The 3 Hour Kitchen Upgrade I Wish I Did Years Ago

These little guys have been a killer upgrade in our kitchen and bathrooms. They’re easy to install, they’re not that expensive and anyone can do this. It’s one of those things that will have you saying “Why didn’t I do this a long time ago?”
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• Drawer Closers: geni.us/iSDn2R
• Door Closers: geni.us/TE1D
• Blum Snap On Soft Close Dampers for Full Overlay Hinges: geni.us/JIsO4
• Drawer Spacers (for face framed cabinets): geni.us/zxc9qp
• Soft Close Drawer Slides: geni.us/ZyseKju
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[@ScytheNoire]

The only bad part if you have soft close cupboards, drawers, or toilet seat, everyone else you go you'll forget not everywhere has them and people will think you are slamming things.

[@JP_TaVeryMuch]

Or your helpful handyman who hasn't come across them before will go round the bathrooms in your new home and after ten minutes come back downstairs and announce "Oh, I've fixed all those dodgy toilet seats. They close just fine now." Arrrggghhh!!!

[@LRN2DIY]

Haha! We have a soft close toilet seat in our master bathroom and I have to check myself if I use any other bathroom. I've slammed them down before on accident for sure.

[@harryl7946]

Same here! Installed a new kitchen in the last house and now I just close the drawers in our new home. DOLT! 😢. I need these now for sure! 😂

[@b22chris]

This happens to me at my in laws house! 😂

[@BiggMo]

Creatures of habitat

[@rokhardware]

Thanks for using our soft close cabinet door damper! We are glad you recognized how easy it is to install!

[@kiwinakun]

I installed these exact ones on all my cabinet doors. They worked great for a while but one by one, they all broke. Some of them started leaking oil but they all pretty much stopped soft closing. Replaced them with the Blum Blumotion, which they have a clip on or screw in version. These cost more but they are higher quality. So far had them for a little over 3 years and still working.

[@Jbiglin]

Thanks for mentioning that! You just saved me some time, money and aggravation. I’ll look into the Blum models.

[@ArcConAK]

Yes these are what go into high end cabinets. Blum is basically the best brand in cabinet hardware.

[@ClickClack_Bam]

My .02 cents worth of felt still works. I'd imagine you could use rubber & other things as well.

[@AlecShernAPS]

​@@ClickClack_Bamhe specifically went over this...felt and rubber/gel still slam a lot louder than these are.

[@InCountry6970]

I installed the Blum version of the soft close damper over 9 years ago and they all work perfectly.

[@stephenmorris6389]

I highly recommend the Blum soft-close door adapters that work with all types of hinges. I installed the Blumotion mechanisms (970.1002) in their solid metal face frame adapters (970.5701) for less than $4 a door shipped. Nice to get affordable solutions from a quality manufacturer.

[@jonwhittaker6562]

This is EXCELLENT. I just installed them on all 27 of my kitchen cabinet doors. Thank you so much, I never would have gotten to it if it wasn't for your video!

[@Jbiglin]

First time on your channel. This was really well done, concise and very informative. Now I have another item on the honey-do list to do - just what I needed. 😊.

[@1252PFC]

great instructions and saving to our pocket. appreciate your work. I will need to give this a try.

[@Propnut48]

I have these on all my cabinets in my new bathroom doors. They are fantastic!!!!

[@the_kingdom]

The larger circular felt pads one on top and one on bottom of doors also prevent the sound of closing. The don't make the doors close slower but they do stop the sound.

[@kayemoore]

Seriously awesome! You named this segment correctly! Can’t wait to get these installed!

[@robertkerby2581]

Amazingly cool upgrades! Well done!

[@vickigonya9432]

This is great! I had no idea after market soft close additions were available ❤

[@shawnevans827]

A great informative video as always Nihls! Thanks for the continuing content.

[@LRN2DIY]

Thanks, Shawn! I appreciate you watching.

[@BrandonBaileyIG]

THANKS FOR SHARING AND THANKS FOR THE LINKS!

[@glennspooner5430]

Great idea. A cheap easy fix that upgrades your living style. Thanks

[@davesenor3146]

Awesome, awesome, awesome. Thanks for posting!!

[@mikejrog]

Nice kitchen! The lighting above island looks super nice.

[@LRN2DIY]

Thanks so much! I realized after filming that I should have turned on our under-cabinet lights that I installed a few years back. Missed opportunity!

[@kenn1936]

Awesome video!! Many thanks!!

[@MrJwyne]

Great stuff! Thanks for sharing. Good idea to upgrade the home.

[@LRN2DIY]

Thanks!

