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Handleless kitchens have been around since the 1960s, where they were seen as the ultimate ‘futuristic kitchen’. Now it seems the future has arrived and they are well and truly taking off in Europe.

The Germans have been offering a great selection of handleless kitchens for many years, but finally the rest of us are following suit! What used to be classed as ‘futuristic’ and ‘unusual’ is becoming a standard and available choice for kitchen designers everywhere.

There are 2 ways of producing a handleless kitchen door. The first is to shape the top edge of the door to provide a recess to pull the door open, as below. These doors are mass produced and can easily be as cheap as standard flat kitchen doors.

The second we call a ‘true handleless’ design. It is to use a square-edged door, but to put the recess in the front of the carcass with a profiled piece of material to fill it (see below). This way you have a gap to put your hand in and open the door but the piece of material fills the space behind in the same material as the door, keeping the line of view smooth. These doors are always made to measure and are significantly more expensive than the alternative. Any standard door that is flat and can be made in special sizes could become a ‘true handleless’ door. The possibilities are endless!

So why are these kitchens without handles becoming so popular?

Well, it’s fair to say that you can’t get a much more contemporary, sleek design in a kitchen than one where your line of view is not regularly interrupted by large handles. The lack of handles can beautifully accentuate the clean lines of a symmetrical kitchen and the streamlined, uncluttered presentation of the kitchen units.

Many designers are suggesting that they are more hygienic too – with no need for excessive dusting and polishing of handles and less areas for grease, grime and crumbs to accumulate. Handleless kitchens need no more than a simple wipe clean!

It seems to me that one of the biggest advantages of handleless kitchens is that the door materials do all the talking. Imagine this – you sit down to have a chat with your beautiful high gloss cream kitchen doors and suddenly a pewter handle pipes up, harping on about what a vital role he plays in the kitchen. You only chose the handles because you didn’t realise there was an option not to, and what you’d really like is for him to be quiet and let you keep talking to your beautiful doors.

Ok, it sounds a bit ridiculous, but I think you get my point.

An awful lot of thought is put into choosing the doors of a kitchen and a handleless kitchen is an amazing opportunity for you to show off your choices!

With the rise in popularity, kitchen door manufacturers are suddenly realising the dire need to have handleless options available as soon as possible. Handleless doors are currently available in painted, gloss, vinyl wrap, acrylic and veneer finishes.

The main challenge I can see with these doors is that they are extremely modern and it is difficult to see how they could fit in many of the ‘traditional’ English homes that our country boasts. I did, however, read an article today about a woman who lives in a country cottage and wanted a handleless kitchen. She worked with the designer to produce a kitchen with light blue doors and cream coloured stone worktops, complementing the rustic feel of her house quite well, but still appearing contemporary in design. Unfortunately there was no final photo for me to show you, but I did find the example below which, I believe, shows how it is possible to combine contemporary design with a more traditional home.

For more information on handleless kitchens call us on 01722 321447 or e-mail [email protected]