The nitty-gritty of cabinet-making can at first feel overwhelming. However, once an understanding is developed the task of ordering your kitchen, laundry, wardrobes, bathroom vanity or office space will be very simple. Today, we're breaking down the bits and pieces that we use to finish off home cabinetry.

Panels Panels are used to cover the exposed ends of a cabinet. When a cabinet is purchased, the only part of the unit with colour is the doors. At the end of a run of cabinets a panel is used to cover the white carcase to complete the look. Our website offers 16mm thick melamine panels to match cabinetry doors. We generally finish end panels flush with the cabinet door. To do this, you'll need to add 16mm to the depth of the panel.

We also use panels for the transition between tall units and floor and/or wall units.

The tall end panel depth should finish flush with the tall unit's doors and in line with the finished overhang of the benchtop next to it. Our standard overhang for laminate benchtop's is generally 45mm from the front of the carcase. For a modern-looking kitchen with no handles (as shown below), we allow 25mm overhang from the front of the carcase.

We sometimes use end panels to finish off the inside cavity for dishwashers and washing machines. This is optional.

Fillers Fillers are used when a cabinet is to sit against a wall. This not only allows room for

the door to swing but is also used to correct any out-of-square walls. Fillers are generally 30mm wide and can be cut down or modified to suit the wall. They are used for any wall, tall or floor cabinet that is against a wall.

The other time a filler is used is next to a blind corner cabinet.

The picture below is how the unit is ordered. It features a panel on the outside of the carcase that is flush with the blind corner unit's door. You'll notice a 30mm void at the back of the unit that the panel extends to cover, this is to account for out of square walls. The attached panel is split into two pieces: a 150mm section and a 440mm section.Please note these are just our standard sizes and can be modified to suit your space.

The 150mm piece next to the door is a coloured panel. One third of this piece (50mm) is seen and needs to be matched with a 50mm panel that sits adjacently.

As you can see below, this 50mm of exposed panel is matched with a 50mm wide filler that creates a symmetrical right angle where the two units meet.

Kickers Kickers are used to conceal the cabinet feet and correct floors that may not be perfectly horizontal.

Our standard kicker height is 145mm.

If you have any further questions, feel free to email our customer service team at hello@kitchensbyyou.com.au

This week we've put together a guide for planning and ordering a bathroom vanity from our website.

In the world of cabinet-making, there's a few tricks the Pro's use that you might not have thought about. We're here to pass on the wisdom so you can execute your project to it's full potential.

Overall length: 1200mm

In this example, we're creating a 1200mm vanity against one wall to fit this bathroom. Carcasses are 505mm deep, 700mm high and 378mm (3 drawer) + 756mm (2 door) wide.

Download our sketchpad and draw your space as shown right.

Next, note the overall length, width and height you want your cabinetry to achieve. As shown right.

Now we consider fillers, panels and kickers to then see what room we have left for our vanity cabinets.

WIDTH: A vanity against one wall requires a 30mm floor fill to allow for wall tiling or swinging doors. This is our standard. On the exposed end of the vanity, you'll require a 16mm floor end panel in the same material as your doors to give it support and to finish it off.

Finally, we need to account for a benchtop overhang on the exposed side. 20mm is our standard. Accounting for this ensures the overhang finishes at 1200mm.

This leaves you with 1134mm in room length for cabinetry. We divide this by 3 for an even look for 3 doors, leaving us with a 378mm 3 drawer floor unit and a 756mm 2 door floor unit.

HEIGHT: In total, our vanity is 850mm high. Our floor cabinet is 700mm high, to leave room for the 118mm kickers and 32mm benchtop.

DEPTH: The cabinet carcasses are 505mm deep.

KICKERS: Our kick faces are on their way. For now, get a floor filler at 118mm wide and as long as you need. We've added the two cabinet lengths and added in 505mm for a return, resulting in a 118mm W x 1639 H kickface.

Please note: When ordering 30mm fillers, our program will ask for a width above 80mm. This is for our machine. Order in quantities of 80mm and we'll cut them down.