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Can hinges be changed from traditional to concealed later?

15 years ago

Does anyone know whether we can order our framed inset cabinets with regular hinges and then switch to concealed later? I am pretty sure I want concealed but DH thinks regular traditional ones will be just fine. If I knew it could be changed, I would probably let him have his way for now (less $$ also for the traditional) and see how we both like it.

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Comments (2)

ci_lantro
15 years ago
You could but it wouldn't be fun.

And I can't imagine why you would want to. Lots of advantages to the butt hinge. It's inexpensive relative to many concealed hinges. Requires a lot less raw material, machining, etc., so it's a greener choice. Opens a full 180 degrees unlike concealed hinges (wider opening ones available but pricier.) The butt hinge is very, very durable. They almost never fail/ break. Butt hinges don't take up space inside of your cabinets, something a lot of concealed (and scarey-looking) hinges do.

Aesthetically, I love the subtle touch of the butt hinges. Either plain or a tad fancier w/ tipped finials. That, and I think that traditional inset cabinetry almost requires butt hinges. It's just part of the look, part of the charm.

Another bonus because I'm always into reusing material and looking down the road to how what I'm consuming can be reused--no awful large diameter holes drilled into hardwood door frames. So, at some point in the distant future, someone will be better able to reuse those sticks of hardwood.

The only downside is that they are difficult to install & difficult to adjust. But once fitted to your cabinetry, there's little likelihood of them ever needing to be adjusted.
Circus Peanut
15 years ago
I have framed inset cabs with traditional (butt) hinges, and a friend of mine has very similar ones with hidden (European-style) Blum hinges.

Just to play devil's advocate, I have to say that I'm amazed at how much room her hidden hinges take up on the inside of the cabinet, and how annoying it is not to be able to open her cab doors fully. It takes up space the width of the door's thickness when you can't open them 180ÃÂ° and swing the door edge fully out of the way. And they're "hidden" only when the door is shut -- otherwise there's a big lump of metal right there in the way. (And kitchen cabinets are so often open!) This gets worse the smaller the cabinet is -- she has one upper that's about 8" wide and it seems like it's half hinge when you open it up.

Either will be great, but in my humble experience I'd definitely recommend the traditional hinges in inset doors for both beauty and functionality. Of course your mileage may vary, etc. :)
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Yes you can, you need to figure out how much your door overlaps the sides and you need to be good at drilling to get the Euro type hinges as they require a fairly large hole in the door. Once you figure out what the overlap is look for hinges with an "overlay" that would work for what you need. They come with templates for you to mark where you need to drill, but it takes patience and also some skill as I you don't want to bore too deep. I did this in my old house bathrooms although they already had concealed hinges they were not the Euro kind and some were breaking and I was changing the doors out. I bored the doors first (a drill press is very useful and I created a jig out of a few wood pieces based on the template included with the hinges) and then decided the placement of the hinges inside based on the door location so if I was off a 1/4 inch or so in height on the door bore it wasn't a big deal. The distance from the edge of the door to the bore hole is important though and you don't want to be off there.
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Sorry, boysrus2, the Blum glides are undermount, and I am sure that the Blumotion attachment will only work with that sort of glide. It's a great addition if you have the right glides. When I asked my KD if they were Blum, she said no, but maybe she thought I was asking if they were Blumotion, which I had not wanted to pay for at the time. I don't know if you can switch to undermount glides if you don't have them. If you can, I am sure it would be a major undertaking.
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I have had kitchens like this before and what I am about to say will sound snobbish (but I don't mean it that way). Live with this as-is until you can replace the whole thing. Here's why I say this - these cabinets are probably at or near the end of their life. The drawer slides and cabinet hinges are going to start getting wobbly or sticking, and there is only so much you can do to fix it. If you replaced the cabinet hinges and drawer glides and countertop and cooktop and convert the dead wall oven space into cabinet space again ... You would be close to having a new RTA kitchen from Ikea. I know, you need an oven, but if you can live with a countertop microwave that has an oven feature in it ... That could buy you a little time. And honestly, I'm not trying to be a snob. It's just that I've done the "sand, prime, paint, replace hardware, get be counters priced out and new appliances" for a kitchen that looked just like this ... And I could have spent less time and a smidge more money to just replace the cabinets with new. At the time we didn't have an Ikea w/in a 3 hour drive. And it was my first house about 15 years ago, when the Internet wasn't as fully populated with great DIY sites like it is now.
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Any non standard item you're inserting into a mfg process will have impact. They may not see it again this year. Maybe a few new tools/bits, stopping and resetting the fabrication and assembly line for this, restarting for any adds (always). Many shops would just say "no" or "I can't" as you are certainly weeding out the common skills, tools and capabilities. The more I think about these the more labor I see by several trades, installers, painters, etc. This is similar to how government specified products or projects get expensive... they up specify, often at the suggestion of a manufacturer or special interest, until competition falls away and bids get expensive. Happens all the time in the defense industry, school & public housing, all govt construction.
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