Guide to Choosing the Best Cabinet Door Hinges

When it comes to styling your home, you definitely don’t want to compromise on anything. The kitchen is one of the most important parts of your home, where you spend a major part of your day preparing meals and sometimes even eating there. 

Every person wants their kitchen to be both functional and aesthetically pleasing. Cabinets are the pieces of furniture that can transform the overall look and feel of your kitchen space. The cabinets help you organize and store all your kitchen stuff and make working in the kitchen easier. 

When it comes to ensuring the effective functioning of the cabinets’ doors, hinges play a crucial role. Their functionality and style have a significant impact on the overall performance and appearance of your cabinets. Therefore, the process of choosing the right hinges for cabinet doors must be done rigorously.

Hinges are available in a wide range of options, making it difficult for you to choose the right ones for your cabinet doors. There are several things you should consider before stepping into the market for buying hinges. This article will navigate you through all the options and help you choose the right hinges for your kitchen cabinets. Here are a few things you need to determine before investing in hinges:

• Cabinet Type: There are mainly two types of cabinets:

• Frameless cabinets: Frameless cabinets are a four-sided box on which hinges are mounted on the interior portion. 

• Face-frame cabinets: As the name suggests, face-frame cabinets are equipped with a frame attached to the front edge of the case. Hinges are mounted on the face frame, which is on the exterior portion of the cabinet.

• Door Overlay: Door overlay refers to the door’s position in relation to the cabinet’s opening position. The configuration for face-frame and frameless cabinets are different, which is explained below:

Overlay for Frameless cabinets:

• Full Overlay: With a full-overlay door, you can cover all the front edges of your cabinet. These overlays work best for cabinets that are located at the end.

• Half Overlay Cabinet: This overlay works best for cabinets that are located in the middle. The hinge will make the door cover half the portion, till the cabinet’s partition wall.

• Inset Cabinet: Inset door fits within the frameless cabinets’ opening and sits flush with the front edges. 

Overlay for Face-Frame cabinets:

• Overlay: As the name implies, the overlay covers the entire opening of the cabinet, overlapping the face frame on all sides.

• Inset: The doors fit completely within the cabinet opening and sit flush within the sides of the cabinet when the door is closed.

• Partial Inset: Partial inset slightly overlaps the cabinet opening on all sides with a partial shoulder, machined along all the edges on the back that allows the thickness of the door to sit inside the opening.

Visibility of hinges: There are hinges that provide complete, partial, and zero visibility when a cabinet door is opened or closed. The hinges add a stylish appeal to the cabinets, but the choice depends on whether you want the hinges to show up or not. In such a scenario, you have three options:

• Concealed Hinges: Concealed hinges are not visible from the outside when the door of the cabinet is closed. They are best for modern, minimalist applications where you do not want them to detract from the design.

• Semi-Concealed Hinges: Semi-concealed hinges are partly visible from the outside when the door of the cabinet is closed. These hinges have a slightly decorative appeal that complements the design of the cabinet.

• Exposed Hinges: These hinges are completely visible from the outside when the door of the cabinet is closed. They are available in a variety of designs and finishes to add a decorative appeal to the cabinet.

The way you want to mount the hinge: Different types of hinges are mounting differently on the cabinet door and frame. Depending on this, the hinges are divided into four categories, which are as follows:

• Surface-Mount Hinge: To mount a surface-mount hinge, you do not have to drill a hole in the door or cabinet as it easily mounts to the surface.

• Mortise Hinge: To mount a mortise hinge, you need to cut a mortise in the door or cabinet to fit the hinge leaves.

• No-Mortise Hinge: It’s a kind of surface-mounted hinge that screws directly to the cabinet and the door without any mortises or holes being cut into the surfaces.

• Wraparound Hinge: The leaves of the wraparound hinges are designed to wrap around the edge of the door or the face frame. A partial wraparound hinge wraps around the door and is better used on a frameless cabinet. A full wraparound hinge will wrap around on both halves of the hinge and is best suited on a face-frame cabinet.

Added specialty: There are hinges that, along with providing an excellent opening and closing to doors, offer a special feature to them. The special hinges are as follows:

• Self-Closing Hinge: The hinge is backed with a mechanism that pulls the door shut when it is a few inches away from its closing position. The hinge also goes by the name snap-closing hinge.

• Self-Opening Systems: The hinge is designed with a mechanism that propels the door open when the poor is pushed.

• Soft-Close Hinge: The hinge incorporates a mechanism that activates when the door is within a few inches away from its shutting position and closes it gently without making any noise.

Wrapping up

Every size door swings on hinges, and their entire performance depends on the quality of hinges used. Doors having an average size door require a maximum of two hinges, and if you have a heavy-sized door, the number of hinges can be increased accordingly. Choosing the right hinges for cabinet doors is crucial as they will ensure their long-term and hassle-free working. We hope that this article has helped you find the right hinge for your cabinets that, along with providing the much-needed functionality, beautify the entire look of the cabinet.