If you’re thinking about kitchen drawer sizes for your upcoming renovation, it’s essential to select the right dimensions to ensure a functional and efficient kitchen space. From storing utensils and cookware to maximizing your storage options, understanding standard kitchen cabinet dimensions helps you make the best choice for your unique kitchen layout and functionality.
Here is a straightforward answer. You may also read till the end to get the detailed explanations.
A standard kitchen drawer will have a depth of 24 inches (61 cm), and height of 34.5 inches or 87.6cm. The widths will vary with base units of 9, 12, 18, 24, 30, 33, 36, and 48 inches.
You may also find this standard kitchen drawer size overview table handy.
| Drawer Width (in inches) | Drawer Depth (in inches) | Drawer Height (in inches) | Common Uses |
|---|---|---|---|
| 9, 12, 18, 24 | 24 | Varies (Customizable) | Cutlery trays, baking accessories, utensils |
| 30 | 24 | Varies (Customizable) | Cutlery, utensils, larger items like baking trays |
| 33, 36 | 24 | Varies (Customizable) | Small appliances, Dutch ovens, Tupperware |
| 48 | 24 | Varies (Customizable) | Larger appliances, pots, pans |
Standard Kitchen Drawer Sizes
Kitchen drawers come in a wide range of sizes to suit various storage needs, though, for stock kitchens, most manufacturers offer a number of standard sizes. Here, we look at the sizes available for standard kitchen drawers.
Width
The size of your new kitchen drawers will need to fit into your kitchen layout and floor plan, so the width will be dictated by the size and shape of your room and the other types of kitchen units you want to work into your space. It is unusual to find drawers in kitchen wall units, and in the vast majority of cases, they will be found in kitchen base units.
Base units come in standardized sizes, but the width and height of drawers can be customized to a certain degree to suit your needs.
You should think about the uses you will have for your kitchen drawers and what you want to store in them to help you decide what size will work best for you. Once again, kitchen base units come in standard sizes, but there is a variety of options to choose from. In terms of width measurements, most manufacturers will offer base units of 9, 12, 18, 24, 30, 33, 36, and 48 inches.
9, 12, 18, and 24-inch drawers
The smaller width base units can accommodate drawers of the same size width, and these will be used for filler cabinets. These drawers will measure 9, 12, 18, or 24 inches wide and can be good for storing cutlery trays, baking accessories, and utensils.
They also often get used for storing miscellaneous items in a kitchen, such as keys, screwdrivers, elastic bands, and random small objects that don’t have an obvious home.
30-inch drawers
Thirty inches width is the most common size of the base unit in a kitchen, and in most kitchen plans, it will make up the majority of storage areas. Most fitted kitchen appliances also come in a 30-inch width measurement, so it makes sense for the base units to also measure the same width for a feeling of cohesion.
Most wall ovens, hoods, single sinks, and integrated microwaves will measure 30 inches wide, and it looks seamless if the base units also work to this measurement.
As such, in base units measuring 30 inches wide, you could also have drawers measuring 30 inches wide. Drawers of this size also work well as cutlery drawers and utensil drawers, and they can also fit some larger items in, such as baking trays, chopping boards, and casserole dishes.
33 and 36-inch drawers
If you have a double sink, then you will need a larger base unit to accommodate it. This will have a width measurement of either 33 or 36 inches.
Oftentimes, people will have a false drawer in front of their sink, which is simply a fixed drawer front that cannot be pulled out or used for storage and instead is purely for aesthetic purposes to cover the underneath of the sink and its fittings.
These larger-width base units can also be used for other areas of the kitchen where you can install wider working drawers. Drawers of this size will also need to be quite deep so that they don’t look out of proportion, and therefore, you can use them to store chunkier objects such as small kitchen appliances, dutch ovens, and Tupperware.
48-inch drawers
This is the largest size of a base unit and therefore the largest width of drawers you can get if you are buying stock cabinets. If your kitchen is being custom-made by a carpenter, then standard measurements won’t apply; however, it is unlikely you would need drawers any larger than 48 inches wide.
Drawers of this width should also have a generous height so that the drawer fronts don’t look too skinny, and therefore, they are good for storing larger items that you regularly use, making them easier to access compared with them being stuck at the back of a kitchen cabinet.
This might include a toaster or a smoothie maker if you don’t like to keep appliances on the countertop. You could also store pots and pans in drawers of this size.
Depth
Standard base units which are fitted around the perimeter of a room have a depth measurement of 24 inches.
This measurement is standardized so that standard-size countertops will fit accordingly with a little overhang. This means that if you have standard-sized base units, your kitchen drawers will all have a standard depth measurement of 24 inches.
Base units used to create a kitchen island will typically also have a depth measurement of 24 inches, though it can be larger if required up to a depth of 36 inches, and your drawers will also be deeper.
Height
Kitchen base units all come at a standard height of 34.5 inches. This is the size that meets building codes, ensuring that kitchens are accessible to most people.
Cabinets at this height also prevent small children from being able to reach up and access knives and other dangerous items or hot food. Base units will also have a kickboard or toe kick, typically measuring 3 inches in height.
If you take away three inches for the height of the toe kick from 34.5 inches for the height of the base cabinets, you are left with 31.5 inches of height space.
This will then need to be divided between the number of drawers you want. For example, you could have three drawers, each with an equal height measurement of 10.5 inches, or you could have drawers with different depth measurements.
For a balanced look, you would ordinarily see deeper drawers at the bottom of a base unit, with more shallow drawers at the top of the unit.
This not only works best in terms of aesthetics but also means that the shallow drawer typically gets used as a cutlery drawer, and it will be positioned at a comfortable height for frequent use. In modern kitchen designs, many people opt to have two drawers of equal heights in a base cabinet.
These will be very deep drawers of just over 15 inches in height, making them suitable for storing pots and pans or appliances such as blenders or coffee makers.
These drawers look chunky and contemporary and can bring more functionality to a kitchen as opposed to several shallow drawers. Your kitchen drawer height can be customized to suit your needs, with standard kitchen drawers coming in various sizes ranging between 4 inches and 15.75 inches in height.
