How To Install Soft Close Hinges On Any Kitchen Cabinet Door

Adding soft close hinges to your cabinet doors is a kitchen upgrade that you will appreciate every day! This tutorial will show you how to install soft close hinges and includes all the information you need to complete this DIY project. Soft close hinges have a mechanical device built into the hinge that prevents a cabinet door from slamming. These devices are also sometimes called self closing hinges. I remember the first time I shut a cabinet door with soft close hinges, and it was amazing!

The cabinet door shut slowly, and quietly all on its own. Installing soft close hinges on your cabinet doors is an upgrade that you will appreciate every single day.

Compared to the high cost of most kitchen renovations, this DIY project is very affordable. Adding soft close hinges to the cabinetry in a kitchen will make it feel a little more gourmet without breaking the bank. This is the perfect project to tackle yourself as a DIY. Certain home renovation projects involve expensive equipment, advanced technical knowledge, or safety hazards… but this is not one of them.

Some projects are better left to the professionals, but I recommend giving this one a try yourself if you have some DIY motivation, and a few basic hand tools. The most difficult part of this project is choosing the correct hinges that will work with your style of cabinetry. This tutorial is designed to help you pick the proper hinge hardware that will be compatible with your cabinets, and kitchen cabinet door soft close hinges ve walk you through the steps to installing.

Choosing the correct hinge for your cabinets is important. There are several styles of cabinets and doors which require unique hinge styles. If you do not use the proper style, it will not work with your cabinets.

Face frame, frameless, partial overlay, full overlay, inset, compact, long arm… WHAT???? In the steps below, this tutorial will give you all the information you need to select soft close hinges that will work with your cabinets. The first step in picking the right hinge for your cabinets is to determine if you have face frameor frameless cabinets.

Most standard cabinets in the United States are the face frame style. In this style of cabinets, the door hinges are fastened to this frame. Frameless cabinets also called European, Modern, or Flat Panel have hinges that are fastened directly to the walls of the cabinet box.

The pictures below will show you the difference between a face frame and a frameless cabinet. The hinge is fastened to a board on the front of the face frame cabinet. The hinge is fastened directly to the wall of the frameless cabinet. They are called hidden hinges because they cannot be seen when the cabinet doors are closed.

If you have exposed hinges which can be see when the cabinet doors are closed, it is possible to convert to hidden hinges if you prefer the hidden style. This conversion will require a few extra steps. The second step kitchen cabinet door soft close hinges ve finding the right soft close hinge is determining which style of cabinet doors you have.

Use the illustrations below to identify which style of cabinet doors you have. Each of the 3 styles require a unique soft close hinge design. Partial overlay doors are the most common style in American cabinetry. The pictures below kitchen cabinet door soft close hinges ve show you the difference between: full kitchen cabinet door soft close hinges ve, partial overlay, and inset cabinet doors.

These illustrations show face frame cabinets, but the door function is the same with frameless cabinets. Just imagine the doors without the frame on the front of the cabinets. In the writing how to install soft close hingesI wanted to find the best affordable products to recommend for our readers. I started by testing several cheap soft close hinges from Amazon.

All the inexpensive soft close hinges from Amazon felt clunky. Some only seemed to worked if you shut the cabinet doors gently. These cheap hinges were simply not the amazing upgrade I was hoping for. Next, I tested some of the more professional brands that are used in high quality cabinetry. What a difference. What I learned is that choosing high quality soft close hinges is very important important!

This step is a matter of preference, not compatibility. Both styles of hinges will work with your cabinets. The choice is mostly related to price, quality, and performance. The pros and cons of both styles are listed below. Long arm hinges are also sometimes called Euro or European style hinges.

They are strong, durable and accommodate a large kitchen cabinet door soft close hinges ve hydraulic soft close mechanism. In high quality cabinetry, long arm hinges are typically used. Aside from being more expensive, the only downside of long arm hinges is that they are physically larger and take up slightly more room inside of cabinets. Unless kitchen cabinet door soft close hinges ve space is extremely limited, this will not matter much.

I tested several long arm soft close hinges and found that some performed better than others. My biggest gripe with several of the hinges was the cabinets doors having noticeable resistance when opening.

