Three years ago I swore off soft-close hinges until a job last Tuesday changed my tune

I used to think soft-close hinges were a gimmick for people who couldn't close a door gently. Last month I did a kitchen reno for a lady in Boulder who specifically asked for them, and I grumbled through the whole install. Then last Tuesday I was at her house fixing a drawer slide and watched how quiet everything was with the kids slamming cabinets. She said 'you know, I used to hear every door bang at 6am' and that just stuck with me. Has anyone else had a hardware opinion get flipped by actually living with it for a day?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_seth1mo ago

Yeah but those Blum hinges are like 15 bucks a pop. I remember when a nice hinge was like 3 bucks and you just set the tension right and moved on with your life.

foster.wade1mo ago

Three years ago I did a job for a guy in Golden who insisted on the cheapest hinges at Home Depot and I spent a whole Saturday adjusting them so they'd close halfway decent. Last spring I put Blum soft-close on my own kitchen cabinets because my wife wanted them and honestly I didn't care either way. But after six months of not hearing a single cabinet bang when I grab coffee before sunrise, I get what that customer was saying. It's one of those things where you don't notice it until it's gone, then you realize how much background noise you were just living with. Have you ever caught yourself grabbing a cabinet door at someone else's house and being thrown off by the loud slam when you expect it to stop?