- Face-frame cabinets have a frame attached to the cabinet box. Attach the hinges to the frame for these style cabinets. Frameless cabinets do not have that extra piece of wood for hinges. For this style, you need to use hinges designed to attach the door directly to the cabinet box, also known as European styled hinges.
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Look to see if the door on a face-frame cabinet overlays the frame completely or partially, or whether it is flush with the frame. Overlay is the distance that your cabinet door extends past the actual cabinet opening on the hinge side.
Pick an overlay style hinge if the door completely overlays the face-frame and the back edge of the door is neither recessed nor grooved. Common types of overlay hinges are semi-concealed, half-wrap and full wrap. Attach one leaf of a semi-concealed hinge to the face-frame and the other on the inside of the door. Attach one leaf of wrap-around hinges to two or three sides of the face-frame and attach the other leaf to the door. Choose a wrap-around style to give greater support and stability to heavier doors.
Pick a 3/8-inch inset hinge if the door partially overlays the face-frame and there is a groove on the back edge of the door. Carve out a notch for the hinge into the frame. Attach one leaf to the frame and the other to the inside of the door.
Pick a full inset hinge if the door does not overlap the face frame at all. Mount both leaves of the hinge to the inside surfaces of the cabinet door and frame. - Doors on frameless cabinets completely cover the front edge of the cabinet box. There are two parts to these European type hinges, the hinge and the mounting plate. Bore a hole into the back of the cabinet door. Mount the hinge into the hole. Install the mounting plate on the inside of the cabinet. Clip or screw the hinge attached to the door to the mounting plate. Tighten or loosen the screws to adjust the door's height, depth and width relative to the cabinet.
- Use clip-on hinges when you need the greatest opening capacity. Add clip-on type hinges in a similar fashion as European style hinge. Install cross-corner hinges to use with overlay doors on cross-corner cabinets.
