Why we fit Blum hardware

A board in a wardrobe does not move. A hinge and a runner move every day, often several times a day, for ten or twenty years. Hardware is therefore the one part of a wardrobe where the difference between average and good does not show in a photograph — it shows in the second year of use.

At Mizarstvo Lesnika we fit hardware from the Austrian maker Blum as standard. Here is what that means in practice.

Hinges: CLIP top with BLUMOTION damping

Damping (BLUMOTION) is integrated into the hinge. A door swung shut slows itself over the last few centimetres and closes quietly. That is not only comfort: it is the impact against the carcass that works screws loose and opens joints over time.

Adjustment on three axes. The hinge has three screws — height, depth and side. Doors can therefore be realigned with a screwdriver five years later, when the house has settled a little. Cheaper hinges often adjust on one axis, or not at all.

CLIP means tool-free removal. A leaf unclips from its mounting plate with one press and goes back just as easily. When painting the wall, moving house or cleaning, that is the difference between five minutes and an afternoon.

On corner wardrobes we use dedicated angled corner hinges for the diagonal leaf.

Drawer runners: MOVENTO

MOVENTO runners are concealed and undermount: fitted below the drawer box, so they are not visible when the drawer is open. That is not only appearance — with no runner at the sides, the drawer is wider inside.

Full extension means the drawer comes right out and the back of it is reachable. In a wardrobe that matters more than in a kitchen: in a clothes drawer the back third is the part that otherwise never gets used.

Soft close works as it does on the doors. A drawer that is pushed shut stops quietly and does not bounce back.

For timber drawer boxes we use MOVENTO regardless of drawer size — the system is the same on a small drawer and on a wide one.

The LEGRABOX drawer system

LEGRABOX is a whole drawer system rather than a runner. The drawer sides are thin steel; the bottom and back are timber.

What that gives:

• more room inside for the same external width, because the sides are thinner than board;
• a calmer look when the drawer is open — a flat steel side with no visible screws;
• fewer parts in the build, because the sides and the runner are one assembly.

It costs more than a timber box on runners. Whether it is worth it depends on how many drawers the wardrobe has and where: a bank of bedroom drawers is opened daily, one drawer in a guest room far less often.

Which is better for your wardrobe is your choice — a timber box in the same decor as the wardrobe, or a metal one. The difference is visible in the configurator.

Lift-up fronts

Where a front lifts rather than swings — on a top box above a wardrobe, for example — the lift systems come from the Blum AVENTOS family. We fit them by arrangement, where the shape of the wardrobe calls for it.

Why not the cheapest hardware

A cheap hinge and a cheap runner do not fail immediately. They fail slowly: the door starts to droop, the drawer starts to catch in the last few centimetres, the damping weakens. Because it is gradual, people get used to it — which is precisely what bespoke furniture should never ask of anyone.

The hardware price difference on an ordinary wardrobe is a small share of the whole. The difference in use is daily.

Warranty on hardware

Fitted hardware carries the guarantee programme of its own manufacturer. The maker sets the term and conditions, so we state them on the warranty sheet for the exact hardware built into your wardrobe. That guarantee applies in addition to the statutory guarantee of conformity — see Warranty and wardrobe care.

Next step

Hardware is part of every wardrobe we make, not an upgrade. Design yours in the configurator or look at built examples. Boards, edges and painted fronts are covered in Materials.