From hinges to slides, and everything in between

Somewhere around 1910, a free-standing cabinet became very popular in American kitchens. Called the Hoosier, it brought casework out of pantries and into the kitchen proper. This was basically a large unit with doors on top, drawers and doors below, and a counter between. Several million were sold, and it was the beginning of fitted kitchens.

Since then, the fundamentals of kitchen design haven’t changed much. Oh, we’ve added new materials and colors, but the core architecture hasn’t required any significant re-engineering. It’s just boxes with doors and drawers that move with the aid of slides, hinges, and pulls. As Bert Lance said, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

The design longevity tells us that trends in cabinetry haven’t been about profound change and have more to do with aesthetics than function. That’s especially true for hardware. For example, the new trend in highly sophisticated and beautifully engineered metal drawers doesn’t change the fact that they’re still boxes that slide. The challenge for woodshops is to discover how they’re different, and then explain their advantages to customers.

That’s an easy challenge with the new Merivobox drawer system from Blum. The advantage for the woodshop is easy assembly, but for the customer there’s an enormous variety of choice. Merivobox can be previewed on Blum’s European website at blum.com/eu, and expectations are that it will be available in North America by next year. At the heart of the concept is a standardized mounting bracket that is combined with a modular system for adding different sides and fronts. There’s a distinctive drawer side design, L-shaped assembly hardware that makes the drawers incredibly stable, a synchronized and feather-light glide, and high front stability that opens design opportunities such as combining high fronts with low sides. Merivobox comes with simple, clearly labeled and easily accessible three-dimensional adjustment features, which are the same for every drawer side.

The advantages of the stylish new Nova Pro Scala drawer from Grass America (grassusa.com) are equally obvious. Built on the tried-and-true Nova Pro double-wall drawer slide with its sleek design and efficient engineering, Scala is offered in four heights (2.48”, 3.54”, 7.32” and 9.84”) and three finishes, Silver, Stone, and Ice. There’s a new rectangular rail that can make short sides taller, and the system is designed to offer modular versatility to meet a huge variety of dimensional and style needs. The action is so smooth that Grass says this latest iteration “turns the act of opening and closing drawers into an artistic experience.” And from the shop’s viewpoint, it’s at least two or three times faster than building wooden drawers in-house.

There’s a trend in cabinet hardware toward swiveling.

Sometimes doors can get in the way, which is one reason why designers at this year’s Interzum show in Germany were so impressed with Hettich’s new FurnSpin concept. Basically, the cabinet body spins open, instead of having the client open a hinged door. It’s like a cabinet inside a cabinet, and it can be used to deliver a seamless organized look one minute, and a revealing set of shelves the next. FurnSpin received the Best of the Best award at the May trade show, which is held every other year in Cologne. That’s quite an honor considering that the show attracted 62,000 visitors from 150 countries. For comparison, IWF Atlanta in 2022 had a total registered attendance of 25,524.

Speaking of spinning, Rev-A-Shelf (rev-a-shelf.com) has underlined the trend by adding several new tie and belt racks to its swiveling collection, which is a rack mounted on a single full-extension slide. Inside the cabinet, it rests against the sidewall, but when extended it swivels 90 degrees to get to all the belts. The same company is using drawer slides to update another cabinet standard, the pullout waste bin. A new wood bottom-mount waste container, the 4WCSC, features dovetail construction and glides on a full-extension, soft-close slide system. The slides are attached to the bottom of the cabinet for rigidity. But this system also uses some simple and clever hardware to attach the door. A pair of patented door mount brackets are recessed into dadoes that allow the door to sit flush against the pullout’s front face, and they also provide the ability to micro-adjust the door to achieve the perfect position for face-frame or frameless reveals.

Clever hardware abounds of late, including a new line of designer DripEdge profiles that Brown Wood Inc. (brownwoodinc.com/dod) added to its Designs of Distinction catalog in June. Created to protect garbage and recycling bin pull-out doors from splatters, drips, and messes, it comes in four sizes and three finishes. The 7/8” wide angles provide a 1/32” thick edge on the face, and they come in lengths to fit both 15” and 18” standard and full overlay doors. The finishes are flat black, satin brass and brushed aluminum, and the product is simply attached using a high-bond tape.

CabinetParts.com (cabinetparts.com) has contributed a simple but clever utensil rack to this trend. Made by Futaba, it’s essentially a tubular bar with S-hooks that can be mounted on a wall, inside a closet door, or even to the underside of a wall-mounted cabinet. Three brackets provide a lot of strength to resist cooks in a hurry who grab a spatula or ladle, and eight hooks slide along the bar to accommodate utensils of varying widths. The finish options are antique brass, antique copper, brushed stainless steel, and matte black. Beyond indoor and outdoor private kitchens, the company suggests the rail could be used in restaurants, garages, and even as a key hanger for car lots or hotels.

