How to Prepare a Kitchen Unit Schedule for a Supplier
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Short answer: a kitchen unit schedule is a line-by-line list of every cabinet, door, panel, worktop, handle and appliance a kitchen needs, with a quantity against each. Group it by room or plot type, use the cabinet width in millimetres as the identifier, and include the finishing items — plinth, cornice, pelmet, end panels and upstands — that are almost always forgotten. A supplier can price a good schedule the same day; a vague one takes a week of emails.
If you buy kitchens for property projects, the schedule is the document that decides how quickly and how accurately you get quoted. Most delays in kitchen procurement are not caused by suppliers being slow. They are caused by a list that does not say how many, how wide, or in what finish — so someone has to ask, and the clock restarts.
This guide sets out what a usable schedule contains, in what order, and the items that most often get left off.
What a unit schedule is (and is not)
A unit schedule is a quantified bill of materials for a kitchen. It is not a design, and it does not need to be produced in CAD. A clearly laid out spreadsheet is perfectly adequate — in fact it is usually easier to price than a drawing, because nothing has to be interpreted.
What it must do is remove ambiguity. Every line should answer three questions: what is it, what size is it, and how many are needed? If a line cannot answer all three, it will generate a query.
The structure to use
Work through the kitchen in the order it gets fitted. That way the schedule reads naturally to whoever is pricing it and to whoever is checking the delivery.
| Section | What goes in it | Identifier to use |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Base cabinets | Highline and drawerline base units, corner base units, sink base | Type + width in mm (e.g. “Highline base 600”) |
| 2. Wall cabinets | Standard and tall wall units, corner wall, bridging units | Type + width + height where it varies |
| 3. Tall cabinets | Larder units, appliance housings, boiler units | Type + width + the appliance it must take |
| 4. Doors & drawer fronts | Every door and drawer front, by size | Style + colour + size + quantity |
| 5. Panels & trims | End panels, plinth, cornice, pelmet | Item + length + quantity |
| 6. Worktops | Worktop lengths, upstands, splashbacks | Décor + profile + run lengths |
| 7. Hardware | Handles, hinges, drawer boxes, storage, waste | Item + quantity |
| 8. Appliances, sinks & taps | Every appliance by model, sink and tap | Make + model number |
Section by section
1–3. Cabinets
List every carcass with its type and width. Widths are the identifier that matters — a 600 base and a 500 base are different products, and a schedule that says “8 base units” cannot be priced. Where a cabinet has a specific job, say so: the sink base, the unit that takes the integrated dishwasher, the housing for the built-in oven. That lets the supplier flag it if the appliance will not fit the housing specified.
If you are unsure which cabinet types exist, work from a real range rather than from memory. Brooklands lists highline base, drawerline base, wall, corner, larder, appliance housing, bridging and boiler units separately, and using those categories on your schedule keeps everything aligned.
4. Doors and drawer fronts
State the door style and the colour once at the top of the section, then list the sizes and quantities. Drawer fronts are the ones people forget: a drawerline base unit with a three-drawer pack needs three fronts, not one door. If the kitchen has a mixture of styles or colours — an island in a contrast colour, for example — split it into two sub-sections rather than annotating individual lines.
5. Panels and trims
This is the section that costs projects money. End panels close exposed cabinet ends; plinth closes the gap to the floor; cornice and pelmet finish the tops and bottoms of wall units. None of them appear on a layout drawing in any obvious way, and all of them are needed on the day of the fit. Count exposed ends physically — walk the plan and mark every cabinet side that will be visible.
6. Worktops
Give run lengths wall by wall, not a single total. Worktops are supplied as pre-finished lengths, so three separate 2.4m runs and one continuous 7.2m run need completely different quantities of board. State the décor and the profile — postformed or square-edged — and add matching upstands and splashbacks in the same section so they are ordered from the same batch.
Remember that cutting, jointing, cut-outs and installation happen on site. Your schedule is asking for material, not for a fabricated worktop.
7–8. Hardware and appliances
Handles are counted per door and per drawer front, so the number is higher than the number of cabinets. Appliances need make and model, not just “integrated oven” — the model determines the housing, the aperture and often the worktop cut-out.
The six items most often left off
- Drawer fronts. Counted as doors, or not counted at all.
- End panels. Every exposed cabinet end needs one, including the end of an island run.
- Plinth. Measured in metres and easy to under-order on an L or U-shaped kitchen.
- Upstands and splashbacks. Ordered later, in a different batch, and no longer a perfect match.
- Hinges and drawer boxes. Assumed to be included, and sometimes they are — but confirm it on the quotation.
- Waste and sink accessories. Trap kits, waste kits and sink fixings that stop a fit dead when missing.
If the project has more than one kitchen
Build one schedule per plot type or property type, then state how many of each you need. It is far easier to check “Two-bed apartment × 14” than a single list of 340 cabinets, and it means a change to one plot type does not force a rebuild of the whole document.
Keep the cabinet platform common across the types even where finishes differ. Changing only the visible items — door style, colour, worktop décor, handles — between tiers keeps the schedule simple and makes replacements far easier later. There is more on this in our guide to multi-unit kitchen projects.
Quick checklist before you send it
- Does every line have a size and a quantity?
- Are door style and colour stated explicitly?
- Are worktop run lengths given wall by wall, with décor and profile?
- Are panels, plinth, cornice and pelmet included?
- Are appliances listed by make and model?
- Have you said whether you want cabinets rigid or flat-packed?
- Have you given a delivery postcode and a required date?
Send your schedule to Brooklands
Upload a schedule, a drawing or a list of measurements and we will price it line by line. We aim to reply within one working day. No account needed, and there is no charge for a quotation.