Grab your screwdriver and get to work
It can be annoying when your cabinetry doesn’t open and close properly. However, it’s only natural for your cabinet doors to become misaligned over time, especially if you’re opening and closing them all day. Luckily, learning how to adjust your cabinet hinges is a quick and easy process. Here’s a handy guide to everything you need to know about adjusting your cabinet hinges, so you can easily operate your doors.
A well-fitted cabinet door opens and closes so easily that you may not even realize how much work it takes to properly align a door. It’s far more noticeable when things go wrong: A door may not close properly, develop large gaps, or sit crookedly against the cabinet. It’s important to resolve these cabinet door issues to keep them in tip-top shape and functioning correctly. Cabinet doors become misaligned for several everyday reasons, including:
Sometimes cabinet doors aren’t installed properly (or are even installed upside down). New cabinet doors may need adjustment to fit correctly and avoid issues.
Depending on the climate, cabinet doors may swell or dry out due to humidity levels. This effect usually warps doors away from alignment and creates issues over time, even if they were properly installed.
Over time, the screws in the hinges may loosen, changing the door’s position or making it swing open when it should stay closed.
Poor habits like leaning on cabinet doors or slamming them will knock doors out of position and require some fixes to get them back in place.
First thing’s first: You’ll need to determine the type of cabinet door hinge you have before attempting to fix anything. While virtually all contemporary cabinets are made with adjustable hinges—allowing you to realign the door by moving it side to side, up and down, or in and out— some may have older hinges that don’t have adjustable screws.
Check that each of the hinges has two or more screws, plus the mounting screws, before proceeding. If you’d like your cabinets to close quietly, consider installing soft-close hinges on the doors. You’ll also need a Phillips-head screwdriver (#2 screw tip) to align existing hinges or apply new ones.
It’s important to start by determining what’s wrong with your cabinetry before you start adjusting the hinges. Often, the issue is simply that the mounting screws have become loose (which is an easy fix). However, you could also be dealing with loose hinge holes or cabinet doors that are too heavy for the existing hinges. These issues will require a bigger fix.
When you open the cabinet door, you should see two screws on the part of the hinge that’s attached to the door and two screws on the part of the hinge that’s attached to the cabinet. Use your Phillips-head screwdriver to tighten these screws clockwise until the door is secure.
If tightening the mounting screws didn’t solve the problem, then you need to make adjustments to the hinges. If your door is lower or higher than it should be, look for the screws on the hinge that let you move the door. To move the door up, turn the screw clockwise; to move it down, turn the screw counterclockwise.
If you need to move the doors sideways, turn the screw on the mounting plate that’s closest to the door. Keep closing the door as you work to check the alignment and make adjustments as needed. Alternatively, if the depth of your doors is off somehow, adjust the screw that’s farthest from the cabinet door (the one that’s located between the two mounting screws). Turn it clockwise if you need to move the door inward or counterclockwise if you need to move the door outward.
Some cabinet doors open vertically, with users pulling the doors up or down to reveal the cabinet space, a helpful option when storing larger objects like big pots. For lift-up cabinets and similar designs, you’ll find the hinges are also oriented vertically and are larger or have larger mounting plates for greater protection.
Fortunately, hinge adjustments work similarly for these doors, with some minor variations because of the new hinge position. However, there’s an added factor of “tension” or how easily the door stays open before swinging shut. Over time, vertical doors may lose their tension—you can tell there’s a problem if the door refuses to stay in place when it’s partially opened. These cabinets typically have a dedicated screw to control this tension. Consult your manual or look up similar hinges online to find where the screw is located. By tightening this screw, you can increase tension and control the door’s behavior.
If you’ve tried to make the proper adjustments and your cabinets are still misaligned or sagging, it may be time to consider replacing the hinges. Some cabinet hinges are too old for adjustments, or the current hinges may not be able to support the weight of the door. Either way, it’s likely a good idea to replace the kitchen cabinet hardware altogether.
To replace the old hinges with new ones, you’ll need to remove the entire cabinet door. Use your screwdriver to remove all of the hardware, and then remove the screws from each hinge that attaches to the door. Remove the hinges from the cabinet frame and gently pull the door away.
Then, you can attach the new hinges to the door. Measure two inches up from the bottom of the door and two inches down from the top of the door, and mark both of these spots. Then you can use these marks to ensure that the new hinges are straight. Finish by re-attaching the doors.
Don’t hesitate to consult a professional cabinet repair person near you if you need new hinges and don’t feel comfortable replacing them, or if you’ve tried to adjust your existing hinges and they’re still sagging or loose. The average cabinet repair job costs $300, but a cabinet repair contractor can provide the most accurate estimate for loose or broken hinges.
If you want to contain how much your cabinet doors can open, you may need to add cabinet door restraints or hinge restrictor clips. Both allow you to adjust how far your cabinet door opens so it won’t hit the wall.
Concealed cabinet hinges stay entirely hidden when the cabinet door is closed. These are sometimes called European-style hinges, but they can be found on all types of cabinets, including many popular home styles. That’s good news when you want to make cabinet adjustments: Concealed door hinges are even more likely to come with adjustment screws to alter the hinge until the door is in the right place.
Self-closing hinges are larger than average with spring-loaded components that close doors, like lift-up doors. These hinges typically have familiar screw controls in similar locations to traditional hinges, so making adjustments won’t be a problem. But they’ll also have an additional tension adjustment to control how easily the door closes itself, which you’ll need to spend an extra couple of minutes on.
Keep in mind that a screwdriver is all you need for most hinge adjustments, but when it comes to more complex hinge designs, there are exceptions. Tension adjustments may require a pin or hexagonal wrench to change.
While cabinet door hinges come in many shapes and sizes, they typically have some adjustment options, so check your hinge design thoroughly. If you find hinges without adjustment screws, they’re often amateur works or very simple constructions. In these cases, you don’t have as many options. You can try unscrewing the hinges and carefully repositioning them with the help of a level to fix cabinet door issues. But it may be easier to replace the hinges entirely rather than go through this tedious process.
