I find I'm constantly having to sort out what is good for the cabinetmaker versus good for the buyer. Cabinet makers love concealed "euro" hinges because they are easy and adjustable. Why would I want them, though? Apart from the look, I mean. All my house's interior and exterior doors have mortised barrel hinges, and they all work fine. I never need to adjust them. I think the suggestion that you may want to adjust your own cabinet doors on some future date is a red herring. It's cheaper and quicker and easier for the cabinetmaker. (Note: This may translate into cheaper for you or not) There's a well-respected Amish cabinetmaker near us that advertises that they use "French Dovetails" for their drawers as they are stronger. As far as I can work out, they are less attractive, reduce the space in the drawer, and have less wood-to-wood glue surface (i.e. less strong), but they are probably machined in about a tenth of the time as traditional (English) dovetails. Advantages for the cabinetmaker: many. Advantages for you: none. I know it's a trade off. The cabinetmakers time equals my money. But I get annoyed when they aren't upfront about it and try to hide behind supposed benefits of changes that are really to reduce their work and costs. As an amateur woodworker I can see some of what they're doing, but I wonder what I miss when dealing with other disciplines. For what it's worth we want exposed barrel hinges for our craftsman house. And I expect them to be perfect if I pay a custom cabinetmaker.

I think I have said this before. In my view, doing inset cabinets with concealed hinges is a huge mistake. They are large and unwieldy inside the cabinet. Why are you so determined to do inset if you don't want to see hinges? Personally, I think that hinges are what help create the charm of inset cabinets. At the Rutt price point, asking about charges for extras is just silly. Your KD is right. I keep my steak knives in my utensil drawer too even though we designed the knife insert for both steak knives and prep knives. I don't love the knife insert (some of the larger knives stick out a bit too much) but I hate keeping things on the counter. The spice ramp is really great, however. And my utensil drawer was designed well. It holds both sets of my cutlery, one on each side with the middle for serving pieces (and now my steak knives). No, I did not see the MSRP nor did I ask for a specific discount. I just kept asking at several points whether he could do better and I knew when to stop. Everyone has to win in a negotiation. He knew I wanted him to sharpen his pencil. I knew he wanted to get the business. He knew he was going to get the business, since I had to pay a retainer for him to come out and do the measurements that allowed him to do the detailed plans in the first place. I liked him and he liked me. We developed trust. That's how we did business. I did not play KDs off against one another. I went to three cabinet shops in Manhattan with a rough idea of my design. I got three estimates. One for Signature at a local place in my neighborhood. Signature was her top brand. Then I went to two other shops that sold both Rutt and Signature. The first place was ok but I thought the shop was a bit unappealing, which spoke to me about the KD's design capability. The second and third places were much higher end and I felt more comfortable with their expertise. It came down to personality of the KD at each. The estimates were really just to figure out what order of magnitude i was going to be dealing with. i knew perfectly well that the estimate would vary considerably from what I would end up with. I have never heard of Quality. The only other line I even considered was Signature. Their custom line, which is relatively new, is meant to compete with Rutt Regency.

Thanks for the reply. They are overlay doors, not inset. I appreciate your info.

Hi All interested. I'd like to address a few comments. My name is Birdie Miller, I have an account here at Houzz. I design and build custom kitchens, cabinets, furniture and millwork, since 1972. I invented the EuroButt II faux butt hinge in 1990 and brought it to the market in 1996. Because the European concealed hinge is such a GREAT hinge, designers have had to 'do-away' with the functional design element of the traditional butt hinge, mostly because cabinet makers don't want to use the butt hinge, "It is a pain in the butt to use it". It isn't because they don't want to see it, they just don't want to use it. Before 1980 all doors were hinged with some sort of knuckle hinge, the 80's were the period that contemporary design in the USA took off, along with the construction technique of frameless cases and European hardware. After a decade of getting used the European hardware and case building techniques most cabinet makers didn't want to go back to butt hinges and face frame cabinets. I know there are plenty of sources for face frame cabinets and no mortise butt hinges (NOW). In the 1990s there weren't. After the 1988 stock market crash, our industry took a 'HIT'. When it came back in 1992, 95% of the architects and designers I worked with went back to traditional design... I have my theory why that happened! Back to the subject. Using the concealed hinge is a smart way to go, for the cabinetmaker and the customer, but you loose the design element of traditional design. I ran into the problem in 1990 when my designers were now calling for the butt hinge. With a little work, I said, ''why can't I just do this''.... Fake the butt hinge and let the concealed hinge do all the work!!! With that concept, I invented the EuroButt II faux butt hinge. You get the best of 2 worlds, The charm of traditional design and the advantages of the high tech concealed hinge. That is why you would use the EuroButt II faux but hinge... Self close, Soft close, Adjustments and Clip on and off. I took a lot of care to design a fake hinges that looked absolutely REAL. I show the EuroButt II at my Houzz listing, with a link to the EuroButt II website address. If you have any questions let me know. Take care and good luck with your projects.