True Handleless Kitchens
Handleless kitchens are all the rage right now but
what is a true handleless kitchen?
Let’s start with what isn’t a true handless kitchen, and that is what we commonly call the J handled kitchen. This is a door that has a J shaped profile moulded into the top of the door or drawer front.
It’s a good design in its own right, albeit some people would regard it as quite dated. It is impossible to create the look of a true handleless kitchen using a J handle door, particularly when it comes to the tall units in the kitchen. This is where true handleless comes into it’s own.
J handles cannot run vertically along a door, and even if they could it would take a great deal of effort to open an integrated fridge or freezer trying to overcome the seals whilst trying to maintain a fingertip grip on the J handle. Despite this, quite a few kitchen retailers will promote their J handle kitchens as handleless.
A true handleless kitchen features a linear railing system that is directly fixed to the cabinet in front of which the cabinet door is mounted thus eliminating the need for any protruding handles. The best manufacturers can produce this railing system in up to 5.1 metre lengths. Why is that important? Having such long lengths available means one long rail can be fitted right along the entire length of a run of base or floor cabinets without the need for any joints, please see image. It looks sleek and sophisticated. Another benefit of having a 5.1 metre length available is when it comes to the tall cabinets in a kitchen. The railing system can be mounted vertically behind the doors of any tall cabinet such as a larder unit, oven housing or fridge/freezer housing. Yet another instance where true handleless comes into its own. It is sleek, sophisticated, and, dare we say, sexy!
Some manufacturers will only produce what is known in the trade as horizontal only handleless kitchens. To be fair for the base cabinets and the wall cabinets it works perfectly, but for the tall cabinets it doesn’t work particularly well and there are several appliances that cannot be fitted into a tall housing with the horizontal railing system. If your design doesn’t feature any tall cabinets then horizontal handleless is perfect, but if your design does include tall cabinets, and most do, then the vertical system is the ideal choice. It costs a little more, but the look you can achieve is vastly superior, it’s just sexier and worth the extra couple of hundred pounds.
You could be forgiven for thinking, well if this true handleless kitchen is so popular I don’t want to be one of the herd, I want something more unique. Well our true handleless kitchens offer 14 ranges, featuring over 60 different door colours, over 30 cabinet colours and 15 railing colours. Add into that mix the ability to combine any door on any cabinet with any railing colour, all without surcharge, the choice becomes endless. Enabling our customers to enjoy all of the benefits of a sleek sophisticated true handleless kitchen, whilst having enough choice to create their own uniquely perfect look. Especially when you consider our exclusive railing lighting systems, they can be mounted horizontally and vertically and can be used in conjunction with all of our true handleless kitchens.
