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Will new cabinet doors fit my existing hinge holes?
Usually yes, if the new doors are bored to match what you already have. Most concealed hinges use a 35mm cup, and the door is the reference rather than the cabinet. Measure the cup diameter, its depth, how far it sits from the door edge, and how far its centre sits from the end of the door.
| Measure | Where | What it tells us |
|---|---|---|
| Cup diameter | Across the round recess in the back of the door | Which hinge family you have. 35mm is standard |
| Cup depth | From the back face of the door to the bottom of the recess | Whether a standard 13mm bore will seat your hinge |
| Edge to cup | From the edge of the door to the nearest edge of the cup | How far in the boring sits. 3mm is our standard |
| End to cup centre | From the top or bottom of the door to the middle of the cup | Where the hinges land. We bore 3 inches on centre |
Will new cabinet doors fit my existing hinge holes?
Yes, as long as the doors are bored to match the holes you already have. This is the whole question, and it is worth being plain about it: a replacement door is not a standard part that happens to line up. It lines up because somebody measured the old one and cut the new one to suit.
The good news is that concealed hinges are far more standardised than they look. The large majority of kitchen cabinets built in the last thirty years use a 35mm cup, and if yours is one of them, the boring is a small set of numbers rather than a mystery.
What is a hinge cup, and how do I know if I have one?
Open a door and look at the back of it. If you see a round, flat-bottomed recess near the top and another near the bottom, with the hinge sitting down inside each one, that recess is the cup. The hinge arm runs from it to a mounting plate screwed to the inside of the cabinet.
That is a European, or concealed, hinge. It is the type this page is about.
If instead you see a hinge screwed flat to the face of the door, or a barrel hinge visible from the front when the door is shut, you have something else. Those still replace fine, but the measurements are different and it is worth sending us a photograph rather than guessing.
How do I measure the boring I already have?
Take a door off. You want four numbers, and all four come off the door rather than the cabinet.
- The cup diameter. Lay a tape or a rule across the recess. It will almost certainly read 35mm. If it reads 26mm you have a smaller European hinge, which we can still match, but tell us.
- The cup depth. From the back face of the door down to the bottom of the recess. Our standard bore is 13mm.
- Edge of door to edge of cup. The strip of timber between the side of the door and the nearest edge of the recess. Ours is 3mm. Some shops bore 4mm, 5mm or 6mm, and that difference will move the door sideways if it is ignored.
- End of door to the centre of the cup. Measure from the top of the door to the middle of the top cup, and from the bottom to the middle of the bottom cup. We bore 3 inches on centre from each end.
Do it on every door rather than one door and multiply. Doors get swapped around over the years, and a kitchen where three doors were replaced in 2012 is a kitchen with two different borings in it.
What if my boring does not match yours?
Then we bore yours instead of ours. Every door here is made to order, so the boring is part of the order rather than a fixed pattern you have to live with. Send the four numbers and the doors arrive drilled to them.
There are three ways a door can leave the shop:
- Bored for press-in hinges — the cup plus two 8mm dowel holes for the press-in lugs.
- Bored for screw-in hinges — the cup alone, with the hinge screwed to the door.
- Blank — no boring at all, for a shop doing its own.
We also sell the mounting plates, so if you would rather start clean than match a twenty-year-old plate, you can order doors, hinges and plates together and have them arrive as one set.
Should I reuse my hinges or start fresh?
This is the first question worth answering, because it changes what you measure.
Reusing your hinges means the old boring is the reference. Measure each door as described above and the new doors copy it.
Fitting new hinges means the boring is being cut fresh, so the cabinet becomes the reference instead. Measure the internal opening of the cabinet, then add the overlay the door should have on each side, decided by the hinge you are choosing.
The only thing that changes door-versus-opening is whether you are changing the hardware. If the hinges stay, measure the door. If the hinges go, measure the opening.
If you are not sure which camp you are in, email a photograph of the cabinets with the doors shut. It is quicker for both of us than a description.
What is the mistake that costs an eighth of an inch?
Not the arithmetic. The tape.
When people measure between two parts of an opening, they hold the tape loosely and the little tongue at the end slides. Push the tape firmly up against the opening, hold it there, and read it without letting the tongue move. Letting it slide is worth about an eighth of an inch, and on a made-to-size door an eighth is the difference between a door that fits and one that does not.
We recommend Blum and Salice hinges, and both are forgiving once the boring is right — there is adjustment in three directions on the hinge itself. But adjustment is for fine-tuning. It will not rescue a cup bored in the wrong place.
How long does it take to get replacement doors?
Two weeks from order to shipped. Every door is cut to your measurements in sixteenth-of-an-inch increments, so there is no rounding to the nearest stock size and no filler strip to hide a gap.
For what it is worth on the accuracy question: in five years we have got a size wrong twice.
Orders are placed through the ordering system rather than by email, so it is worth having your four numbers written down before you sit down to it.
Frequently asked questions
Are all cabinet hinge holes 35mm?
Most are. 35mm is the standard cup for full-size concealed hinges and it is what you will almost certainly find. A smaller 26mm cup exists and turns up on some lighter and older cabinets. Measure rather than assume, because the two are not interchangeable.
Can I order doors without any hinge holes?
Yes. Doors ship blank if you ask for them blank, which is what most cabinet shops want so they can bore to their own pattern.
Do I need to send you my old door?
No. The measurements are enough. A photograph of the cabinets with the doors shut is useful alongside them, because it shows the overlay you currently have without you having to diagnose it.
What if my doors have three hinges?
Measure all three, top to centre for each. Tall doors often carry a middle hinge and its position is not always halfway.
Will new doors work with my old mounting plates?
Usually, if you are reusing the same hinges. If you are changing hinge brand, change the plates too — plate height and hinge arm are matched to each other, and mixing them is what causes a door you cannot adjust into line.
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