By Martin Hart on Thu 05 March 2020
Door and cabinet handles have been essential in effective access to the inner spaces of rooms and storage spaces for centuries. They've permitted us unprecedented access to secret spaces, have allowed us to store unwanted, precious and important items behind securely closed doors and drawers.
They've even worked with us, moulding to our hand shape for easy access in a number of robust, ostentatious, elegant and simplistic designs. Handles have helped us, well, get a, handle on all of our storage items, helping us to tuck things out of the way and keep our home and workplace generally neat, tidy and efficient.
Yet a new generation of cupboard, drawer and door is emerging. Styled for their simplistic, minimalistic appearance and their ability to refrain from biting into your leg, your hip or your arm as you innocently stroll past them; handleless cabinets, drawers and doors are starting to take over kitchen and office life.
What Are Handleless Cuboards?
The clue is in the name. Handleless cupboards are sleek doors and drawers without the aid of handles to open or close them.
There are people out there who pride themselves on stunning contemporary interior designs. To these individuals, the clean, crisp look is the way forward and in some cases, their minimalist style really pays off. For high-fliers with the wish to bring a touch of their stylish personality into their homes, handleless cabinets can be seen to be the perfect addition to their home refurbishments.
Smooth in their appearance, a glossy sheen added to handleless cupboards gives off the impression of a high-tech, futuristic kitchen, office or living room. It can be difficult to imagine these works of design being able to successfully hold all of your important items you don't want on show, yet they can and they do it oh so well.
How Do Handleless Cupboards and Cabinets Work?
The beauty of handleless cupboards and cabinets is clearly seen in the way they work. Carrying on their efficient, elegant designs, doors and drawers simply glide open either by the use of strategically placed grooves or by the push-to-open mechanism.
Cabinet Grooves
Grooves are cut into the edges of cabinet and cupboard doors to allow an easy grip. This alternative to handles is more cost efficient for the manufacturers and the grooves are just as smooth and sleek as the surface of the door or drawer.
However, although these grooves give you a simplistic and beautiful alternative to a sturdy and trustworthy handle, they aren't as hygienic. Dirt and crumbs can get trapped between the grooves which, if in a kitchen environment, can become very unhygienic and will require regular cleaning.
Push-to-open Cabinets
This effective and utterly minimalistic design in cabinets and cupboards allows you to open and close doors and drawers with a gentle push. This design gives a completely smooth, high-tech and rich appearance to any home. The removal of grooves means that the cupboards are more hygienic and far easier to wipe down (and with the amount of finger prints which show up on their surfaces it's a good thing!)
The downside to such a stylistic design, however, means that the door and drawers run a very high risk of becoming stuck. If pressed too hard, the push-to-open mechanism can break, making it problematic if you desperately require something from within.
Although this new generation of door and drawers may be the perfect accessory to the contemporary home, they have their down falls. In certain homes they simply won't fit in with the interior design; a rustic country house kitchen, for instance, would look at odds with a clean, crisp handleless set of cabinet drawers and doors.
While handleless doesn't fit in with certain homes, handles with their vast range of shapes, sizes and designs can integrate themselves effortlessly into any interior design. Above all else, you can rely on a good handle to successfully open your drawers and doors with ease. So as we're answering a question we believe an answer is needed. No, we don't think cupboards and cabinets are likely to be completely handleless in the future, as who can resist a handy handle?
If you'd like to know more about what kinds of handle we can offer your home or business, contact us today on 01702 614044.