Quick and easy ways to make your cabinets look and work like new again!
10 Simple Kitchen Cabinet Repairs
Updated on Nov. 21, 2024
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Clean a Yucky Cutting Board
If you love the convenience of your pullout wooden cutting board but don’t use it because it’s stained and grungy, try this chef-approved, two-step process. Simply scour the board with a lemon and a pile of kosher salt, then apply mineral oil.
Coarse kosher salt is an excellent abrasive, and lemon’s citric acid kills bacteria. When the stains are gone, rinse the board and let it dry. Then apply mineral oil or a specialized butcher block oil, which helps prevent the wood from absorbing stains.
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Adjust Hinges on Misaligned Doors
If your cabinet doors are out of whack and you have European-style hinges, you’re in luck. “The adjustment screws on a European style hinge allow you to move the door in three directions: in and out (depth), up and down (vertical) and side to side (horizontal),” Leyva says.
Don’t let their complex look scare you. Adjustment is easy, but takes some trial and error: You make adjustments, close the door to check the fit, then adjust again until it’s right. Here’s how:
- If the door isn’t flush with the doors next to it, adjust the depth screw. This screw moves the door in or out. Some depth screws move the door as you turn them. Or, you might have to loosen the screw, nudge the door in or out and then tighten the screw. If your hinges don’t have depth screws, start with the side screws.
- If the door is crooked—not standing parallel to adjacent doors or square with the cabinet—adjust the side screw. This moves the door from side to side. In some cases, you have to loosen the depth screw slightly to adjust the side screw.
- If the door is flush and parallel with other doors but too high or low, use the mounting screws to raise or lower the mounting plates. Loosen the screws at both hinges, slide the door up or down and tighten the screws. Some mounting plates adjust by turning a single screw.
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Adjust or Replace Bad Latches
Most newer cabinets have self-closing hinges that hold the doors shut. Others have magnetic or roller catches. A catch that no longer keeps a door closed is either broken or out of adjustment. Catches are fastened with two screws, so replacing a damaged catch is simple.
Adjustment is just as simple, but you might have to readjust the catch a couple of times before you get it right. Loosen the screws, move the catch in or out, and tighten the screws. If the door doesn’t close tightly, try again.
If you have a door that won’t lie flat against the cabinet, try adding a magnetic catch at the trouble spot. Often the magnet is strong enough to pull the door in tight.
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Add Bumpers to Banging Doors
Tired of hearing those cabinet doors bang shut? Peel-and-stick door and drawer bumpers are the solution. Make sure the back of the door is clean so the bumpers will stick, then place one at the top corner and another at the bottom.
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Replace Worn-out Drawer Slides
Drawer slides control drawer movement in and out of your cabinets. If your slides are bent, or the rollers are broken or won’t turn even after lubricating, replacement is the best solution. Luckily, Leyva says drawer slides are usually pretty easy to swap out. “To replace, most only require removing the screws to detach the old slides, and then attaching the new ones in the same spot.”
“Drawer slides are located on the sides or the bottom of the drawer,” Leyva says. To keep the project simple, buy new slides that are identical (or almost identical) to the old ones. Remove a drawer track and a cabinet track and take them shopping with you. Whether you have pairs of side-mounted slides (as shown here) or single, center-mount slides, there’s a good chance you’ll find very similar slides at a home center.
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Lubricate Sticking Drawers
If your drawer slides don’t need replacing, a few minutes of cleaning and lubricating can make drawer slides glide almost like new. Start by removing the drawers so you can inspect the slides. Remove most drawers by pulling them all the way out, then lifting or lowering the front of the drawer until the wheels come out of the track. Wipe the tracks clean and coat them with a light spray lubricant. Also, lubricate the rollers and make sure they spin easily.
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Repair a Broken Drawer Box
Don’t put up with a broken corner joint on a drawer. Fix it before the whole drawer comes apart. Remove the drawer and then remove the drawer front from the drawer box if possible. Most fronts are fastened by a couple of screws inside the box. Wood glue will make a strong repair for kitchen cabinets where there’s wood-to-wood contact at the joint. If the wood at the joint is coated, use epoxy instead of wood glue.
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Glue Loose Knobs
Any handle or knob that comes loose once is likely to come loose again. Put a permanent stop to this problem with a tiny drop of thread-locking adhesive. When purchasing, pay attention to the packaging: Some thread locking adhesives are permanent, while others can be removed with a small bit of force. Choose one that gives you wobble-free knobs, but allows you to remove them if you redecorate in the future.
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Fill Stripped Screw Holes
When cabinet doors, catches or drawer slides aren’t working right, first try tightening the existing screws, Leyva says. If a screw turns but doesn’t tighten, the screw hole is stripped. Here’s a quick remedy:
Remove the screw and hardware. Dip toothpicks in glue, then jam as many as you can into the hole and break them off. Either flat or round toothpicks will work. If you don’t have toothpicks handy, shave splinters off a wood scrap or dowel with a utility knife. Immediately wipe away glue drips with a damp cloth. Reinstall the hardware by driving screws right into the toothpicks (no need to wait for glue to dry).
“Another strategy is to replace the current screws with slightly longer ones or adjust the hinge alignment to ensure a more proper fit,” Leyva says.
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Touch Up Nicks and Scratches
If you have shallow scratches or nicks, hide them with a stain-filled touch-up marker. Dab on the stain and wipe off the excess with a rag. But beware: Scratches can absorb lots of stain and turn darker than the surrounding finish.
Start with a marker that’s lighter than your cabinet finish, and then switch to a darker shade if needed. For deeper scratches, use a filler pencil, which fills and colors the scratch. If the cabinet finish is dingy overall and has lots of scratches, consider a wipe-on product like Old English Scratch Coat. These products can darken the finish slightly, so you have to apply them to all your cabinets.
About the Expert
Alejandro Leyva is a virtual handyperson expert at Frontdoor, a home services app that connects homeowners to professional, on-staff experts schooled in multiple facets of home repair. Leyva has more than 15 years experience as a handyman, and is currently working toward obtaining a home inspector license.
