Browse Forums Kitchen Corner 1 Jan 11, 2010 8:14 pm I'm in the process of designing my new kitchen and I love the seamless look of no handles. I'm also wanting soft closing mechanisms. I was just wondering if it would be easy to open the doors/drawers without the handles as I have found that with the soft closing mechanisms they need a little more force to pull them open. I'll also be having 3 corner cabinets which I assume will also be tricky opening? Also, do you think I'd have issues with dirty finger prints as I'm having white gloss panels? Any thoughts would be of great help. Re: Handleless kitchen cabinets with soft closing hinges 2Jan 11, 2010 10:26 pm We have soft close cabinets/drawers with the shadowline finish and it is very easy to open them as the top is cut on an angle and there is plenty of room for your fingers. There is a little resistance but nothing worrying. A couple of our high cabinets above our ovens have push to open latches as it would have looked strange having an edge to put your fingers in that position. They are on the Show Me Your Kitchen thread. In regards to the cleanliness aspect I have had no problems so far as I regularly wipe the tops. However, my cabinets are in Victorian Ash rather than white so the marks may be harder to see. On the other hand, I'd imagine it would be easier to clean shiny white finishes. Re: Handleless kitchen cabinets with soft closing hinges 3Jan 11, 2010 11:06 pm Hi Neverfinished, What a coincidence, I was just admiring your kitchen in the other thread before I saw your reply. What an absolutely stunning kitchen you have! I bet all the extra devices in your kitchen have made your life much easier. These are the things I dream about. Thanks for your reply BTW. Re: Handleless kitchen cabinets with soft closing hinges 4Jan 12, 2010 8:21 am Can you go push to open on all the non handle doors. That is what one company suggested to me, however they did say that it wouldn't work on the drawers and corner cabinet. Though I am sure you could get the drawers to work if you changed the profile of the drawer. Anyway, I am going with handles on the base cabinets, no handles (push to open) on the wall cabinets. Re: Handleless kitchen cabinets with soft closing hinges 6Jan 12, 2010 9:11 am The Blum brand of hardware for doors and drawers may do what you are after. They have a model called Tip On which gives a push to open facility for both doors and drawers - (to my knowledge Hettich only have a push to open door (not drawers) - but I don't know if the Push to Open facility means the soft close facility is lost. I am to meet with a blum rep next week and find out about all this detail for inclusion in our new kitchen. There may be brands other than Blum and Hettich that have such Push to Open hardware as well but I am not aware of them. cheers Re: Handleless kitchen cabinets with soft closing hinges 7Jan 12, 2010 9:18 am little buddy Can you go push to open on all the non handle doors. That is what one company suggested to me, however they did say that it wouldn't work on the drawers and corner cabinet. Though I am sure you could get the drawers to work if you changed the profile of the drawer. Anyway, I am going with handles on the base cabinets, no handles (push to open) on the wall cabinets. I am thinking of doing the same. Except, for the top cabinets I might just have an overhang at the front so i can just grab it at the bottom if that makes sense. Re: Handleless kitchen cabinets with soft closing hinges 9Jan 12, 2010 11:34 am Just my 2 cents worth. All our upper cabinets except 2 have Blum soft close fittings. For the 2 above our ovens we have the Blum Tip On (I think that is the name) where you press on the door and it opens. This is so there is a seamless look with the fitted ovens below. I was told by the kitchen designer that you can only have this or soft close - not both. I am assuming he told me the truth as I never checked it out. The Blum site is very confusing. However when you think about it it makes sense. It took me a long time to grasp why this would be so. All our other soft close upper cabinets have a small overhang/underhang? which you use to open the doors with. We also have 3 shallow drawers built into our kickboards which you touch with your foot to open. They do not have soft close. Re: Handleless kitchen cabinets with soft closing hinges 10Jan 12, 2010 11:39 am Neverfinished We also have 3 shallow drawers built into our kickboards which you touch with your foot to open. They do not have soft close. Now that's innovative! Demolition August 2009, Construction Started September 2009, Completed December 2010 Re: Handleless kitchen cabinets with soft closing hinges 11Jan 12, 2010 11:49 am Quote: Now that's innovative! No, just desperation due to having a small open plan house with NO storage. (And 3 adult children who refuse to leave home ) Re: Handleless kitchen cabinets with soft closing hinges 12Jan 12, 2010 12:16 pm Quote: We also have 3 shallow drawers built into our kickboards which you touch with your foot to open Do you remember if they were expensive? Re: Handleless kitchen cabinets with soft closing hinges 13Jan 12, 2010 12:55 pm Quote: Do you remember if they were expensive? They were $600 each but I love them as we keep our bills etc in one, all our appliance warranties, instruction manuals etc in another and recipes in another. You could use them for flat trays, tea towels etc. They are quite large in width and depth. They are also matched to the rest of the kickboards so I imagine you could put valuables in them as no-one would know they are there. Oops! Just as well no-one knows where I live. Re: Handleless kitchen cabinets with soft closing hinges 14Jan 13, 2010 8:53 am I think I'll be going handleless with all cabinets. The upper cabinets will have a slight over hang underneath and the bottom cabinets will have a shadowline. I'm still unsure how effective it will be on the corner cabinets though. If anyone has these in their kitchens what do you think? Otherwise I'll just have handles on the bottom. Re: Handleless kitchen cabinets with soft closing hinges 17Jan 13, 2010 10:10 am I am having a total blank, name some suppliers of handles peeps They are a metal handle inserted into a cutout at the top, very strong, would handle a corner cupboard well, no fingerprint marks. Re: Handleless kitchen cabinets with soft closing hinges 18Jan 13, 2010 10:18 am I know the handles you mean. I saw them somewhere but I can't remember where. I'm having a blank too! By the way what colour are your kitchen cabinets? Sorry to bombard you with all these questions but I love what you have done with your kitchen. My door tends to rub against the frame during winter and I'm looking to fix it so it closes smoothly. Looking online on Youtube I'm seeing methods to fix the alignment and… 0 539 Yes, I had already tried searching those. In the end I am fabricating my own. 4 4172 You can really use anything you want the main consideration would be how it looks once painted/finished - or the look you want. Cabinetmakers use MDF because its cheap… 2 9957 |