Wardrobe doors are hung by fitting concealed cup hinges into a 35mm recess drilled in the back of the door, screwing the matching mounting plates to the inside of the carcass at the same heights, then clipping or screwing the hinge arm onto the plate. Once the door is on, three adjustment screws let you move it sideways, in and out, and up and down until the gaps around it are even. That adjustment stage is where a hung door becomes a well hung door.
The principle is the same whether you are hanging a new door, rehanging one that has dropped, or replacing a tired door on an older wardrobe. What changes is how much of the preparation has already been done for you.
Almost every modern wardrobe uses a concealed cup hinge, sometimes called a European hinge. It has two halves. The cup sits in a round recess drilled into the back face of the door and is held by two screws. The mounting plate screws to the inside face of the carcass side panel. The arm connecting them either clips onto the plate or slides on and is locked with a screw.
Two variables matter when buying hinges. The first is the overlay, which describes how the door sits relative to the carcass. A full overlay hinge lets the door cover the entire edge of the side panel, which is what you want on a single door wardrobe. A half overlay is used where two doors share a central divider, and an inset hinge is for doors that sit flush inside the carcass opening.
The second is the opening angle. Standard hinges open to around 110 degrees, which is enough for most wardrobes. Wider angle hinges of 155 degrees or more are useful where you need the door right out of the way, such as a wardrobe with internal drawers that need to pull past the door line.
Soft close hinges have a damper built into the arm. They are worth the small extra cost on bedroom furniture, since a door that closes quietly matters more in a bedroom than anywhere else in the house.
Height and weight both count. As a working guide, use two hinges on a door up to around 900mm tall, three up to 1600mm, four up to 2000mm and five above that. Add an extra hinge for heavy doors: solid timber, doors with a fitted mirror, or thick high gloss panels.
Under hinging is a very common fault on home built wardrobes, and it shows up as a door that gradually twists so the corners no longer line up. Hinges are inexpensive. Fitting one more than you think you need is cheap insurance.
Set the top and bottom hinges roughly 100mm from the door edges, measured to the centre of the cup. Space any remaining hinges evenly between them, though on a tall door it is worth placing one slightly above centre where the door tends to bow.
Mark the cup centres 22mm in from the door edge for a standard 35mm cup. Check the specification for your hinges, since some use different distances, and getting this wrong either weakens the door edge or stops the hinge closing properly.
Mark both doors of a pair together. Lay them face down side by side, clamp them, and mark across both at once. Doors marked separately will always end up with hinges at slightly different heights, and on a pair of doors that difference is immediately visible.
You need a 35mm forstner bit. A hole saw will not do this job: it leaves a ragged edge and no flat bottom, and the cup will not sit properly.
Depth is critical. Most cups need a recess of 12mm to 13mm. Too shallow and the cup stands proud, which stops the door closing. Too deep and you break through the front face of the door, which is unrecoverable. Set a depth stop on the drill, and test on an offcut of the same board first.
A drill press or a hinge jig gives a square hole every time. Freehand drilling with a hand drill is possible but the bit wanders easily on the flat face, and a cup drilled at a slight angle produces a door that will not sit flat no matter how much you adjust it.
Drill on the back of the door, obviously, and support the door on a flat surface so the area around the bit cannot flex.
Press each cup into its recess and check it sits flush. The arm should point towards the door edge. Fix with the screws supplied, and if the screws feel loose in MDF or chipboard, do not simply force them tighter: drill out the hole, plug it with a glued dowel or a matchstick and glue, let it set, then rescrew.
For the mounting plates, transfer the hinge heights from the door to the carcass side panel. The simplest method is to stand the door in its final position, packed up on shims to the correct gap at the bottom, and mark the plate positions directly from the fitted cups.
Plate distance from the front edge of the carcass depends on the hinge and the overlay you want. The specification sheet will give a figure, commonly around 37mm for a full overlay. Mark a line at that distance down the side panel and set all plates to it, which guarantees they are in a straight line.