This made using the cabinet doors slightly awkward. There were also hinges that seemed to be overpowered by larger doors and slammed shut, defeating the purpose of adding soft close hinges. After all the testing, one brand stood out as a clear winner. All the Blum hinges excelled and seemed to work better than the competition. These Kitchen cabinet door soft close hinges ve hinges are made in Austria and you can feel the quality!

Note: These are the two most common hinge styles. Compact hinges are small, simple, and affordable. They work well, but are not quite as smooth and robust as premium long arm hinges. Depending on your budget for this project, compact hinges might be worth considering because they cost around half as much as long arm hinges.

Kitchen cabinet door soft close hinges ve compact soft close hinges, the hydraulic mechanism is inside of the hinge itself. This style of construction has an inherent space constraint for the hydraulics. Because of kitchen cabinet door soft close hinges ve smaller size, the performance suffers.

They were installed in our kitchen for about two weeks. The soft close hinges functioned well, and proved to be a convenient upgrade compared to standard non-soft-close hinges. The biggest downside associated with compact soft close hinges is slow recovery time. Recovery time: the time that a cabinet door has to be open before the soft close mechanism is ready to function. Having a slow recovery time means that if you quickly grab an item out of the cupboard and shut the door within 1 or 2 seconds, the hinge will not work properly and the door will slam just shut like a regular old non-soft-close hinge!

All the compact hinges we tested had kitchen cabinet door soft close hinges ve slow recovery times, but some were far worse than others.

The times ranged from about 2 seconds, to over 5 seconds. To learn more about Blum, you can checkout their website for a full list of products and details. Installing soft close door hinges is a relatively easy project that can can be accomplished in a weekend.

Some projects are best left to the professionals, but this is the perfect kitchen upgrade for any DIYer with basic hand tools, and a drill. Start by removing the cabinet door from the cabinet.

Small wood screws are used to fasten the hinges to the cabinet using small wood screws. I recommend using a power drill and a 2 Phillips bit for this job, but an old fashioned screw driver will get the job done as well. If your old cabinets already had hidden hinges also called concealed hinges then there should already be a 35mm hole for the new hinges. When kitchen cabinet door soft close hinges ve to hidden hinges for the first time, you will need to drill new holes using a 35mm adjustable depth Forstner bit.

Cabinet doors already have holes drills should be verified for depth. Conventional non-soft-close hidden hinges are often shallow, so you may need to drill the hole down farther. This is kitchen cabinet door soft close hinges ve pretty easy step.

As long as the hole has been drilled properly, the soft close hinge should drop into place with a little coaxing. It should be a sung fit, but should not require a ton of force do get it down into place. You should be able to press the hinge down into the hole by hand.

If the hinge is being stubborn, you can tap it with a rubber mallet. Make sure the soft close hinge is squarely in place, and flush with the top of the cabinet door. Once it is aligned properly, you can fasten it into place. Use the small wood screws that are included with your Blum Soft Close Hinges. The next step is to install a mounting place onto the cabinet. The picture above kitchen cabinet door soft close hinges ve a mounting plate being installed to a face frame cabinet.

The mounting plate is installed directly to the face frame. This makes installation much easier compared to standard hinges where you have to hold the cabinet door in place while fastening kitchen cabinet door soft close hinges ve hinge to the cabinet!

Use the screw holes from the old hinges you removed to center the new mounting plate into the proper position on the cabinet. This is the easiest, and most satisfying step! Hold the cabinet door with one hand, and one of the soft close hinges with the other hand.

° 35 mm Full Overlay Frameless Cabinet Door Hinges with Installation Screws (2-Pairs) These hinges are a type of hinge hat has These hinges are a type of hinge hat has a spring built into it so when you start to close a cabinet door, the spring, at some point, takes over and pulls the cabinet door closed with a tap. These hinges used everywhere, from kitchen to office in frameless cabinets. Get great deals on Soft Close Cabinet Hinges. Take this time at home and knock out some home improvement tasks! Pack of 50 Pcs Full Overlay Soft Close Hydraulic Kitchen Cabinet Hinge. $ Free shipping. sold. IKEA UTRUSTA Door hinge damper soft close for Degrees (2 pack) $ Free shipping. Soft Close hinges allow your cabinet door to close smoothly and silently no matter how hard the door is closed. With this feature integrated into the hinge cup, there is no additional hardware to add onto the hinge or mounting plate.

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