Just found out my cabinet hinges were all wrong

I was over at my neighbor Dave's place last Saturday helping him hang some new kitchen cabinets. He's been doing woodworking for like 20 years so I figured I'd just follow his lead. Well we got to the hinge part and he looked at my setup and just laughed. Turns out I'd been using standard overlay hinges on inset cabinets in my own kitchen for the past 3 years. The doors never closed right and I just thought it was cheap hardware. Dave spent 10 minutes showing me the difference with a hinge guide he keeps in his truck. He said most people get this wrong and it's not their fault because the packaging at the home center is super confusing. I swapped out all my hinges over the weekend and my doors actually line up now. Has anyone else dealt with this or am I the only one who missed the memo?

2 comments

2 Comments

finley_wells664d agoMost Upvoted

Man that's such a common screw up though. I've been doing my own cabinets for a while and I still double check the hinge type every single time because the packaging really is terrible. But here's what gets me - did you ever try putting the old hinges back in the right way after Dave showed you the difference? Because I've found that sometimes even if you have the wrong type, you can flip them or adjust the screw slots a little to make them work decent enough. Not perfect mind you but better than nothing. Just curious if you messed around with that at all or if you just went straight to buying new ones.

the_julia4d ago

Nah, I just bought new ones, flipping them never lined up the screw holes right for me.