Hinges — by door, not by guess
Blum's own spec is weight-based, not a height table (searched their technical documentation directly — no mm-height chart exists): 2 hinges for 4–6kg doors, 3 for 6–12kg, with an explicit note to add a hinge on tall/narrow doors regardless of weight. Weights below use birch ply at ~680kg/m³.
| Door | Size, mm | Thick | Est. weight | Hinges | Why |
|---|
| Media end — top band doors (×8) | 364×500 | 12mm | ~1.5kg | 2 | Small and light, well under the 4kg 2-hinge band |
| Media end — overflow storage leaf (×2) | 410×1190 | 18mm | ~6.0kg | 3 | Borderline 2/3 by weight, but tall/narrow (2.9:1) tips it to 3 |
| Laundry end — pantry doors (×2) | 467×1580 | 18mm | ~9.0kg | 4 | 3 by weight alone, but floor-to-ceiling at 1580mm — trade practice adds a 4th past ~1.5m to stop long-term sag |
| Laundry end — coffee-nook top doors (×2) | 358×482 | 12mm | ~1.4kg | 2 | Small and light |
| Laundry end — cleaning cupboard panels (×4) | 435×1185 | 18mm | ~6.3kg | 3 | Just into the 3-hinge band; each panel hinges independently at its own mid-rail, not to its neighbour |
| Total hinges needed | | | | 46 | 16 + 6 + 8 + 4 + 12 |
| Product | Price | Notes |
|---|
| Blum CLIP top BLUMOTION, 0mm plate, 110° full overlay | £8.00/pair + VAT = £4.00 each (confirmed, ironmongerydirect.co.uk) | Recommended standard for the whole run — a genuine correction to an earlier estimate here. This is the industry-benchmark brand, and it turned out cheaper than the Hettich alternative below once actually priced, not more expensive as first assumed. 46 × £4.00 = £184.00 + VAT |
| Hettich Sensys 8645i, 110° full overlay, soft-close | £5.29 each (confirmed, inc VAT) | Was the earlier recommendation on the assumption Blum would cost 4–5× more — no longer the better choice now both are actually priced. Fine as a fallback if Blum's specific plate/cup combination is ever out of stock. |
| Budget steel soft-close (Eclipse/Häfele), 105–110° | £1.60–2.14 each | Not recommended — thinner arms, thinner soft-close units. Fine on a shed door, not what "sturdy" calls for here |
Drawer runners — sized to what's actually in the drawer
Right-sizing, not maxing out everywhere — a media-end drawer full of board games and a pantry drawer full of tins are not the same load problem.
| Drawers | Depth | Qty | Load needed | Recommended |
|---|
| Media end (board games) | 500 (~450 net) | 4 | 30kg | Blum TANDEMBOX antaro, 30kg |
| Coffee nook (light accessories, kitchen overflow) | 650–700 | 3 | 30–40kg | Blum TANDEMBOX antaro, 30kg, longer length |
| Pantry (tins, jars — the one to actually go heavy on) | 650–700 | 6 | 65–80kg | Klug 80kg, 700–800mm (IronmongeryDirect) or Hettich Actro 60kg equivalent |
| Product | Price | Notes |
|---|
| Blum TANDEMBOX antaro, 30kg, per pair | £16.91–20.29 (confirmed, varies by length) | 7 drawers (media + coffee nook) ≈ £130–150 |
| Klug 53mm Heavy Duty, full extension, 800mm, 80kg | £37.50/pair + VAT (confirmed, ironmongerydirect.co.uk, 5% off £39.50) | 6 pantry drawers × £37.50 = £225.00 + VAT |
| Hettich Actro, up to 60kg | Trade login required to see price | Not needed now Klug's confirmed — leaving this row for reference only |
The whisky-nook drop-leaf — not a hinge problem, a flap-stay problem
Correcting my own first assumption here: Blum's AVENTOS lift-up range (the obvious first guess) is for wall cabinets that lift up and back — wrong direction for a leaf that's bottom-hinged and folds down to become the worksurface. The right category is bureau/flap stays, the same hardware family used on drop-front desks and drinks-cabinet flaps.
| Product | Price | Notes |
|---|
| Sugatsune Heavy Duty Soft Open/Close Bureau Stay Set, 90° | £38.16/pair | Recommended — the leaf holds bottles/glasses when deployed, so the extra load confidence over the standard-duty version is worth it |
| Sugatsune Soft Open/Close Nickel Bureau Stay (standard duty) | £10.80 each (£21.60/pair) | Soft-close both directions, matches the design's auto-on LED/no-slam intent, but lighter duty than the leaf's load calls for |
Two-tier drawer inserts — self-built, not bought
Needed on 3 drawers total: 2 on the media end (cards, small puzzles) and the coffee nook's top drawer (coffee accessories) — each rides on its own separate slide mechanism above the main drawer, per the existing cutting schedules. Reconsidered after a fair challenge: there's no structural reason this needs to be a bought specialty unit rather than a normal shop-built drawer box on a second, lighter pair of runners — the same method as every other drawer on this run.
