Handleless kitchens – a guide

Published 01/04/2013

Handleless kitchens are becoming increasingly popular as they can create visually stunning, sleek minimalist effects that are unique. What started off as a niche product has now become mainstream fashion for kitchens. Every kitchen showroom will have one type of handleless kitchen within their showroom, so how do you choose between them?

J Groove or Integrated handle

J Groove doors or integrated handle doors as they are sometimes known, are a less expensive way to achieve a handleless kitchen design in your home.

The handle is formed from a scooped section at the top of the door on the base cabinets (bottom of the door for wall cabinets). The finishes of these doors are mostly laqueured (painted). The paint on these doors can be either gloss (shiny) or matt (smooth non-shiny). Our Malmo handleless range, which is an Integrated handle type door, also has a selection of veneered (wood) finishes within its range.

Our premium German range of kitchens, Nolte Kitchens, have a range called Alpha lack which has two types of scooped sections to reduce the lines within the kitchen which creates an even sharper look than was previously possible with this type of handleless kitchen.

With all these types of handleless doors, no change is made to the cabinet or the size of door. All the kitchen door sizes are the same as with a standard kitchen door which would have a handle. As such, these will be the most common type of handleless kitchen you will see with kitchen showrooms.

Push to open or tip-on

This is a type of Handleless system whereby normal kitchen doors (not special handleless doors) are fitted to a standard kitchen cabinet without a handle and a mechanism is fitted so the door can be opened with a push to the centre of the door. The drawers can be fitted with drawer boxes with similar systems (either electrically powered or manually operated). These are the type of handleless systems which we would not recommend as the mechanisms can fail. There is also no way to fit a push to open mechanism to an integrated fridge freezer or dishwasher which compromises the look of the kitchen. In our opinion this is one type of handleless kitchen to be avoided.

TRUE HANDLELESS?

The term ‘true handleless’ is normally reserved for kitchens which have a scooped section which is fitted into cabinets specifically designed for true handleless kitchens. Notches within these cabinets allow lengths of these scooped sections (which are separate to the doors) to be fitted in uninterrupted lengths which have been cut and mitred for your kitchen. Whilst most manufacturers only offer a stainless steel version, our range of German handleless kitchens can provide these trims in 22 different colour options which can create hundreds of different effects to make your kitchen unique.

Please take a look through our ranges if you would like some inspiration when looking for your new kitchen.

For any enquiries please email info@candckitchens.co.uk

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