What I ended up doing is figuring out what hinges I had (sneaky cabinet company but their own nameplate over them but I removed the name plate and saw who REALLY made the hinges). I then went to their webpage (brand was Hettich) and found my model and ... tada!... guess what they have an optional soft close for their hinges that simply snaps on - AND I found them online for only $2.50 a peice! (much cheaper than blumotion and since they snap on no screws or anything). So I am super happy for now - I'll update the thread in a week or so when I get them and try em out. Also happy becuase I got my year end bonus today and its enough to pay off the last payment on the remodel. I don't know about everyone else but finances got really tight at the end of the remodel!

The Blume type soft close devices whether separate or integrated, require some spring closing force during the last 3-4" of door closing travel. There are some Butt hinges that have springs, but many do not. If you can find some with springs that suit your tates, Blume makes the soft close devices that can be easily added to almost any cabinet. Door latch magnets typicaly will exert a barely noticeable force at about 1/8" distance. Not enough force and not enough distance to operate a soft close mechanism. I used a recessed magnet catch in a set of double doors. Two 1" dia X 1" long neodymium magnets set into the frame from the top. and two !/2" x 1" long neodymium magnets set into the top of doors. Nothing is visible. They work great as a latch. They will pull the doors closed from about 1". They do not act as a soft close. as the door swings shut when it gets in range of the magnets the magnetic pull accelerates the door and causes it to slam harder. If I open the door slowly the magnetic pull is noticeable, but if i just yank on the door like I normaly do, it's not noticeable. After closing, the doors are held about 1/8" away from the door stop molding. I wish I had tried this sooner. I would have used this type of latch on several closet doors and the pantry door. But not on the cabinets. I would compromise on almost anything else if I had to to get the Blume soft close on my cabinets.

What I don't like about the soft close mechanism is the weird little scootch it makes when pulling in that last small distance. It's has a revolting, horror-movie quality for me, like the receding tongue of a nightmare-animal. (I can hardly write about it w/o shivering - an overeager cab salesperson wanting to demonstrate them can send me practically running out of the showroom!) But aside from that sick-making movement, it seems to me, to be the almost perfect representation of the sheer laziness of the world we live in now. How much effort does it really take to close your own drawers correctly (and quietly)? Is everyone's life so raddled by stress or desperate haste that they can't restrain themselves from slapping the drawers back? And it also fails my standard of desirable simpleness. I agree that they are appealing to the gadget-minded - when we first saw them in a kitchen showroom, my DH could hardly wait to disembowel a drawer assembly to figure it out. But I'll keep closing the drawers in our house, by hand, thank you. (I have no idea what a soft-close toilet is and, may it please the Gods, I'll never encounter one.) This is the one thing I don't want to upgrade to. If only I could acquire a similar, visceral, distaste for Marmoleum, high CFM vent fans, and expensive English faucets; my kitchen reno budget would be much less strained. L

I'm back...happy to report nothing disintegrated in my hands, no stripped screws, etc. :) Really rather fascinating how that little mechanism works! There's plenty of extra clearance for the door to swing, corner unimpeded; so, not sure what the reason is for that large a gap. It's not so much the discrepancy in the gaps between the hinge side and the door bumper side (so, I'll just stick with the little nubby that's already there). Is this how all new cabinets are? Seems "Blum" is the in thing these days, so I'd imagine lots of folks are wrestling with this -- or maybe it's just us 'partial overlay' people. I don't imagine those who order inset cabinets have this issue. Thanks again for all the help. Now, moving on to whether I want to risk drilling new holes because the installers set my oversized drawer pull too high! :/