How much of the cabinet your doors cover, and why it matters.
Overlay is how much of the cabinet frame your doors and drawer fronts sit over. It changes the look of the kitchen, the usable space inside, and the cost.
A visual guide
Select a guide to view it larger.
The doors cover nearly the whole cabinet frame, leaving only a narrow reveal between them. You get a continuous run of door faces and very little frame showing. It reads modern and clean, and it gives you the most usable opening into the cabinet.
The doors cover part of the frame and leave a wider band of it visible around each one. It's the most traditional look and the most common. More frame shows, which some people want and some don't.
The doors sit inside the frame, flush with its face, like a piece of furniture. It's the most exacting to build because the gaps have to be consistent all the way around and the wood has to be allowed to move with the seasons. It also costs the most and gives you the smallest opening.
There's no face frame at all. The doors mount directly to the cabinet box. Sometimes called European or full access, because without a frame in the way you can reach the entire interior.
If you're refacing
Refacing uses the cabinet frames you already have, so the new doors are made to fit those frames. That means the overlay is fixed, while the door style, wood species, and finish remain your choice.
Full overlay, inset, and frameless need new cabinet boxes, so those are custom-build options.
See how cabinet refacing worksThe refacing rule
½ inch
New doors cover half an inch of frame on each side.
Choosing
There's no one right overlay. The best fit depends on how you want the room to look and how you use the space inside the cabinet.
Full overlay
Very little frame shows, and you get a generous opening into the cabinet.
Standard overlay
More of the face frame stays visible around each door.
Inset
The door sits inside the frame, with the smallest opening and the tightest fit.
Frameless
With no face frame at the opening, you can reach the full cabinet interior.
Helpful answers
Full overlay still has a face frame, the doors just cover most of it. Frameless has no face frame at all, so the doors mount straight to the box. They can look similar from across the room, but frameless gives you more room inside.
It depends on whether you want cabinetry that reads as furniture. Inset takes more precision to build and gives you a slightly smaller opening into each cabinet, so you're paying more and getting less storage. People choose it for the look, and it's a genuinely different look.
Frameless, because there's no face frame narrowing the opening. Full overlay is next.
It's generally not a good idea. Overlay sets the visual rhythm of a run of cabinets, and mixing reads as a mistake rather than a choice.
