Hinges are the least glamorous part of a kitchen and one of the easiest to get wrong. Order the wrong overlay type and you'll find out at the worst possible moment, when the door doesn't sit flush, two doors collide at a corner, or the whole run of cabinets looks subtly off in a way you can't quite name. Here's what the terminology actually means, and how to work out which one your kitchen needs.
Overlay Isn't a Style Choice, It's a Measurement
The single most confused term in this category is "overlay," and it isn't really about aesthetics, it's about how much of the cabinet side the door covers once it's closed.
Full overlay hinges let the door cover almost the entire cabinet side, leaving very little of the carcass visible. This is the standard for modern frameless kitchens, the type most UK kitchen cabinets use, and it gives the cleanest, most contemporary look with no gaps between doors on a run of cabinets.
Half overlay hinges cover roughly half the cabinet side, designed specifically for situations where two doors share a single central divider (a "stile"). If you've got a cabinet where two doors meet in the middle over one shared partition, half overlay is what makes that work without the doors colliding.
Inset hinges are different again, the door sits flush inside the cabinet frame rather than covering it, giving a traditional, furniture-like finish. It's the look most associated with high-end or period-style cabinetry, but it demands more precision, the door, the frame, and the hinge all need to line up exactly, so it's less forgiving of small measurement errors than overlay styles.
If you're replacing hinges on an existing kitchen rather than building new, the overlay type is usually fixed by how your current cabinets are built, this isn't something you can casually switch mid-refit without adjusting the doors themselves.
Opening Angle: 45° vs 110°, and Why It's Not Just a Number
Standard concealed hinges come in a few common opening angles, and 110° is the most widely used across UK kitchens, giving a wide, comfortable swing for general cabinet doors. Our DTC 110° Hinge covers this standard angle in both soft close and non-soft close versions, and comes in Anthracite or Nickel.
Smaller angle hinges, like our 45° Small Overlay Hinge, are used in more specific situations, typically narrow cabinets or corner units where a full 110° swing isn't practical or would cause the door to hit an adjacent cabinet or appliance. If you're speccing a corner cupboard, checking the opening angle against the surrounding units matters more than it might seem, a hinge that swings too wide in the wrong spot causes exactly the kind of collision that's frustrating to discover after everything's fitted.
Soft Close vs Standard: Do You Need It on Every Hinge?
Soft close has become the expected standard in most kitchens, and for good reason, it's what stops a cabinet door slamming and gradually loosening its own screws and hinges over years of daily use. Both our DTC 110° Full Overlay and DTC 110° Half Overlay hinges include soft close as standard.
A useful bit of practical maths: for most standard cabinet doors, you only actually need one soft-close hinge, not every hinge on the door needs to be soft close, unless the door is unusually heavy. A reasonable rule is roughly half the number of hinges on a door, rounded up, so a tall larder door with three hinges would want two of them soft close rather than all three. This can genuinely save money across a full kitchen's worth of doors, since soft-close hinges cost more than standard ones.
Snap-On and Cranked Hinges: When You'd Actually Need Them
Beyond the standard overlay types, a couple of specific hinges solve particular problems worth knowing about.
Our DTC 110° Snap-On Hinge uses a tool-free snap mechanism for quick fitting and removal, useful if you're doing a lot of doors and want to speed up installation, or if a hinge might need to come off again for maintenance down the line.
The DTC 110° Inset Hinge (Cranked) is a specialist option with a 17mm crank offset, designed for inset doors that need extra clearance to open properly, a genuine problem-solver for a specific inset application rather than a general-purpose hinge.
Don't Forget the Hinge Plate
This catches people out constantly: hinge plates are sold separately from the hinge itself on most systems, including ours. The hinge cup goes into the door, the plate attaches to the cabinet side, and the two connect together, but ordering just the hinge without a matching plate means the door has nowhere to actually mount. If you're speccing hinges for a build rather than a straight replacement, double-check your order includes both parts.
Replacing Existing Hinges: What to Check Before You Order
If you're replacing worn or broken hinges rather than building a new kitchen, a like-for-like swap isn't always as simple as it sounds. A few things worth checking before you order:
Cup diameter. Most concealed hinges use a standard 35mm cup, which is what you'll find on our range, but it's worth confirming your existing hinge matches before assuming a straight swap. If your current hinge uses a different cup size, the drilled hole in the door won't be compatible without redrilling.
Door thickness. Our DTC 110° Hinge suits doors between 16mm and 26mm. Thinner or thicker doors than that range may need a different hinge entirely, worth measuring your actual door thickness rather than assuming it matches a "standard" figure.
Crank offset. This is the detail that trips people up most. Full overlay hinges use a 0mm crank, half overlay sits around 8mm, and inset hinges use roughly 15mm. If you order the wrong crank for your door's actual overlay type, the door will either sit proud of the cabinet, sink in too far, or fail to close properly against its neighbour. When in doubt, measure how much of the cabinet side your current door covers before ordering a replacement, that tells you which overlay type you're actually working with.
Screw holes and fixing pattern. If you're keeping the same cabinets and just swapping hinges, check whether the new hinge and plate use the same screw spacing as what's already drilled. Matching the existing pattern saves you from filling old holes and redrilling, mismatched patterns mean starting from scratch on that panel.
None of this is complicated once you know what to check, but skipping the check is exactly how people end up with a door that doesn't close properly after what should have been a simple swap.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. Can I mix full overlay and half overlay hinges within the same kitchen?
Yes, this is normal practice, many kitchens use full overlay on standalone doors and half overlay wherever two doors share a central divider. Just make sure the cup drilling and plate height stay consistent so the doors line up visually.
2. My cabinet door is heavy, do I need more hinges or a different type?
Standard hinges typically support around 13-16kg per pair. For a heavier door, thick solid timber, glass-fronted, or oversized, adding a third hinge is usually the better fix rather than switching hinge type entirely, overlay style doesn't meaningfully change load capacity on its own.
3. Why does my new soft-close hinge not close as gently as expected?
This is often a fitting issue rather than a faulty hinge, if the door is heavier than the hinge is rated for, or the hinge isn't adjusted correctly, the soft-close action can feel weaker than expected. Check the adjustment screws on the hinge before assuming it's faulty.
4. Can I convert an inset door to overlay, or vice versa?
Not without modifying the door and cabinet frame themselves. The overlay type is determined by how the door and carcass are built, not just by which hinge you fit, so this isn't a straightforward hardware swap.
5. Is Anthracite or Nickel just a colour choice, or does it affect performance?
Purely aesthetic, both finishes on our range offer the same mechanical performance, the choice comes down to matching your existing hardware or handle finish rather than function.
6. Do I need unsprung hinges for a push-to-open door?
Yes, if you're planning a push-to-open mechanism, standard sprung hinges will fight against it. This is worth confirming before ordering if push-to-open is part of your kitchen design.
Not sure which hinge your cabinets need? Call 0161 465 4007 and we'll help you spec it correctly, or browse the full Hinges, Plates & Fittings range.