After seeing a friend's new IKEA RATIONELL soft-closing drawers, I figured I'd have a go at retrofitting the system to my existing (Blum MetaBox) drawers in my apartment. The project was a huge success and came in relatively cheaply at $2.50 - $22.50 per drawer, depending how you look at it
I've written up an instructable with full steps and photos here:
http://www.instructables.com/id/Retrofit-soft-close-to-almost-any-drawer-Blumotio/The short story in photos:
And a quick video showing my retrofit in action:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7aAQTL7N5UsHope this inspires some fellow DIY handymen around here
Wow, i think i might have found exactly what my Mum has been looking for!!! She has cupboards only below her bench but wanted to convert these to drawers, all kitchen reno places tell her can't do must take out existing kitchen shell & start again!!! At a cost of $7500 + plumber & electrician!!!!
Just for clarification...she could take out existing middle shelf in cupboard & install these in cupboard space?? She's happy to leave doors on as there is absolutely nothing wrong with them, just a matter of more storage needed/wanted!!!
Ah if this is correct she will be one very happy lady!!!!!
& save some $$$ in the process!!
Thanks for the info (Hope i've understood it correctly)
while you can definitely use the above steps to retrofit whatever drawers you choose with blumotion dampers, the project is mainly targeted at people who have existing drawers that slam themselves shut and want to soften the closing without having to buy a whole new drawer.
as you haven't chosen drawers yet, you can simply buy drawers with the damper system built in - no need to modify anything. unless of course they're very expensive, in which case you can buy the cheapest drawers you can find and then retrofit the damping system as above
this is fantastic - we wanted soft close draws but our builder quoted us around $2k - outrageous!!!
I figured there would be a way to retrofit, but it seems you have saved the hard work for me. Thanks for sharing