Adjusting Your IKEA Kitchen Doors: Everything You Need to Know

A clearly misaligned cabinet door can get really annoying. Worry no more, though, because getting rid of this problem is actually as easy as one-two-three. You don’t need to spend money on hiring someone to fix it for you because you can do the fixing yourself. All you need to do is adjust the cabinet hinges. It’s easy, quick, and cheap.

Here are the things you need to consider before adjusting your hinges.

  • Know your hinge type. Most cabinets nowadays are installed with fully adjustable hinges which can be adjusted up and down, side to side, or in and out. Identify what type of hinge is installed in your cabinet.

  • Make them look right. Aside from keeping the cabinet doors from hanging loose and bumping on each other, you also have to make them look aligned. Of course, it doesn’t mean that they should be perfectly levelled, they just have to look symmetrical with the surrounding cabinets’ elements.

  • Prepare your tools and supplies. You don’t really need a lot of tools to do the adjustments. A standard Phillips screwdriver can already do the trick. Just be mindful about the size of the screw tip. Remember not to use a power drill with the screwdriver bit because it can easily strip the screw heads or damage the cabinet.

Here are some tips to follow:

  • Tighten loose screws. Check the hinge attached to the cabinet box. Make sure that the hinge is mounted to the cabinet securely and that the loose mounting screws are tightened.

  • Adjust the doors up or down. If the problem is still not fixed after tightening the screws, look for the screws that can adjust the door up and down. If you don’t see them, just loosen the mounting screws on both hinges. Now you can adjust the door to your desired height, then retighten the screws.

  • Adjust the doors right or left. You can use the side-to-side adjustment feature of the hinge to move the door left or right to your desired position. By doing this, you will be able to align the door with the cabinet box edges.

  • Adjust the doors in or out. Doors may pull away from the top or the bottom of the box over time due to humidity changes. This will cause the doors to bounce every time it closes. If your hinge has the depth adjustment feature, use this to adjust the doors in and out the cabinet box.

  • Test the doors. After doing all the adjustments, close the door and check whether it is moving in the right direction or not. If you’re still not happy, then do more adjustments until you get what you desire.

How do you align cabinet doors?

If the doors look uneven, that means they need alignment correction. Aligning cabinet doors is actually easier than you think. The usual reason for this is that sometimes, one door is mounted higher than the other. You can confirm this by simply measuring them along one edge. You can also use a straight edge to check whether it needs correction or not. In making the adjustment, you might want to have a block of wood handy. If you want to adjust the higher door, open it and loosen the mounting screws which hold the hinges to the inside edge of the cabinet frame. The slot in the brackets will allow the door to slide down. After that, retighten the hinges to the frame. The block of wood is used to determine the proper position to align the doors.

How do you adjust kitchen cupboard door hinges for sagging cabinet doors?

Most people think that their door hinges have worn out when their kitchen doors become saggy. Sometimes that’s the case, but most of the time, their hinges just need adjustments. Adjusting cupboard door hinges is quite easy to do. Here are some simple steps that you may follow.

  • Know your hinge adjustment screws. You have to know what screws to adjust when you wanted something done. Normally, there are 4 adjustment screws. One on the top, bottom, the left and the right.

  • Do the side to side adjustment. The most common adjustment required when adjusting door hinges is the side to side adjustment. Turn the left-hand screw in a clockwise direction. This will allow your door to move closer to the cabinet’s edge.

  • Do the vertical adjustment. If you want to move your hinge backplate upwards and downwards, loosen the top and bottom screws. However, you should always remember to support the door’s weight when you do the adjustment because when these 2 screws are loosened, the door may drop slightly.

  • Do the front to back adjustment. A very small gap between the cabinet and the back of the door is the most common reason why the doors are not closing properly. This is because the door binds on the cabinet. To prevent this, you can increase the gap slightly. Adjusting the gap requires adjustment in the right hand/middle screw. This will enable you to adjust the gap by moving the door forwards or backwards.

How do you adjust cabinet hinges that won’t close?

If your cabinet doors are always slammed or closed too hard then it is expected that the hinges will start sticking over time. The hinges will bend and the screws will be loosened. This will result in your doors not closing or shutting totally all the way. It will just spring out even if you try to close it forcefully. Don’t worry though because when this happens, you can easily fix it.

Here are some tips for you to remedy this problem:

  • You can flush mount the hinges. You can use a folded matchbook to bend the good hinge slightly so that it would match the bent hinge.

  • Adjust the spring tension of the internal hinges. Find the recessed screws into the hinge and use a screwdriver to adjust them. This will add tension to the internal spring. Continue to adjust the screws until the door stays closed.

Visit The Kitchen Door Company website for quality IKEA doors.

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