KITCHEN GUIDE

Fitting and Adjusting Kitchen Door Hinges

Hanging a door is straightforward; hanging twenty so they line up is not. This guide covers seating and squaring the hinge, the three adjustment screws and the order to use them, and how to bring a whole run of doors into line.

Written guide · about 8 minutes to read

Fitting is geometry, not strength

A door that will not hang level is almost never a bad door. It is a hinge a degree or two out of square, or a boss drilled in the wrong place.

This guide covers what happens after the doors arrive: getting the hinges on square, hanging the door, and using the three adjustment screws to bring a whole run into line.

If you have not ordered yet and you are working out where the hinge holes go, start with our door measuring guide — it covers hinge positions, the centre-hole datum and the boss sizes in detail, and it is the one to read before you order.

Know what you are fitting

Boss diameter: 35mm is standard. 26mm exists and is used on some cabinets — measure the recess in your existing door before ordering anything.
110° hinge: The standard opening angle. Suits ordinary base and wall units.
165° hinge: Wide-angle. Used where a door has to swing clear — corner units, and anywhere a drawer or pull-out has to come past the open door.
Soft close: A damper in the hinge that pulls the last part of the closing arc and stops the door slamming. Fitted the same way as a standard hinge.
Clip-on: The hinge arm clips onto a mounting plate fixed to the cabinet, so the door comes off and back on without unscrewing anything.

If you are drilling the recesses yourself

Use a hinge sinking drill with a depth stop

A 35mm cabinet hinge sinking bit — a flat-bottomed bit, not a spade bit and not a hole saw. Set a depth stop before you start. The recess needs to be deep enough for the boss to sit flush and no deeper: go too far and you come through the face of the door.

Take the position from the existing centre hole

Look at the recess in your old door. There is almost always a small centre hole left behind by the sinking drill's pilot point. That hole is your datum — measure from the top of the door to that hole, not to the middle of the recess as you judge it by eye. It is more accurate, it is repeatable, and it is exactly what we drill to when we do it for you.

Drill into scrap, square to the face

Clamp the door face down on a flat surface with scrap underneath. Keep the bit square to the door — a recess drilled at a slight angle puts the hinge in a bend it can never be adjusted out of.

Getting the hinge on square

This is the step that decides whether the door will ever hang right.

Seat the hinge fully in the recess

The boss should drop in and sit flat on the bottom of the recess with the mounting flange flush to the back of the door. If it rocks or stands proud, the recess is not deep enough or there is swarf in the bottom. Clear it out rather than forcing the screws down.

Set it square with an engineer's square

Put the stock of the square against the edge of the door and bring the blade up to the hinge flange. Rotate the hinge until the flange sits true against the blade. A hinge a degree or two out is the commonest reason a door will not hang level — and once the screw holes exist, it is very nearly impossible to correct.

Mark the screw holes with a bradawl

Push a bradawl or centre punch through each screw hole to mark the board. Screws follow the path of least resistance, and a screw started without a mark will pull the hinge out of the square you just set.

Drive the screws by hand

Hand-drive the fixing screws, or use a driver on its lowest torque setting. These screws go into a board core: over-driven, they strip the hole, and a stripped hole in a new door is a repair before the door has ever hung.

Hanging and adjusting

Fit the mounting plates to the cabinet

Use the plate positions from the old door if the cabinet is unchanged — the existing screw holes are already in the right place. If you are starting fresh, set both plates the same distance back from the cabinet front edge, measured, not judged.

Clip the door on and check it swings clear

Clip the hinge arms onto the plates. Before adjusting anything, open the door fully and check it does not strike a neighbouring door, a handle, or the worktop return.

Adjust in the right order: side, then depth, then height

A European hinge has three separate adjustments, and doing them out of order means going round in circles.

Side to side — the screw nearest the door. This closes or opens the gap between this door and the one beside it. Set your gaps first.
Depth (in and out) — usually the rear screw or a cam. This brings the door closer to or further from the cabinet face, so a run of doors sits in one plane.
Height — the mounting plate screws on the cabinet. Slacken them, lift or drop the door, retighten.

Work along the run, not door by door

Adjust one door perfectly and the next one exposes it. Get all the doors on, then set the whole run together, using the gaps between them as your reference. Aim for an even gap throughout — around 4mm between adjoining doors and drawer fronts is the usual target. An even 5mm looks far better than a mixture of 3mm and 4mm.

Sight down the run when you think you have finished

Crouch at one end and look along the door faces. Any door sitting proud or shy of its neighbours shows immediately from that angle and is invisible from straight on. Correct with the depth adjustment.

Frequently asked questions

My door will not close flush at the top. What do I adjust?

Start with the depth adjustment on the top hinge, bringing the top of the door in towards the cabinet. If it still will not sit, check the hinge is fully seated in its recess and that the recess is not drilled at a slight angle — a hinge sitting on swarf or on an out-of-square recess cannot be adjusted flush.

How many hinges does a door need?

Two is standard for the great majority of doors. Taller and heavier doors need three, and very tall larder doors often take four. If your old door had three or four hinges, your new one needs the same number in the same positions — measure each one, because the spacing is rarely symmetrical.

Can I reuse my existing hinges?

Often yes, if they are in good condition, the boss diameter matches your new door, and the doors are a similar weight. Worn hinges will not hold an adjustment, so if a door has been sagging for a while the hinge is usually the reason — replacing it at the same time as the door is the cheaper end of that decision.

Which hinge do I need for a corner cupboard?

Usually a 165° wide-angle hinge, so the door swings far enough back to let you get into the corner and to clear the adjacent door. Check the swing physically before ordering — corner arrangements vary a lot and a 110° hinge in the wrong place makes the cupboard awkward for the rest of its life.

My soft close is not working on one door.

First check the door is not catching on something as it closes — the damper only engages over the last part of the arc and an obstruction can stop it reaching that point. Then check the depth adjustment: a door adjusted too far out may not close far enough to trigger the mechanism. If the door swings freely and closes fully but still slams, the damper itself has failed and the hinge needs replacing.

Do the hinge holes have to be exactly where the old ones were?

They have to line up with the mounting plates on your cabinet, so unless you are moving the plates too, yes. That is why we ask for hinge positions measured from the top of the door — and why measuring to the small centre hole left by the sinking drill, rather than to the middle of the recess by eye, is worth the extra minute.

What tools do I actually need?

A tape measure, a screwdriver, a bradawl or centre punch, and an engineer's square. If you are drilling your own recesses, add a 35mm cabinet hinge sinking drill and a depth stop. That is the whole list.

Would you rather we drilled the hinge holes?

Add hinge hole drilling to your door order and send us the positions — we drill to the centre-hole datum.