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How to adjust cabinet door hinges
A concealed hinge adjusts on three axes. The front screw on the hinge arm moves the door side to side, the mounting plate sets its height, and the rear screw or cam pulls it in or stands it off. Work height first, then side, then depth — out of that order you will chase the same gap repeatedly.
| What you see | What is actually wrong | Which screw |
|---|---|---|
| Gap tight at the top, wide at the bottom | One hinge sits further out than the other, so the door is pivoting | Side screw on the hinge at the tight end only. Leave the other alone |
| Doors parallel, but one sits low | Plate height is off, or the plate slipped during install | Height cam on the plate, both hinges, the same amount each |
| A corner sticks out, or the door rocks when pressed | The cabinet face is not flat, or the door is twisted | Depth screw. Pull the proud corner in, push its diagonal out |
| Door rubs its neighbour as it opens | Overlay is too generous for the reveal | Side screw, both hinges, reduce the overlay |
| Soft close slams, or will not pull the last half inch | Depth set too far out, so the hinge never reaches its closing range | Depth screw, bring the door in until it pulls closed on its own |
Which screw moves the door which way?
Every concealed European hinge adjusts on three axes, and they are independent of each other:
- Side, or overlay — the front screw on the hinge arm. Opens and closes the vertical gap between doors. Left and right.
- Height — on the mounting plate, not on the hinge. Levels the tops and bottoms of doors across a run. Up and down.
- Depth — the rear screw or cam. Pulls the door tight to the cabinet face or stands it off, and it is the one that kills a twist. In and out.
Use a #2 Phillips or #2 POZIDRIV driver, and nothing smaller. A #1 cams out and chews the cross recess, and a stripped cam screw means replacing the hinge rather than adjusting it.
Am I looking at a Blum or a Salice?
Count the screws on the hinge arm. It takes two seconds and it is the single most useful thing on this page.
Two screws on the arm — Blum. The arm carries both adjusters: front screw for side, rear cam for depth. The mounting plate has at most one cam, for height. The arm is stamped BLUM, there is a release lever at the back of it, and soft-close models have a small switch on the cup housing.
One screw on the arm — Salice. The arm carries only the side screw. Depth and height are two separate cams on the Domi plate behind it. The arm or cup is stamped SALICE, and there is a snap-on clip at the rear of the arm instead of a lever.
This matters most on a kitchen that has had work done over the years and carries both. Reach for the screw that would be the depth adjuster on a Blum while you are actually holding a Salice, and you move the door sideways instead — and then you spend twenty minutes chasing a gap you made yourself.
How do I know which screw to turn?
The table above is the whole method. Look at the gap, work out what it is telling you, and turn one screw. The common mistake is turning all three a little and hoping, which moves the door somewhere new without telling you anything.
The wedge is the one people get wrong most often. A gap tight at the top and wide at the bottom is not a height problem — the door is pivoting because one hinge sits further out than the other. Turn the side screw on the hinge at the tight end, and only that one.
What order should I work a run of doors in?
Out of this order you will chase the same reveal three times.
- Confirm the boxes are right first. Level, plumb, and a flat face before you touch a hinge. A 3mm bow in the run cannot be fixed with 2mm of hinge travel.
- Hang everything, then stand back. Adjusting one door against a neighbour that is itself wrong doubles the work.
- Height, on the plates. Pick the door you trust most as your datum and bring the others to it. Turn both hinges on a door by the same amount.
- Side, on the hinge arms. Even out the vertical reveals. Aim for about 3mm between door edges on a typical frameless run — and pick one number and hold it across the whole kitchen, because the eye reads inconsistency rather than width.
- Depth, last. Press each corner. Any rock means twist: pull the proud corner’s hinge in and push its diagonal out, half a turn at a time, until the door sits flat and the soft close pulls it home.
How much travel is there?
About 2mm, roughly 3/32 of an inch, on the side adjustment of a Blum CLIP top, with height and depth in the same order of magnitude.
That number is worth knowing because it tells you when to stop. If a door is out by more than about 2mm in any direction, the hinge is not the problem. The plate is in the wrong position, the plate height is wrong for the overlay, or the box itself is out. Adjustment range is for fine-tuning, not for rescuing a bad layout — and continuing to turn screws past that point just runs you out of travel with the door still wrong.
A trick worth stealing
Cut a scrap of 3mm plywood and hold it in the reveal as you work along the run. It is faster than a tape, it does not need reading, and it stops the slow drift that happens when you judge each gap against the one next to it rather than against a fixed number.
When will adjusting not fix it?
Some doors are past this, and it is worth knowing before you spend an afternoon on them.
If the door itself is bowed or twisted, no hinge will flatten it — depth adjustment fights a twist, it does not remove one. If the cup bore has broken out or the screws no longer bite in the door, the fixing is gone rather than misaligned. And if a kitchen has doors from more than one era on it, you can level them perfectly and they will still read as mismatched, because the frame widths differ.
That is the point where new doors onto sound boxes is the cheaper answer than more fiddling, and it is a far smaller job than it sounds — the boxes, the hinges and the layout all stay.
Frequently asked questions
Why does my cabinet door not close all the way?
Usually the depth is set too far out, so the hinge never reaches the part of its travel where it pulls closed. Bring the door in on the depth screw until it latches on its own. On a soft-close hinge, check the switch on the cup housing while you are there.
How do I fix a cabinet door that sits crooked?
If the gap is wedge-shaped, one hinge is sitting further out than the other and the door is pivoting on it. Turn the side screw on the hinge at the tight end only. Turning both keeps it crooked and moves it sideways.
How much can a cabinet hinge actually adjust?
About 2mm, or 3/32 of an inch, per axis. If your door is further out than that, the problem is the plate position or the cabinet rather than the hinge, and more turning will only run you out of travel.
What size screwdriver do I need?
A #2 Phillips or #2 POZIDRIV. Every adjustment screw on both Blum and Salice takes the same bit. Do not use a #1 — it cams out and chews the recess, and a stripped cam screw means a new hinge.
What gap should there be between cabinet doors?
About 3mm on a typical frameless run, but the number matters less than holding the same one everywhere. The eye reads inconsistency rather than width, so a kitchen with consistent 4mm reveals looks right and one that drifts between 2mm and 4mm does not.