| Option | Cost | Notes |
|---|
| Self-built inner tray — shop-cut ply/MR-MDF box (offcuts, effectively free) on a second, lighter pair of runners | £28.44 for 3 (£9.48/pair × 3) | Recommended — matches how every other drawer box on this run is being built, and the inner tray only needs to hold light items (cards, coffee accessories), not the heavy loads the main runners are sized for |
| Bought: Blum Antaro Internal Drawer, 450mm depth, 700mm width (ref VYG.450.0664) | £123.00 each = £369.00 for 3 | Pre-assembled, saves build time, but ~13× the cost for the same function — worth it only if the fitting time genuinely isn't available |
- Essentials soft-close ball-bearing runners, 350mm, 35kg (Screwfix) — genuinely soft-close, not just self-closing, and 35kg is comfortably more than a tray of cards or coffee accessories ever needs. 350mm fits within both the media-end drawer's 500mm box depth and the front-accessible zone of the coffee-nook's deeper drawer.
- Same standardisation logic as the bought option would have used: one runner spec for all three trays, including the coffee nook, even though its main drawer is deeper — the tray sits in the front-accessible zone, the extra depth behind it stays usable for whatever else lives in that drawer.
Adjustable cabinet legs
For levelling both ends before the kickboard goes on — needs real load capacity given the birch-ply carcass weight plus packed contents (dense pantry, the full-height cleaning cupboard).
- IronmongeryDirect Pro Series adjustable legs, 120–150mm, 240kg max — confirmed £2.34/pack of 4 (£2.22/pack at 10+, ironmongerydirect.co.uk, SKU 802940). At 240kg/leg, a standard 4-leg base gives 960kg nominal capacity per section — comfortably covers even the heaviest run, fully stocked. This turned out to be a trivial line item once priced — even a generous 20-leg estimate (5 packs) is only ~£11.70.
- Leg count still not resolved — depends on the actual base-frame/bearer layout the joiner builds, which isn't specced in either cutting schedule yet. Spec and price are both settled now; quantity and spacing is a site/joiner decision, not a design one.
Tools needed to fit it
46 hinges is the one place a special tool actually earns its keep — everything else here is a standard drill/driver.
| Job | Tool | Notes |
|---|
| Boring the 46 hinge cups | 35mm Forstner bit + hinge-boring jig (Kreg KHI-HINGE, or a generic 35mm jig+bit kit ~£15–20) | 35mm cup is the industry-standard size Blum and Hettich both use. Confirmed bore depth for Hettich Sensys is 12.8mm; Blum CLIP top is typically very close (~12–13mm) but worth confirming on the specific pack before setting the jig's depth stop, since Blum is now the one being ordered. A hand drill alone will wander in angle and depth across 46 holes — a jig is worth it for consistency, not luxury. Jig also sets the ~3mm cup-to-edge distance for this run's flush full-overlay doors. |
| Mounting drawer runners | Standard drill/driver + pilot holes | Blum/Klug clip-and-screw systems, no special jig |
| Fitting the flap stay | Drill/driver + combination square | Screwed to both faces at marked positions per the product's own template; square just helps keep it true |
| Fitting cabinet legs | Drill/driver (+ hex key, usually supplied) | Bolts into a leg plate screwed to the carcass underside; adjustment is by hand or the supplied key |
Approximate total
| Item | Cost | Confidence |
|---|
| 46 hinges (Blum CLIP top BLUMOTION, £4.00 each) | £184.00 | Confirmed price |
| Media + coffee-nook runners, 7 pairs (Blum TANDEMBOX 30kg) | £130–150 | Confirmed price |
| Pantry runners, 6 pairs (Klug 80kg, £37.50/pair) | £225.00 | Confirmed price |
| Whisky-nook flap stay (Sugatsune heavy-duty) | £38.16 | Confirmed price |
| Two-tier inner trays ×3 (self-built, Screwfix soft-close runners, £9.48/pair) | £28.44 | Confirmed price |
| Subtotal, confirmed | £605–625 | |
| Cabinet legs (price confirmed, quantity unresolved) | ~£5–20 | Price real, quantity is a joiner decision |
| ROUGH ALL-IN TOTAL | £610–645 | |
Everything except leg quantity is now real, sourced pricing (ironmongerydirect.co.uk, eastcoastkitchens.co.uk, screwfix.com, all 2026-08-30). The two-tier line dropped from a bought-unit £369.00 to a self-built £28.44 once challenged on whether a specialty product was actually needed — the single biggest swing on this page, bigger than the hinge and leg corrections combined. Excludes VAT, bulk discounts, and fixings/screws.