I wanted cabinet doors with visible hinges for a vintage look. They cost more than we wanted to go, so no hinges for us :(

I've heard it's also more difficult and time-consuming to install the concealed hinges. But unless you have hinges that you think are beautiful, or looking for a certain look like dianalo, I'd spring for the extra money and get the concealed. Concealed hinges also don't get kitchen "stuff" caked up on them.

Interestingly, our cabinetmaker was the other way around---it takes him longer to do the visible hinges, but I really wanted them for the inset cabinetry, so he's doing them for those doors. We're using concealed on the frameless cabinets.

Hmm, I used both; the concealed hinges cost a small fraction of the exposed hinges that were $22/pr. IIRC the 110* full overlay euro-style hinges were about $2/pr
Casey

We are going with non-mortised hinges - so they show a bit. But nothing like the fully exterior hinges we have now.

We will have beaded inset ivory white cabs and satin nickel hinges from Horton Brasse for $9 a pair..

~ D ~

Here is a link that might be useful: Horton Brasse

Concealed hinges are adjustable and easily replaceable. Visible hinges are often not adjustable and it's difficult to match them years from now. Cabinet doors can sometimes warp or get out of alignment and hinges can get worn, so you have to think about the long term...not just what looks visually appealing to you today. I

For a brief time I was considering using both types, on the same doors.

We wanted the traditional look of the exposed hinges with our inset doors, but were swayed toward concealed ones for the benefits of adjustability in the long term. (I have four sons who have been known to lean absentmindedly on open doors, despite having been told a million times not to. They have learned many other things in their short lives. I still have hope that they can learn this too.)

The cabinet maker suggested that we could mount the exterior hinges in a non-functional way, just for the appearance. It felt a bit silly and (if you will) superficial. And at $22/pair plus installation it wasn't worth the expense to us.

So for us, the decision was based first on function, then price, then appearance. Figuring out which factors are most important to you might point to a choice. Good luck!

I went with exposed hinges on my inset cabinets because I love the way they look and they also allow me to open my cabinets as wide as I can without having to put in huge hidden hinges to give me the same capability. They were an upcharge and are less adjustable, but well worth it to me.

I absolutely wanted traditional mortised butt hinges, partly because they're period-appropriate for shaker doors, but mostly because I can't stand having that big chunk of metal taking up so much room inside my doors AND preventing me from opening them all the way. Had them in my last kitchen; I personally found that they actually get more dirty than the mortised butt hinges because they're in the line of fire when you pull out bags of flour, etc.

If you have kids and need soft-close doors, or the above factors don't bother you, then you might be well off to consider hidden hinges. But I just love my classics.

Circuspeanut--always a pleasure to see your kitchen...even if it is only in a little snippet!

Love the look of visible hinges!

Also, love functional strap hinges. What style is your kitchen?

You may want to mix stuff up as a money saver...although I also thought that visible hinges would cost more, since they aren't what's standard these days.

Here is a link that might be useful: strap hinge accents

Those are the euro hinges and usaully run around $3 a set.

Here is a link that might be useful: kitchen cabinets

We are refinishing 30+ year-old cabinets and went from hinges mounted on face frame (for 3/8 inset doors) to nice pewter finish hinges from Classic Brass that leave only the barrel exposed. Love them, the difference in quality makes a difference in the experience of using them! Previous poster makes a good point about their useability, no wasted space and the doors open all the way. Face frame-mounted hinges are difficult to find these days and only made by cheaper manufacturers. I could not find replacement hinges in solid brass that mounted on the face frame, so I have to deal with filled-in holes. I don't really have a problem with it though because we chose a dark stain for that reason.

Thanks for the input everyone!

The kitchen has framed cabinets with the old ugly hinges from the early 1990's......they are very cheap here about $3 each...it's the invisible hinges that I want and they run about .........$14/set and I would need 20 sets so a big difference in cost.

Something to think about when planning lowers with concealed hinges: If you have planned, say, a 20 inch wide Lynk roll-out unit, you need another 1+ left to right inches beyond it in the bottom floor of the cupboard because the blinkin' cupboard hardware intrudes into the rolling space for the roll-out. We thought we'd planned around it, but didn't realize that the undercarriage of the roll-out jacks up the bottom of the unit more than an inch so that it just coincides with the widest part of the hinge. AARGH!

Personally, I would have preferred to have assymetrical spacers facing one another in corners, if it would have won me an extra inch or two within a lower cupboard. I very much fault my cabinet guy on this--he neglected to tell me the implications of a layout decision that brought all this on. As long as we were breaking the "rules," we should have broken a few more.

Those hinges are a tremendous intrusion into what appears to the uninformed buyer as usable space.