8 Common Filler Mistakes and How to Fix Them

Fillers are the unsung heroes of any kitchen remodel. They bridge gaps and keep your kitchen looking polished. But despite their importance, fillers often get overlooked and bad fillers can ruin an otherwise amazing kitchen.

Whether you're a DIY enthusiast or a subcontractor fixing someone else's mistake, understanding how to work with fillers the right way is critical. Let’s go over the most common mistakes we see in the field — and how you can avoid them.

1. Not Scribing Your Fillers to the Wall

Walls are never perfectly level or plumb. So what do we do when we want to take a piece of material and keep it flush with our walls? If you install a straight filler against a wavy wall, you’ll be left with unsightly gaps, or worse, an open invitation for anything that can live between cabinets. A lot of people and especially DIYers will just try to use caulk to cover up the gaps which is the wrong way to go about it.

The Fix: Learn to Scribe. Scribing is the process of contouring your trim, like fillers or tow kick, to your walls and floors. To scribe a filler, you just measure the widest part between the wall and cabinet. Trace the wall’s contour onto the filler which can be done with a block or a compass with the filler clamp onto the cabinet. Then, cut along that line with a jigsaw or sand it down. A flush, gap-free fit makes all the difference.

2. Overlay Fillers Too Tight Against the Door

Leaving no clearance between your overlay filler and the hinge side of your cabinet doors can cause rubbing, chipping, and long-term damage. And over time the cabinet finish will start looking di-stressed while you get more stressed about the look of your kitchen. (see what I did there?)

The Fix: Always leave a small gap between the filler and the door. A little breathing room prevents wear and tear. If you want a good rule of thumb a 1/8th inch gap will usually be plenty for most install scenarios.

3. Overlay Fillers Are Not Flush with the Doors

Some installs miss the mark entirely and leave overlay fillers misaligned. If your fillers don’t sit flush with the doors, your cabinets will never look finished. Doors usually don't sit in direct contact with the face frame of a cabinet and if your fillers are the same thickness as your doors (they usually are) then you can't direct screw the filler without a spacer. Some manufacturers account for that with 1 inch overlays but it's less common.

The Fix: Use a spacer or bumpers to align overlay fillers flush with the cabinet doors. If your filler is already installed, adjust your door hinges to match the depth of the overlay.

4. The grain on your fillers and doors clash

Even with perfect alignment, if the grain on your filler doesn’t match the doors, it’ll look “off.” Your eye will catch the inconsistency every time.

The Fix: When using stained fillers, do your best to match the wood grain direction and tone to the surrounding doors. Or just stick with painted finishes.

5. Cutting fillers before looking at the whole design

This one hurts, both emotionally and financially. Cutting all your filler pieces without checking the full layout can leave you short on material. Sometimes designers will order extra material for insurance so they don't have to reorder material while others try to minimize the filler material they order to save a few dollars on the install (ideally they should communicate this with the installer) and then it's up to the installer to manage the material for the install. You can run into a situation where if you start cutting and discarding filler material for an install, you'll be stuck with a bunch of leftover material that can't be used for any big cuts.

The Fix: Review the full kitchen design before making a single cut. Calculate how many fillers you need and how much material you have and plan accordingly.

6. Discarding the Overlays

We’ve seen it more than once, installers tossing crucial overlay fillers because they thought they were scrap. Not only does it waste material, but it could delay your project by however much time it takes to recorder the material.

The Fix: Label your materials and review your plan before discarding anything.

7. Damaging Drywall

Forcing fillers into place, especially when scribing, can end up scratching or gouging the drywall behind it. And then you're left with another project that’s a pain to fix after cabinets are installed.

The Fix: Don’t force it. A little bit of space is okay. Caulk is your friend!

8. Getting Lazy with Angled Fillers

If you're dealing with angled cabinet fillers (like bump-outs), a single 45° cut may seem faster, but there's a big problem with just making the one simple cut. You'll cut a seem that's off center from the corner being cut. And if you have a countertop or molding over the seem then you've basically broken some of the symmetry in your install.

The Fix: Use two 22.5° cuts instead. It results in a more symmetrical, professional look since the seem won't be offset one way or another.

Final Thoughts:

Be sure to watch our video going over these mistakes which you can access here: Click to Watch the Video! 
We’ve made every one of these mistakes ourselves and we’ve had to go back and fix them. That’s why we created Cabinet Bootcamp! If you're ready to train up to the level of a pro, be sure to check it out.