What Kind of Hinges Do You Use for Cabinet Doors That Are Tapered?

Offset Hinges

• Offset hinges provide one of the easiest ways to accommodate a cabinet door with a tapered edge. These hinges are designed in such a way that the holes that the wood screws are inserted into attach to the door far enough back to account for the tapered edge. The difficulty for most homeowners will be finding the hinge that best meets their needs. Many of these types of hinges can be found in the major national home improvement retail chain stores.

Selection

• In many cases, it may be difficult to just go to the hardware or home improvement store and pick up the right hinges for your tapered cabinet door. It is much simpler if you have an existing set of door hinges that you can use to compare with newer hinges so that you can determine what will and what won't work. It may be necessary to take one of your cabinet doors in with you and simply go through trial and error until you find a hinge that will work for your door.

Installation

• Once you have found a hinge that will work with your tapered cabinet door, you will need to ensure that it is properly installed so that it easily integrates with your existing cabinetry. The simplest way to do this is to measure carefully and create a paper template by tracing the face of the cabinet hinge on a piece of paper. Lightly retrace the template on the back of the cabinet door with a pencil and then simply attach the hinges to the door.

Alignment

• One of the trickier parts of installing a cabinet door once you have the hinges in place is to get them aligned so that they do not appear to be crooked or tilted. This usually takes just a little bit of finagling, but can be done with a level, a screwdriver and some patience. Insert and screw the hinges into the cabinet frame until they are tight, but not completely tightened down. Repeat the process if you are installing two doors. Examine each door with a level and unscrew the doors slightly to adjust if necessary.