A Guide to Drilling Concealed Kitchen Door Hinges
I have been working (slowly!) on finishing up my office and guest room project over the last few months, and I just received some new doors for the Ikea cabinet boxes I installed. I decided to install the doors on the hinges before I painted them to make DARN SURE they fit before everything was painted. After doing this a few times, I have learned a few tips! I decided to put together a little guide on how to install kitchen cabinet door hinges.
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Table of Contents
- Past Projects I Have Learned From
- Type of Hinges
- The MVP – The Kreg Concealed Hinge Jig
- Tools and Supply List
- How to Install Kitchen Cabinet Door Hinges Step 1 – Find your Hinge Location
- How to Install Kitchen Cabinet Door Hinges Step 2 – Setting the Jig
- How to Install Kitchen Cabinet Door Hinges Step 3 – Drilling the Jig Holes
- How to Install Kitchen Cabinet Door Hinges Step 4 – Drilling the Hinge Screw Holes
- How to Install Kitchen Cabinet Door Hinges Step 5 – Installing the Hinge
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Past Projects I Have Learned From
There have been a couple of times when I have had to do this and the first time I did, I was pretty darn nervous I was going to mess my doors up. The first time I did it was in my kitchen, when I made a skinny door for a skinny cabinet that I made.
I practiced on a scrap piece of wood first to make sure what I had planned would work, and that I would have accurate measurements. That worked out pretty well so I had a lot of confidence when I tried to do it for the second time, in my office.
In my office, we made our own doors. And I am not going to sugarcoat it…. I had a lot of trouble getting those hinges to fit. I think I have figured out what the issue was and have perfected my methods, so you can learn from my mistakes and do it right, the first time!
Type of Hinges
The types of hinges that I am using are called concealed hinges, which means that when the door is closed, the hinge is “concealed” inside the cabinet and not visible from the outside.
These are probably the most common type of hinge. They are often called euro hinges or European hinges. The ones that I am using are from IKEA. Ikea hinges are made by BLUM and are very good hinges! They are all soft close, which is a nice plus. They are also really affordable, which is the reason that I use them!
These types of hinges are overlay hinges and are used on overlay doors, which means that when closed, the edges of the cabinet door overlay the edges of the cabinet boxes.
Each type of hinge might have slightly different requirements for the exact measurements for the locations of the screw hole locations, so make sure that you check your hinge and see what is recommended for the offset distances.
The hinges I used are IKEA and are called the UTRUSTA and I used Ikea kitchen cabinets, so if that is what you are using, you are in luck! I have figured out all the offsets and the best way to drill these out and I”ll go through it below. You have to UTRUSTA me, HA!!
The MVP – The Kreg Concealed Hinge Jig
I would not even attempt to do this without a jig! Using the right tools for the job always makes things easier. I bought this Kreg Concealed Hinge Jig when we were working on my kitchen and used it again each time I have had to do this.
The jig that I used is great for a couple of reasons. First, it ensures that the holes that you drill are very precisely located relative to the edge of the door. Millimeters matter when drilling these holes so it would be very difficult to manually locate the holes without some sort of system to hold them exactly where they need to go.
The other thing that the jig does is stop you from drilling right through your door. It has a stop collar on it that stops the bit at the correct depth so you drill the holes deep enough, but not too deep to mess up the front of the door.
Tools and Supply List
Tools and supplies you will need are:
- IKEA hinges (or other concealed hole hinges)
- Kreg concealed hinge jig
- 5/16″ drill bit (if using IKEA hinges)
- 1/16″ drill bit
- Drill
- Clamps
How to Install Kitchen Cabinet Door Hinges Step 1 – Find your Hinge Location
There are two ways that this could be done and I’ve done it both ways… by measuring, and by marking in place. And I am here to tell you that marking the doors in place is the only way I will do it from now on!
On my office doors, I think my doors were just ever so slightly larger than the standard IKEA doors so when I measured and marked a distance down from the top, I had a lot of trouble getting the hinges to snap into place. The hinges are pretty adjustable so we did eventually get them to snap in there. When we were drilling the hinges for the second half of this room I decided to mark the hinge locations in place instead and that worked SO MUCH BETTER.
Here is what I found to be the easiest way:
Determine the location on the cabinet frame where the hinges will be located. If you are using Ikea cabinet boxes like I was, there will be a lot of holes to choose from. Most Ikea doors have the hinges located about 2.5″ down from the top of the door.
If you have larger doors (over 40″ tall) then you might need to have a third hinge installed in the middle to support the extra weight of your doors. Just find the center point on the cabinet box and use the holes that are closest to the middle to add an extra hinge.
Mark the location where the new cabinet hinges will be installed on the cabinet box. Use a carpenter’s square to mark a horizontal line on the cabinet side where the hinges will be installed, but don’t install the hinge yet.
Grab a buddy (or one of your kids, in my case, ha!) and have them hold the door in the right place. I used a few playing cards under the bottom edge of my door to make sure the bottom of the door was just slightly above the bottom of the cabinet frame.
Mark the location of the hinge onto the door with a pencil.
