it into a group just yet.

Offset the face of the door by 2″ toward the center. Then push the inner face back .25″. Triple click on the door and make it a group.

Delete the guides. Next, we’ll add a knob to the door and drawer. I’ve already loaded a knob into my file, but you could download one from 3D Warehouse or make your own.

Add Knobs

I’m going to add guides that mark where each knob should be placed.

Place your knobs at the intersections of the guides. Then delete the guides.

Create the Component

Finally, we’ll turn the cabinet into a component. Select all parts of the cabinet by using the arrow to drag a box around it. Orbit the model so that you can see the back of the cabinet. Right click on the cabinet and select Make Component.

Name the component Cabinet-Base-BD24. The click on the button to set the component axes. Set the axes to the center point of the bottom edge of the back of the cabinet.

Click the Create button to finalize the component. Congratulations! You’ve made your very first kitchen cabinet.