[@SBL1932]

Very good video with demo on how to use item

[@crztrn1]

Even though you didn't get to my type of cabinet this was a great video and inspirational 🥰

[@AkSonya1010]

I changed out all of my doors to soft close (wish I knew you only needed one per door) about two years ago and I am so happy I did. It was so easy to do, didn't take me long and cost me about a $150.00. I wish I had done that years ago.

[@BentleyWilkinson]

I'm used to this being built into IKEA kitchens for 20 years now here in Sweden. It's such a great feature.

[@user-tw2pg8gi3p]

Thank you - very helpful

[@gregdoyle829]

IKEA cabinets come with soft close hinges and drawers, nothing to add separately.

[@mrgallbladder]

Cant speak for drawers, but for cabinet doors, you can just buy soft close hinges for about the same price and replace your existing ones.

[@willmallory9085]

Excellent video Brother

[@brianzachary5618]

For the spacers you can cut a small wood block of wood.

[@imagoXX]

This is a great video review thanks!!

[@LRN2DIY]

Tbanks so much for watching!

[@nicholasmaione5694]

Good tips

[@bjb7587]

Another advantage of soft close is reducing the wear and tear on the hinges and drawers. Silverware drawers are heavy. I rebuilt both my silverware drawers after they fell apart.

[@amichaels-v3]

Love your channel. I would hire you for any job, at anytime. You are very genuine. Your channel is a gem for anyone that lives anywhere :-)

[@luke_fabis]

The cheap little gel pads help a little when it comes to sound, but a generously sized Sorbothane dome would achieve a lot more. Although, you can't beat a soft-close hinge.

[@PongoXBongo]

I find felt pads work better than gel. Pick up some cheap furniture sliders and cut them to size.

[@montpierce424]

THIS IS GREAT !!! Thank You. Wish I had know about these 3-4 years ago. When she was 3ish I always told my granddaughter to watch out for our kitchen drawers, because THEY BITE !! :( :( They have magnetic closers that really slam the drawers hard at the last few inches of travel... Very Painful for Little Fingers....

[@craigmerkey8518]

Love love the! I would like to have one of these on the front doors where I love! People seem to close their front doors like they are angry!

[@markm3.16]

Probably because the exterior doors have a weather seal making it more difficult to close but I'm with you on a soft closing solution. Where I live the wind is always blowing and wants to slam my door for me.😟

[@scottkolaya2110]

1:18 I installed those dampers and ended up destroying the cabinet in 6 months. They are like little crow bars putting stress on the hinges and screws. I ended up replacing the hinges with soft close hinges before I wrecked anymore cabinets. The soft close hinges keeps the dampening stress within the hinge that's designed for it, rather than putting the dampening stress from the wood through the hinge pulling on the screws each time the door is closed.

[@alextheonewarrior]

As a cabinet installer, I'm gonna call BS on that lmao. They used the wrong screws if they were destroyed so easily. We use handle-less drawers and doors that function similarly to these and we have never had issues. Your issue lies elsewhere, not these garbage hackjobs

[@scottkolaya2110]

@@alextheonewarrior Clearly you don't install builder-grade cabinets with MDF cores. Just because you have installed doors that function similarly and probably were designed for it or screwed into hardwood, doesn't mean they work in all situations.

[@tiffanybuchanan5511]

This was one of the first things I did when we bought our current house about 3 years ago. I couldn’t stand the sound of the doors slamming. I went all around the house changing them in the kitchen and the bathrooms. Money we’ll sent!

[@curtcooper5465]

Thx!

[@Noeruto]

Instead of a gel pad, I used a felt covered one. Litter thicker than usual but got rid of that noise. Thanks again for this video.

[@PongoXBongo]

Same. Heavy duty furniture slider pads work the best.

[@lovinglife8988]

This have been the standard in Norway for more than 15 years, funny to see the big difference in how things are done between countries. Also in Norway we only use doors on upper cabinets, all base cabinets come with drawers, so no doors under the bench.

[@apanoiu]

I like Blum tandem sliders.

[@ClickClack_Bam]

I spent $5 on a piece of felt & glued pieces of felt. Probably worked out to .02 cents per drawer.

[@vtmegrad98]

the soft pads work fine on cabinets as long as you check to see if they're cupped. If the middle is closer to the frame than the corners, putting pads on the corners isn't going to do much.

[@jessicag4132]

Great

[@Dirtyharry70585]

My hinges were failing so I just bought replacement with built in slow closers. But that silverware and ‘wife gadget’ drawers are crazy loud.

[@joeblow1942]

Retrofit soft closers for cabinet doors and drawers.

[@pickmeaname]

12 years ago, We replaced a 50 year old kitchen in a hundred year old house. Contractor did soft close devices on everything. Very nice, and haven't had any wear out yet.