With plates fitted, lift the door and either clip the hinge arms onto the plates or slide them on and tighten the locking screws. Support the door until every hinge is engaged: hanging the weight off one hinge while you fumble with the next is how mounting plates get pulled loose.
Now use the three adjustments. Each hinge typically has a screw for side to side movement, a screw or cam for depth, and the plate itself often adjusts for height.
Work in this order. First set the height so the bottom of the door lines up with the base of the carcass. Then adjust side to side until the vertical gap at the door edge is even top to bottom. Finally adjust depth so the door face sits flush with the carcass front and any neighbouring door.
A useful reference gap is 2mm to 3mm around each door. Consistency matters more than the exact figure: a door with a uniform 4mm gap looks intentional, while a door with a gap varying from 1mm to 5mm looks wrong even if the average is fine.
On a pair of doors, adjust each door to the carcass first, then adjust them to each other. Trying to do both at once is frustrating.
A dropped door on an older wardrobe is usually a fixing problem, not a hinge problem. Chipboard side panels wear around the plate screws, particularly on the bottom hinge which carries the most load.
Take the door off and inspect the screw holes. If they are enlarged, do not just fit longer screws into the same hole. Fill the hole properly: glue in a hardwood dowel, trim it flush, let the glue cure, then drill a fresh pilot hole. This restores full strength.
If a plate position has failed repeatedly, move the plate 15mm up or down onto fresh material and adjust the door out with the hinge adjustment. Adding an extra hinge to share the load is often the better long term answer.
Check the carcass while the door is off. A wardrobe that has racked out of square will never hold its doors properly however carefully you hang them. Check both diagonals, and if they differ, fix the back panel properly before rehanging anything.
Older and some solid timber wardrobes use butt hinges recessed into the door edge and the carcass. These have no adjustment at all, so the marking out has to be right first time.
Mark the hinge position on the door edge, score around the leaf with a knife, then remove the waste with a chisel to exactly the leaf thickness. Transfer to the carcass with the door in position, held on shims at the correct gap. Fit one screw per hinge first, test the swing, then add the rest.
If the door binds, the recess is too deep on one side. If there is a large gap on the hinge side, the recess is too shallow. Shallow is easier to fix: pack behind the leaf with thin card.
Hinges and adjustment solve alignment problems. They do not solve swollen chipboard, delaminating door edges or a carcass that has gone out of square beyond recovery. Once the material itself has failed, more screws simply move the failure point.
If a wardrobe has reached that stage, it is worth comparing the effort against a replacement. Our modern wardrobes UK sale range covers standard bedroom sizes with hinges already fitted and adjusted, and the doors arrive square in a carcass that has been built on a flat bench. For a family bedroom where storage has simply been outgrown, modern 4 door wardrobes UK often solve more than a repair would.
Where the hinged door itself is the problem, because it swings into a walkway or catches on the bed, changing the mechanism rather than the hinges is the real fix. Our modern sliding wardrobes UK sale designs remove swing space entirely, which makes a noticeable difference in narrow rooms.
At Furniture in Fashion we stock coordinating bedroom pieces so a replacement wardrobe sits comfortably beside the modern dressing tables UK sale and drawers already in the room, and you can shop modern furniture UK across the whole bedroom range at once.
Use two hinges up to around 900mm tall, three up to 1600mm, four up to 2000mm and five above that. Add one more for heavy doors such as mirrored or solid timber panels.
Standard concealed cup hinges need a 35mm hole drilled with a forstner bit, to a depth of 12mm to 13mm. Always test the depth on an offcut before drilling the door.
Use the hinge adjustment screws. Set the height first, then the side to side position until the vertical gap is even, then the depth so the door face sits flush with the carcass.
The mounting plate screws have usually worn their holes in the chipboard side panel. Plug the holes with glued dowel, redrill, and consider adding an extra hinge to share the load.
A standard panel door yes, though supporting the weight while engaging the hinges is easier with help. Mirrored or solid timber doors are heavy enough that two people is the safer approach.
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