Furniture Templates New
A furniture template turns the outer dimensions of a piece of furniture into the exact parts you cut, with the board thickness already subtracted. You enter the three numbers you measure against the space — width, height and depth — and the template returns every part with its size, quantity and grain direction.
This removes the step where most home-built furniture goes wrong. The height you measure in the alcove is not the height of any board in the piece: the top and bottom sit above and below the sides, so the sides are shorter by exactly what those boards take away.
Key facts
- Five templates: TV stand, bookshelf, wardrobe, kitchen base cabinet and a box (or cube).
- You enter outer dimensions; every internal part is derived from them.
- The back panel is listed separately because it is a different, thinner material.
- Grain is marked per part — visible faces are locked, hidden parts are free to rotate.
- Available in the app and as a standalone widget on the cut list calculator pages.
How to use a template
- 1
Open the template picker
In the app, click Furniture templates — the button sits directly above the Parts table, in every mode, so it stays reachable after a run too. On a calculator page the widget is already on the page.
- 2
Choose the piece
TV stand, bookshelf, wardrobe, kitchen base cabinet or a box. Each one opens with a realistic default size.
- 3
Enter your dimensions
Width, height and depth, plus the board thickness you are buying. Every part in the list recalculates as you move a slider.
- 4
Set the internal layout
Dividers, shelves, and either a door or drawers. Compartment widths and front sizes are recalculated at every step.
- 5
Insert the cut list
In the app the parts go straight into the parts table. On a calculator page you can download the CSV or hand the list over to the app.
When the app workspace is still the untouched demo, inserting a template replaces the placeholder rows and swaps the stock sheet for one the parts actually fit. If you have already edited anything, the parts are appended and your own stock list is left alone.
The carcass model
The first four templates share one carcass construction, so the numbers never contradict each other (the box is a different, simpler build — see its own section below):
- The top and bottom run the full outer width and sit above and below the sides.
- The sides and dividers fit between them, so their height is the outer height minus two board thicknesses.
- Compartments share the clear width left after the dividers have taken their own thickness out of it.
- Fronts are inset with a gap on every edge so they can open — except on the kitchen cabinet, where they are overlay.
On a 1600 mm wide carcass built from 18 mm board the clear width is 1564 mm. One divider leaves two compartments of 773 mm each; two dividers give three of 509 mm.
This is not the only correct construction. Some builders run the sides full height and fit the top between them, which swaps the two dimensions around. If your cutting service or your hardware expects that, the list has to be converted.
The kitchen base cabinet
The base cabinet has three settings the other templates do not, because a kitchen cabinet is not just a box.
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| Plinth | How far the carcass stands off the floor. Generates the plinth board and changes nothing else — the carcass parts stay exactly the same. |
| Top | Two rails, or one full top panel. Rails are the normal choice under a worktop: they leave access for the fixing screws and use less board. |
| Overlay fronts | Doors and drawer fronts lie across the carcass face rather than inside the opening, which is how kitchen fronts are built. They come out wider than the opening, not narrower. |
The height you enter is the carcass height. What you actually stand at is the sum of three things:
worktop height = plinth + carcass height + worktop thickness
A 100 mm plinth under a 720 mm carcass under a 38 mm worktop gives 858 mm. The widget shows the carcass top figure so you can check the sum before you cut. The worktop itself is not in the cut list — it is a different material, usually bought cut to length.
The box
The box is the one template that is not a carcass. It is a simple butt-jointed box for sheet material (plywood, MDF) — a storage box, a crate, a drawer box — and a cube when you set width, height and depth equal. You enter the outer width × height × depth and the board thickness, and choose whether the box is open or closed (with a lid).
The parts follow from four walls that meet at the corners:
- Front and back — the two full W × H walls.
- Ends (left and right) — (D − 2t) × H, so they fit between the front and back.
- Base — (W − 2t) × (D − 2t), sitting inside the four walls.
- Lid — the same size as the base, added only when the box is set closed.
A cube is not six identical squares — that is the mistake this template exists to prevent. With butt joints, a cube of side S from board of thickness t has two S × S faces, two (S − 2t) × S faces, and one or two (S − 2t) × (S − 2t) panels. Cut six equal squares and the box will not assemble to the size you wanted.
Box parts are grain-free by default (a utility box has no visible grain to preserve), so the optimizer may rotate them for a tighter layout. If your box does have a grain or a printed face, untick Rot. on those rows after inserting.
Grain direction
Each part is marked fixed or free:
- Fixed — the optimizer may not rotate it. These are the visible faces: the top, the sides, doors, drawer fronts and the plinth. Board decor runs one way, and a rotated visible part reads visibly crossways next to its neighbour.
- Free — rotation is allowed. Shelves, dividers, top rails and the back panel are hidden, and letting the optimizer turn them measurably improves how the parts nest.
You can change any of this after inserting: the Rot. checkbox on each row in the parts table is the same setting, and it is available on every plan.
What the templates do not do
- Drawer boxes and hardware borings. Both depend on the runner and hinge system you buy. The drawer front and door are included; the box is not.
- A door over a stack of drawers. That needs the opening split horizontally first. Generate the two halves as separate cabinets.
- Anything that is not a box of sheet goods. A solid timber table with legs and aprons, a mortised frame or a curved front is not a carcass, and the model does not apply.
- The sheet count. The template’s figure is total area divided by one sheet — a lower bound, not an order quantity. Run the optimizer for the real number.
Related calculator pages
Each template also has its own page with a worked explanation:
- TV stand cut list — board thickness subtraction
- Bookshelf cut list — shelf span and dividers
- Wardrobe cut list — hanging height
- Base cabinet cut list — the worktop height chain
For choosing the sizes in the first place, see the standard furniture dimensions guide.