[@meatball6930]

As a contractor im embarrassed i had no idea about these clips for the doors. I’d use those until i got around to putting each hinge on. I will say the drawer thing seems like a pain and it would take me 5 extra minutes to put the soft close slides on. For ppl who don’t know most soft close slides are full extension-so your complete drawer comes out so you don’t have to dig into back of drawer. I’ve put them on customers file cabinets too-nothing worse then digging into back of file drawer

[@KC9UDX]

I don't disagree, but little cork bumpers do the job just fine.

[@LukeSeed]

Imagine being that person who gets so unhinged from loud hinges

[@monkeyolsen]

what would you suggest if the drawers are the ones that are metal on the sides?

[@TheKingofkrypton]

I suppose that the benefit of using the add-ons is that they can act as sacrificial parts. When any soft-closing mechanisms eventually give out you can more easily replace the add-ons than replacing the entire hinge or track.

[@SandyFunnies]

I have framed cabinets and I bought the soft-close hinges from Home Depot a few years ago. I replaced both the upper and lower hinge and have about 30% that have failed. It seems that the mechanism is a hydraulic system because it appears that the seal has failed and oil has leaked out. I was thinking of going to Lowes as they seem to have a different manufacturer, but I may check out your links. I have been wanting to do the drawers and this gives me some options and ideas.

[@lilychu8137]

May I ask what brand n model of drill u are using, it looks quite handy for girls Thank you

[@Trethar512]

I installed some of those drawer soft-closers in my bathroom about 7 years ago. There's 2 parts inside of the part on the wall; one that grabs the drawer clip and throws it back into the second, the soft close mechanism. The problem I had with the ones we got is that the first part to go bad is the soft close mechanism, so now it actually slams harder than if I had nothing at all!

[@garyh4458]

Yea, most of mine wore out after about 5 years or so.

[@CraigHollabaugh]

Hero!

[@lauramorris3409]

my drawers have the old fashioned bottom middle rail. I would love to have these, but to replace with slides would be a great cost. Maybe if we were selling in the near future. Cool gadgets though.

[@markm3.16]

I have the same type of drawer glides as well but it looks like they simply attach to the side of the drawer and cabinet without any contact with the guides. Some of mine are just wood guides though without ballbearings so they probably won't work on that kind. I may give them a try.

[@SamSeama]

The best soft close hinges I worked with are made by Blum. I don't know if they're available in USA.

[@AgentOffice]

Fun

[@monohydrate2]

This is a nice upgrade after I installed Lutron switches in my kitchen paired with Lutron motion sensors.

[@thesimplyspoiled1]

3:21 If you only use one should you put it at the top or bottom of the door? Which would you recommend?

[@djgrazzy]

The plastic ones are fine for small cabinet doors in an RV etc

[@WaqarAhmadA]

Does it work with strip or piano hinges? I have wardrobes which have long strips of hinges from top to bottom

[@Sazonman]

I want to know where your wife purchased her above island lights, they look amaaaaazzzziiinnngg

[@bv2999]

What graphic software did you use to design spacer? Also what 3D printer do you use

[@xbadjokerx]

you got a like for that say hello to my lil friends xD

[@dancingvirgil]

It’s got a big red arrow on the thumbnail this must be a good video! Oh wait I was wrong

[@josediaz4703]

thanks very good information as always don forget to thumb up to the video

[@LRN2DIY]

Thanks, Jose!

[@watercarepro9610]

I agree that soft close doors and drawers are nice, my house was built before they became popular, but it doesn't bother me one bit, I have kids that are closing the doors harder than they should and I do hear it from time to time but it doesn't bother me at all, and I mean AT ALL, not even a little bit, The only reason where I might go ahead and install these one of these days, is because I think it might make it so the hinges don't loosen up as much or as frequent, because I do find myself going around tightening up the hinges from time to time.

[@saneauto]

Sold!!

[@PedramPourmand]

Does it make sense to install the door closer between the hinges so you don't torque the door? Seems like over the long term it could damage the door hinges.

[@AgentOffice]

Probably

[@Cosmic_Soul]

The cabinet door stopper near the hinge (inner side of the door) creates a huge leverage force on the hinges. Will it not cause deterioration at the places where the hinges are attached?

[@CyferXxX]

Great job, but install the foam button to soften the doors. Took about 20 minutes. I’ll keep this in mind when these mush flat 👍

[@mrcryptozoic817]

Buy a self-centering bit to drill the holes and double-sided tape. It's pretty hard to be precise free-hand.

[@ColonelSandersLite]

You *could* do that but most of us don't like egocentric tools.

[@markm3.16]

It's also much harder to install them when you're trying to hold a camera and keep your hands and tools out of the way so the viewer can see what you're trying to teach them.😃

[@alextheonewarrior]

Just strike a center point. Even self centering bits walk sometimes or get dull. We always always center punch when doing something precise.

