What is the difference between overlay, half overlay and inset cabinet doors?
The three ways a cabinet door can sit on its carcass, what each looks like from the front, and why the arrangement decides the hinge, the door size and the gaps.
- Difficulty
- beginner
- Time
- 8 min
- Read
- 3 min
Short answer
Full overlay: the door covers the whole thickness of the cabinet side, so you see no carcass. Half overlay: two cabinets share one side panel and each door covers half of it, so the gap runs down the middle of the panel. Inset: the door sits inside the opening with its face flush with the carcass front. Each needs a differently cranked hinge.
This is the vocabulary the rest of kitchen fitting is written in. Doors, hinges, end panels and gap sizes all describe themselves in terms of overlay, and a reader who does not know which of the three they are looking at cannot order a hinge or a door with any confidence.
Step by step
- Close all the doors and stand back.If you can see no carcass at all between doors, it is full overlay. If you can see a narrow strip of carcass, look closer — that is usually a gap, not exposed panel. If the doors are clearly recessed within visible frames, it is inset.
- Open two adjacent doors and look at the panel between them.One panel with one door on it: full overlay, and those are two separate cabinets each with their own sides, or one cabinet with two doors. One panel with two doors meeting over it: half overlay.
- Check the door face against the carcass front edge.Face proud of the carcass edge means overlay of some kind. Face flush with the carcass edge, with a visible gap all round, means inset.
- Note what each arrangement demands.Full overlay is forgiving, because an out-of-square carcass hides behind the door. Inset is unforgiving, because a 2mm error shows as an uneven gap all the way down. Half overlay sits in between and needs the two doors set together.
- Understand why it changes the hinge.The hinge arm has to reach from the door back to the carcass side and stop the door in the right place. A full overlay arm is straight, a half overlay arm steps about 9.5mm sideways, an inset arm about 16mm. Same cup, different arm.
- Understand why it changes the door size.A full overlay door is wider than its opening. A half overlay door is wider by half the panel thickness. An inset door is narrower than the opening by the gap. Replacement doors have to be ordered for the arrangement you have.
Tips
- Almost every fitted UK kitchen from the last thirty years is full overlay. Half overlay turns up in older kitchens and in some flat-pack ranges. Inset is a design choice, usually on painted in-frame kitchens.
- The same overlay can be achieved with a straight arm on a thick plate or a cranked arm on a thin plate, which is why matching both parts matters more than matching either alone.
- In-frame kitchens — where the doors sit inside a visible timber frame — are inset by definition and often use butt hinges rather than concealed ones.
Questions people ask
How do I tell if my kitchen is full or half overlay?
Open two doors that sit side by side and look at the panel between them. If both doors were sitting on that one panel when closed, it is half overlay. If each door had its own panel, it is full overlay.
Is inset better than overlay?
It is a look, not a quality. Inset shows off the carcass and needs everything to be square and accurate, so it is more expensive to make and to fit. Overlay hides a great deal and is what almost all fitted kitchens use.