A Handleless kitchen or Handleless effect kitchen?
When I ask customers if they would prefer a Handleless kitchen or a Handleless effect kitchen, very few realise that two different styles exist. Therefore, it may be useful to explain the differences between the two.
A true handleless kitchen with continuous rail
In a handleless kitchen, the doors have no handles. A continuous rail is fitted into the cabinet to open and close the doors. The rail enables your fingers to slide over the top of the door and open it from behind. This is pictured below.
The other type of true handleless kitchen uses push to open catches to allow the door to be opened. Although handleless kitchens with push to open catches look stunning, they are not particularly practical. Firstly, this type of system cannot be used with an integrated dishwasher or fridge freezer. Secondly, the push to open mechanism’s usually start failing after just a few years. Thirdly the doors can often open just by you brushing past them. This is why I generally recommend clients choose an alternative type of handleless kitchen instead.
A handleless effect type handleless kitchen
In recent years, handleless effect kitchens have become as popular as true handleless kitchens. Handleless effect kitchens have an integrated handle at the top of each door to enable opening. two examples can be seen below.
Their are two types of integrated handle style handleless kitchens on the market. There’s the low-quality wrapped type and the high-quality painted and lacquered type.
Two types – wrapped and painted and lacquered
If you buy the low quality wrapped type, it can be difficult to open the doors. This is particularly the case with doors attached to integrated dishwashers, fridges, freezers and fridge freezers. The reason for this is that the groove at the top of the door is very shallow. Because it’s so shallow, it can be very hard to get the necessary grip required to pull open the door. This is less of a problem with the higher quality painted and lacquered type doors as the groove is much deeper.
It is mainly the high street chains and trade-only suppliers that sell the low quality wrapped type handleless kitchen doors. The majority of integrated handle type handleless kitchen doors sold by Independent kitchen showrooms are the high quality painted and lacquered type.
The other problem with wrapped type doors is they are prone to de-laminating (as shown below). De-laminating is where the surface peels away from the MDF base. The first signs of de-lamination is bubbling around the edges of the doors. The higher quality painted and lacquered type doesn’t give you this problem
.
A subtle handle across the top
If you like the look of a handleless kitchen, but also like the practicality of having a handle, why not go for a kitchen with a subtle handle across the top of the door? although this is not technically a handleless kitchen, it gives a similar look. Below are a few examples of these.
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