The 32 mm rule hiding inside your cabinets
What are the rows of little holes inside your cabinets? The 32 mm system, a grid makers share that decides how easily furniture can be adjusted and repaired.
By the Ajusteur team5 minute read
How do you find the 32 mm system in your own cabinets?
The nearest kitchen cabinet or wardrobe will do. Look at the inside of a side panel and you will probably find a neat line of small round holes. Measure from the centre of one to the next. It will be 32 mm.
Those holes are one of the most useful agreements in furniture, and hardly anyone outside the trade knows they are there.
What is the 32 mm system?
It is a standard way of drilling cabinet sides. The holes are 5 mm across, their centres sit 32 mm apart, and the first row is 37 mm from the front edge. It is used for European style frameless cabinets, the simple boxes with doors covering the front, and for a lot of flat pack furniture.
Because the grid is shared, a shelf pin, hinge plate or drawer runner made for it fits any cabinet drilled to it.
Why 32 mm and not 30?
After the Second World War, makers wanted anything that sped up rebuilding. The story usually told is that 32 mm was the closest spacing the drill bits on a line boring machine could manage with the gears of the day. Whatever the exact reason, the number stuck.
The hinge that goes with it
The partner of the grid is the concealed hinge, also called a cup hinge or Euro hinge. A round cup, usually 35 mm across, sits in a hole drilled in the back of the door, and an arm clips onto a plate screwed into the cabinet side.
The useful part for you: it adjusts in place. A couple of screws move the door in or out, up or down and side to side, so a drooping door is a two minute job with a screwdriver.
What the holes do for you
What that row of holes lets you do:
Does flat pack furniture use it too?
Much of it does. Open a flat pack wardrobe and you will often find the same rows of 5 mm holes, because the grid suits machines that drill thousands of identical panels. That is handy: a spare shelf or a better hinge, with its own mounting plate, will often fit.
Fitted furniture keeps the same holes. What changes is the box: its sizes follow your wall instead of a catalogue.
Why it matters in a UAE home
Boards move a little with heat and humidity, and doors settle. A home that swings between AC all summer and open windows in winter puts your hinges to work. With standard parts, the fix is a few turns of a screwdriver or a part you can buy locally, not a hunt for a maker who may have closed years ago.
Made to fit outside, standard inside
A made to fit wall unit can follow your alcove to the millimetre and still be completely standard on the inside. The sizes follow your room, while the holes inside follow the same 32 mm grid most hinges and runners are made for.
That is how we draw ours. Each box is built from 18 mm boards and drilled on the grid, so years from now anyone with a screwdriver and a standard part can keep it working. It is also why a well made built in wardrobe can beat flat pack over the long run without locking you in.
Quick checks before you buy
Ask what the boxes are made of and how thick the board is. Ask which hinges and runners are used, by brand or grade, and whether they appear as their own line on the quote. Open a sample cabinet and look for the holes. And ask whether a missing part can be bought locally.
Planning a wardrobe or a wall unit? A photo and rough sizes are enough to start. Tell us about your space and we will draw it box by box, with every part priced on its own line. For the bigger story of how standards made furniture cheaper, read why custom furniture costs more.
Quick questions
What are the holes inside kitchen cabinets for?
They are for shelf pins, hinge plates and drawer runners. They follow the 32 mm system: 5 mm holes, 32 mm apart, so parts from different makers fit and shelves can be moved.
Can I add shelves to an existing cabinet?
Often, yes. If the side panels have a row of 5 mm holes, standard shelf pins slot straight in. Measure the inside width and depth and ask for a shelf cut to size.
Why do cabinet doors go out of line after a while?
Hinges settle and boards move a little with heat and humidity. Concealed hinges have screws for height, depth and side to side. A few turns usually puts the door right.
Do made to fit wardrobes use standard hardware?
They should. Ask which hinges and runners are used. Standard parts make repairs and upgrades easy for decades.