Use the Old Cabinets in Planning

• The first thing you should do before installing new cabinets is to look at the old cabinets to gauge how your new cabinets need to be set up. Old cabinets can provide you with a design idea and allow you to easily find the wall studs, because they were most likely screwed into them. To make sure you have found all of the wall studs, use a stud finder after the old cabinets are removed.
  
  

Take Precise Measurements

• To start, make a straight line approximately three inches from the floor. Using that line, measure up 34.5 inches to get the size of your base cabinet and 19.5 inches higher to find the bottom of the upper cabinet. Using the guides from the old cabinets and a stud finder, mark where the studs are located and draw straight lines from the top to the bottom of the wall to denote them. These lines will provide the guides for placing and mounting the cabinets.
  
  

Making Sure You Have Support

• Screw a piece of 1-by-3 wood into the wall where the bottom of the wall-mounted cabinets will go. This piece of wood will provide you with an extra piece of support as you begin to hang the cabinets. Make sure it is straight, because this will also act as a guide for the cabinet bottoms. This is a temporary guide, so make sure it will be easy to detach after the cabinets are hung.
  
  

Installing the Cabinets

• For installation purposes, start with your corner cabinet first. This will usually be the biggest and the heaviest, so it is good to get it out of the way. Also, it provides a good anchor point to work outward from. Drill pilot holes before you do the mounting to make the screws easier to get in. Use screws long enough to go through the cabinets and into the wall studs. While hanging the cabinets, use a level to make sure they are straight all the way around.
  
  When hanging the rest of the wall cabinets, be sure to screw them to each other and to the wall. Use a few vice grips to make sure they are flush against one another and then bolt them together and screw them into the wall.
  
  Once all of the wall cabinets are in place, install the lower cabinets starting with the corner cabinet and work your way around the kitchen, screwing the cabinets into the wall and bolting them to each other.