I finally picked Blum soft-close hinges over standard ones for a kitchen job

I was building 15 face-frame cabinets for a remodel in Portland last month and went back and forth on spending the extra $2.50 per hinge. Ended up going with the Blum 110 degree concealed hinges with the soft-close feature (you know, the white ones). Has anyone else made that switch and noticed a big difference in how clients react to the quiet closing?

2 comments

2 Comments

charlie_allen11d ago

Gotta push back hard on this one. Soft close is one of those things that clients actually notice and remember, unlike the brand of plywood you used on the cabinet boxes. I've done over 30 kitchens now and the number one compliment I get six months later is "the cabinets close so nice and quiet." That $2.50 per hinge turns into a selling point that helps you land the next job because they tell their friends about it. Standard hinges with that loud slam just feel cheap in a new kitchen and honestly the failure rate on Blum soft close is super low if you install them right. The click people like is just habit from old hardware, not actual satisfaction.

angela4311d ago

Oh man I gotta be the one to push back here. Honestly I think soft close hinges are kind of overrated for most face frame jobs unless you're doing high end custom homes. The extra $2.50 per hinge adds up fast when you have like 50 hinges in a kitchen and that's money coming out of your pocket or the client's budget. I've had clients who actually prefer the solid click of a standard hinge closing because it feels more secure and sturdy to them. The soft close mechanism can fail over time too and then you're stuck replacing hinges that are way more expensive than the simple ones. Plus if you adjust them wrong they can drag or not close all the way which is a headache to fix.