[@janeblogs324]

Just use a Phillips head bit like a real man

[@alexb1546]

In Germany we say : "Wer billig kauft, kauft zweimal " ;-)

[@BobMuir100]

HiYa my friend!! Gel pads are nothing to do with soft close or sound damping…….how can folk think they are?? We have had soft close as standard on kitchens, bathrooms and bedrooms (and lavatory seats) for some 10 years now . However still leaves a lot to retrofit, all the door versions you show are just fine to live with, except the plastic ones, the seals break and the soft close stops however it’s not a huge percentage so keeping a few spares around and just swapping out is an option. With drawers best to fit new runners rather than add ons if possible. There is not a home in America that will not benefit from your video Nils, it’s a fast cheap and very satisfying upgrade!! Great stuff as normal mate! Bob England

[@davidszakacs6888]

I added the door dampers to all of my home's cabinet doors some years back. Over half of them don't work anymore.

[@johnhillis1292]

Are you going to tackle add-ons for soft close toilet seats and lids next? That's my pet peeve slamming toilet lid seat.

[@LRN2DIY]

Maybe I should. We have switched some of our toilets to soft close and I love it.

[@islandsnow]

How do you do it for under mount drawer slides?

[@mattymattffs]

I ended up buying the Blum 971A9700.22. Similar to one of your product links, but a name brand that is more trustworthy. Most of our drawers are undermounted slides and can't find anything that works for those.

[@dbach7051]

I Hate soft close doors. But glad they are available for those who do like them.

[@michaelwiacek6727]

I installed the “chrome” door dampers shown here about 8 years ago. The internal damper mechanism failed after about 2-3 years. It appears to be an age issue with the internal elastomer components since even doors which are rarely used also failed.

[@TheArmyDr1]

I can't find the link to the 3D print schematic? Thanks for this great video!

[@jatlast]

I have been scrolling through the comments and I see many people asking but no answers.

[@DustinDawind]

I installed the hinges on my cabinets a couple of years ago and ever since then I am so used to how soft they close that now when I go to my parents house I forget that their cabinets don't have them and accidentally slam their cabinet doors. Like more of a slam than you would normally get from a non soft close hinge. I guess I must be giving my cabinet doors a slight push when I close them, and without the soft close hinge that push translates into a slam.

[@roberthallows4014]

A nice Christmas gift idea

[@longdriver2]

question. I have a drawer that wont stay closed. Will this solve my closure problem?

[@MomCallsMeJimmy]

where is the file to 3d print the spacers? where is it located. You said you would make them available....

[@jayjudd6518]

😮 Lots of work and money in this economy. I’ll remember this for when there are better times if there are any. I’m buying over priced food now days.😢😢😢

[@virgil3241]

Been doing this for years, but with different products.

[@1puppetbike]

Your kitchen used to be bangin'! ..now look what you've done.?

[@idiocracy9530]

The clip on dampers, wonder how many are needed for clothes doors, is one still enough? Those hinges are standard around here.

[@LRN2DIY]

In our kitchenette we only use one each door and they work great.

[@imab0t473]

I love Ian, I thought he was a better candidate when we hired Poles. I don't know why he keeps getting snubbed, but I'm happy it looks like he's staying

[@hackr78]

That's basically the standard with Ikea for ages.

[@apolor1988]

The cupboard stopper is good but the drawer stopper is a failure at it will come out of the clip many times. Watch out.

[@jesusorquiz8651]

Might as well get drawer guides and hinges that are soft close already (Blum or Gras) Ik its a lil more pricy but worth it. Like the mexican saying goes ,"lo barato te sale caro" cheap is expensive.

[@Zarathustra-H-]

Lol. Wow. Every other problem is already solved huh? You must have such an easy life :p

[@tahsin28]

U could just replace ur dying hinges with soft close new hinges

[@gabesmokeymartatom]

No kinetic life force allowed! 😂

[@Valkaneer]

This is only going to work with modern hinges that pull the door closed. Your normal hinges which grandma used, this will be useless and won't even let your door close at all because there is no spring pulling it closed.

[@LRN2DIY]

Good point - these aren't compatible with all hinge types. The descriptions for the products often identify which types are compatible and which types aren't.

[@cfeduke]

Oh my god. I get my daughter to put away the dishes and it sounds like a herd of elephants going through the kitchen. This will a substantial improvement.

[@LRN2DIY]

Haha! I know the feeling. In our house we're all getting used to the soft close now since I put these in but I'm not hearing the doors slamming anymore. Yay!

[@InCountry6970]

I would only recommend the BLUM soft close dampers, not the ones you are demonstrating. The BLUM dampers are the leader in this technology and mine have lasted over 9 years