Materials and Hardware

Handles | Lighting | Hardware | Pull Out Systems | Sinks

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Introduction

Buying a new kitchen, or for that matter any modern day piece of furniture, should be a simple and exciting time, made even more enjoyable if you involve yourself in the design, creating your dream kitchen or personalized piece of furniture.

A large part of how the final piece looks, functions and feels is down to the materials used in its construction, not only the timber portion but the hardware as well.

To build good quality functional joinery that will last the test of time one needs to know and understand the differences in materials available. This section of our site is committed to explaining some of these, and ultimately explaining some of the major differences one would encounter when deciding on which cabinetmaker to use.

Cabinet Construction
There are two major factors to consider, strength and durability. 

Strength: The overall construction should be strong enough to support anything put on top of it without twisting or sagging, the type of product and thickness of product being the most important. 

Imagine if your kitchen was having big heavy granite tops with possibly on bench pantry’s etc sitting on top of it. You would want to make sure the cabinets supporting it up were up to the task. 

The other consideration are shelf thicknesses, we traditionally use 18mm but where we consider a span to be too large we would ether add more support or increase the thickness of the shelf to 25mm. 

Durability:  What type of board product being used and the type of edging being used.

We use:  

• 18mm Warm white Melteca (LPL) on E0 MDF, in a velvet finish, for all our cabinet ends, bottoms, shelves and rails. E0 being a moisture resistant MDF with ultra low levels of Urea formaldehyde which means its friendly to both the environment and the cabinetmaker.
  
  
• 12mm Warm white Melteca as above for all our backs.
  
  
• ALL edges finished with a ridged 2mm PVC edging, colour matched best to the door exterior colour.

Note: We do offer a more customised version where you can chose a colour from any of the LPL range for the interior of you cabinets or ply with high pressure laminate applied over the top.

Others manufactures may use: 

• 15-16mm white LPL on chipboard or particle board for ALL cabinet ends, bottoms, shelves and rails. This results in a poor interior finish that is weak and susceptible to water and distortion.
  
  
• Some use white backs as thin as 4mm thick, just stapled to the rear of the cabinet.
  
  
• Edging varies as well, from 0.4mm-1mm in thickness, and not all edges are clashed so there are areas exposed to moisture. Often the customer is not given  a colour choice ether, being forced into a having white  edging only. The issue with this is when the customer chooses a darker door colour the white edging on the carcase can show through the door gap, cheapening the look of the kitchen.

Hardware

Drawers and cutlery inserts, hinges, sliding or bi-folding door systems and handles, all items that vary in both quality and price, and all play a large part in how well and how long your new kitchen or piece of furniture functions for.

We use a variety of different systems, hand selecting what we believe to be some of the best available. The following are some examples of what we use.

• Drawers: Grass Nova pro – A metallic silver drawer side with optional finishes to the bottom and back (Non-slip rubber matting or silver Melteca). For taller pot drawers there is a matching gallery rail or the an optional glass insert to deepen the drawer and support the drawer front. The runner mechanism itself is of the highest quality using a multiple ball bearing design for smoothness and strength, rating options of 40-70Kg and all having an integrated self-closing mechanism with a soft-close ram. For those that want a kitchen without handles there is also a push to open option or electronic. 
  
  
• Drawers: Blum Tandem – Another drawer system manufacture we use that we believe is on equal par with the Grass, its available in a number of different colour and style options, it has a similar weight rating and closing action, For those that want a kitchen without handles there is also a push to open option or electronic. 
  
  
• Grass Hinges (110-165 degree opening) with integrated soft-close. These are a quality hinge that will last the test of time, pivoting doors time and time again.
  
  
• Lift systems for over cupboard doors: Blum Aventos Range with its smooth action, high weight rating and soft-close system it makes it the perfect choice, with the option of electronic push to open. 
  
  
• Sliding or bi-folding doors systems: We use a number of different systems depending on the situation. All systems are of a high quality, more often than not being of European origin, all designed to be as concealed as possible yet highly functional. The biggest consideration when selecting a system of this nature is the weight of the door, or doors, it is carrying. Each system has a rating or maximum size and weight that system can carry, keeping within the spec’s guarantees a trouble free system that will work for many years.

Sinks / Bowls

When selecting a stainless bowl there are many things to consider. The first thing we all tend to look at is its appearance, and from a design perspective this is very important but what about functionality?

• How thick is the stainless? Thin material is prone to denting.
  
  
• How many bowls do you require and what sizes best suit?
  
  
• Do you need a drainer?
  
  
• Are you going to be using a waste master / insinkerator?
  
  
• The square look is a modern style many people want, but try considering a bowl with a small radius in the corner rather than square, they are allot easier to clean.
  
  
• When mounting bowls we like to place them under the bench material, whether the top is Formica HPL, Granite or a recon-stone. Being under mount it is allot easier to wipe you bench off into the sink without having dirt and grease trapped under a stainless lip that would normally be there.
   
  

Pull-out systems

These are systems designed to make accessing items in your kitchen / Laundry / Bedroom easier and utilizing spaces better. You know those hard to reach spaces, used to store items that you hold onto for one reason or another, but never use.

Like all our other hardware the majority of pull-out systems are European in origin and are worth investigating, there are some very clever systems out there that make use of spaces you would normally not consider usable or easily accessed. 

Examples:

• Pullout bins in various configurations, and utilize the same drawer system as the rest of the kitchen.
   
• Pullout blind corner systems.
  
  
• Sliding wire or cane baskets.
  
  
• Pullout pantry systems
  
  
• Lazy Susan corner systems
  
  
• There are also a variety of wire pullouts in different sizes.
  
  
• fold away ironing boards
  
  
• interior cloths hangers
  
  
• fold away bed systems

Again, all the systems we use are of the highest quality and where required have integrated soft close as a standard feature.


Handles 

There are so many handle manufactures out there the world is really your oyster. The quality between manufactures does vary a little and is something to watch, but generally it doesn’t matter where they come from. Surprisingly prices can vary allot from place to place for what seems to be the same handle. 

If you find a handle you like please don’t make the mistake of thinking its only available from the one place, often the styles are repeated and we can sometimes offer a much more competitive price from another company.  


Others to consider are recessed handles, extruded continuous handles or no handles at all. There are both mechanical and electronic options to actuate cabinet doors and drawers by pushing the panel, ideal for that clean minimalist look.

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