How to Install Kitchen Cabinet Door Hinges Step 2 – Setting the Jig
Next, you want to set the jig on your door to drill the holes.
The offset distance for the hinge cup holes is the distance from the front edge to the hole and it varies depending on the hinges you are using. For IKEA hinges, this distance is 6 mm.
(The first time I did this, I googled what that distance was for IKEA hinges and found someone who said it was 5mm, but after drilling a few that way and then switching to 6 mm, I can say with confidence that 6 mm works better!)
The jig has a little setting on the front that you turn with a screwdriver to set the offset for the jig. For Ikea hinges, turn this to 6.
Lay your door on a flat surface face down. Use a tape measure to measure the distance from the door edge to the mark you made in step one.
Set the jig onto the edge of the door (on the backside of the doors) so that the center of the jig is on the mark. The jig has some measurements right on it so you can use that as a guide, but I always use my tape measure to double check the distance and make sure it’s very precisely located.
Take a couple of clamps and clamp the jig in place. Make sure the edge of the jig is secure against the door edge.
How to Install Kitchen Cabinet Door Hinges Step 3 – Drilling the Jig Holes
The Kreg Jig comes with a 35-millimeter Forstner bit that is the perfect size for these European style hinges and Ikea hinges. The bit snaps right into the jig and turns to lock in place.
The jig has a stop collar on it so that you can’t drill too far, and it also holds it perfectly upright and straight so that the drill bit goes in vertically without having to use a drill press.
Attach the bit into a power drill.
Twist the bit into the jig and drill the hole.
Once the big hole is drilled, remove the large Forstner Bit from the jig but don’t remove the jig yet. You still need to drill two little pilot holes for the hinges using a little bit.
Use a 1/16″ drill bit to drill a small starter hole to mark the pilot hole location. You really just need a very shallow hole or mark so don’t drill those very far!
How to Install Kitchen Cabinet Door Hinges Step 4 – Drilling the Hinge Screw Holes
Ikea’s hinges have little expanding plastic screws that fit into two additional hinge screw holes that are drilled into the door. Now you have to drill those out, and the jig can’t help with this part.
If you have a drill press, that is ideal because it holds the drill bit perfectly straight. I do not have one here at home so I was just really careful to try to hold my drill straight when I was doing this.
IKEA’s hinges require these holes to be 5/16″. Take a piece of tape and mark on the bit 1/2″ inches so that you have a visual guide to see when the hole was drilled far enough.
Using the pilot holes that were marked in the previous step, drill the hinge screw holes holding the drill as straight as you can and to the depth of the tape.
Note: If you are using Blum or other hinges, they might not require this extra hole, they may only need the pilot hole to be drilled, so check your hinge to see the requirements.
How to Install Kitchen Cabinet Door Hinges Step 5 – Installing the Hinge
If you are using Ikea hinges like me, all that is required now is to push your hinge into place and snap the little flap shut, which tightens the hinges in the hole.
The next step of the installation process is to attach the other half of the hinge onto the cabinet box using the directions for the hinge, and your door should just snap into place.
Drilling the door hinge holes is really very easy if you have the right tools! Happy door making!
How to Install Kitchen Cabinet Door Hinges in New Doors
How to drill holes for a concealed hinge in a cabinet door
Materials
- Cabinet Door
Tools
- Kreg Concealed Hinge Jig
- Drill
- 1/16" Drill Bit
- 5/16" Drill Bit
- Clamps
Instructions
- Decide where the hinges will be located on the cabinet box and mark those with a pencil.
- Hold the cabinet door up to the cabinet box and mark the location of the hinges onto the door.
- Set your Kreg jig offset according to the hinges you are using (Hint: for Ikea hinges, use 6 mm)
- Measure from the top or bottom of the door to the mark. Use that measurement to set the center of the Kreg hinge jig from the edge of the door.
- Clamp the jig into place, ensuring that the jig is sitting tight onto the inside edge of the door.
- Attach the 35mm Forstner Drill bit that comes with the Kreg Jig to the jig.
- Drill the hole. The jig will stop the bit from going too deep.
- Detach the Forstner bit from the jib but leave the jig clamped to the door. Change the bit on the drill to the 1/16" drill bit.
- Drill pilot holes for the screws in the pilot hole locations on the jig. To stop this bit from drilling too far, you can also add a bit of painter's tape to the bit as a visual guide.
- Remove the jig from the door
- If you are using Ikea Utrusta Hinges, switch your drill bit to the 5/16" drill bit.
- Mark using some painter's tape a suitable depth on the bit so that the hole you drill doesn't go right through the door. Holding it up to the side of the door is usually sufficient to check the depth.
- Drill at the pilot hole locations using the 5/16" drill bit, taking care to hold the drill as straight as you can and not going all the way through the door.
- For Ikea hinges, simply push the hinge into the holes and snap closed. For other hinges, you may need to use a screw to attach at the pilot hole locations.
- Attach the other half of the hinge to the cabinet box at the locations that you marked in Step 1.
- Snap the door into place.
Notes
Check the directions for your hinge for proper offset distances and hole diameters. The dimensions given here are for Ikea Utrusta Hinges.
