Installing hinges is a DIY home improvement job that just about everyone can do, as long as they know how to use a drill and have a semi-steady hand with a chisel. I’m also going to assume that you know right from left…
There are right handed doors and left handed doors. The easiest way to tell the difference is the side that the hinge is on when the door opens in is its side. If you open a door in (push) and the hinge is on the right, the door is right handed, and vice versa for a left handed door.
Cabinets are always going to be the opposite of the side the hinge is on since you pull cabinets open. If a cabinet’s hinge is on the right, the door is left handed.
Luckily, you don’t need to worry too much about all of that since most hinges are reversible!
When deciding which side you should hang the door and install the hinges, you have to consider who’s going to get hit when door is opened. In bedrooms and front doors you always want the hinge to be on the inside of the door jamb so the door is pulled from the bedroom or entry way. Garage doors will be the opposite.
Most door hinges sit flush with the wood. This means that you’ll have to use a sharp chisel to knock that amount of wood out of the door frame. Start by using a razor blade to score the outline of the hinge plate and start working the chisel to get the wood out. It’s much harder to convince yourself to take a chisel to your door jamb than it actually is to get the job done! You’ll have to chisel the same depth on the part of the door that corresponds with that part of the hinge.
If a door sticks at the top you can either chisel farther down where the hinge meets the door, or drill a thin shim into the bottom hinge at the door jam.
Installing hinges isn’t a hard DIY job, but you have to get over the fear of jamming the chisel into your door and door frame!
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