Century Components (centurymade.com) also offers a smart way to organize utensils, which many cooks seem to find challenging. The answer here is to provide hardware within hardware – canister organizers for items such as scrapers and whips that pop into a pull-out that also includes a knife block insert. The pull-out rides on Blum’s soft-close, 100-lb. slides that are attached with cabinet floor mounting brackets. The solid maple unit has three shelves where the middle one is adjustable, and it comes in five standard widths. Custom sizing is an option, too.

Hardware Resources (hardwareresources.com) has just introduced a family of rollouts that simplify managing pots, pans and even water bottles of various sizes. The company’s new Bottle Rollout features a double-drawer configuration that allows the top drawer to be pushed back and out of the way for easy access to the bottom one. A well-designed grid system for bottles allows left- or right-hand configuration. And the company’s new Cookware Rollout has wooden dividers and is available as a single- or double-drawer unit that handles a wide range of cooking and baking products. These new rollouts have soft-close undermount slides mounted on finger-jointed dovetail birch drawer boxes, and they’re available in three sizes to fit standard cabinet openings.

As drawers get wider and deeper, manufacturers are designing full-extension slides with higher static and dynamic loads, and a variety of devices that add stability or better response to both touch and soft open mechanisms.

The new FR 56 side-mount drawer slide from Fulterer USA (fultererusa.com) is a full-extension, cold-rolled steel slide. It has a telescoping three-stage design, a 1” over-extension to clear overhanging countertops, is non-handed (there’s no right or left, which helps with installation), and it comes in lengths from 400 to 600 mm (15-3/4” to just over 23-1/2”) in 50 mm increments. Load capacities are up to 225 lbs. The company has also just made its full drawer slide brochure available for download.

Another impressive new slide, the 8850, is a full-extension steel model from Knape & Vogt (knapeandvogt.com) that comes with a 200-lb. rating and a soft-close module built around KV’s patented Force Management technology. The slide has both traditional and 32mm hole patterns and an unhanded design with lever disconnect for easy drawer removal. It’s recommended for drawers up to 42” wide.

Lockdowel (lockdowel.com) is known for invisible and fast casework connectors, but the company also makes cabinet drawer slides that simply clip into place in recesses that are made by using the same tooling as the company’s assembly hardware recesses. The slides are installed without tools, and they pass or exceed all ANSI/BIFMA standards. They are a whole lot faster than individually screwing slides in place, using jigs or measurements.

The new F70 from Salice (salice.com) is a concealed undermount drawer slide that comes with a 154-lb. dynamic load rating and 170 lbs. static. It exceeds Ansi 156.9-2020 Grade 1 and the company points out that, unlike similar products, the price range makes it practical for every drawer in the house and not just oversized applications. The F70 has a full-extension synchronized movement, a fluid dampening device, and an integrated handle-free opening mechanism in its Push version. There’s an optional synchronizer kit (sold separately) that was developed for wider drawers. The slide is six-way adjustable and there’s an optional tool-free tilt adjustment in the back that doesn’t require removal of the drawer. Lengths range from 15” to 30”. Worth noting is that the synchronization system links the two runners, so applying pressure on any part of the drawer front (even at the extremities), is sufficient for the Push devices to release and operate. So, while it can be used with any drawer width, it’s at its best with drawers wider than 30”.

The Modern Twist catalog from Century Hardware (century-hardware.com) includes a family of pulls and knobs that combine diamond knurling with clean lines and backplates. Available in satin brass, matte black, matte satin nickel, and Regent bronze copper, they add tactile and visual impact to a streamlined, clean, and very contemporary aesthetic. The bronze copper is a tastefully executed dark, almost black surface with a trace of exposed copper along its edges.

Top Knobs (topknobs.com) describes its new cabinet hardware collection, Coddington, as “a harmonious synthesis of form and function [that] revolutionizes kitchens and baths with industrial elegance. Comprised of five eye-catching suites of knobs, pulls and appliance pulls, each piece within the collection delivers profound details, inviting interiors into the modern age.”

For designers looking for something that evokes both traditional and renewable values, Osborne Wood Products (osbornewood.com) carries a range of acanthus and other carved knobs, pulls, handles, and backplates. There’s a high-quality natural wood along with paint and stain grade options, so finish choices aren’t limited to solid coating. Some of the pieces exhibit remarkable detail, and all are designed to complement the company’s vineyard-themed collection. That includes corbels, moldings, and island legs.

Along with more and more exposed stainless steel and other metal shelving, the trend toward dramatically long metal pulls continues. It brings an industrial edginess to residential spaces, offering both a visual feast and the simple advantage of easy access for people of any height. A good example is the Contemporary Metal Pull (item No. 7191) from Richelieu Hardware (richelieu.com), which comes in overall lengths from 5-15/32” to an impressive 31-3/4”. The company describes it as a “contemporary metal pull with cylindrical handle on two posts, all in a brushed nickel finish.” The longest pull is a full 30” center-to-center, and 9/16” wide. It projects just 1-9/16 from the door’s face.

Jeffrey Alexander is a line from Hardware Resources that includes more than 70 collections of decorative knobs and pulls, and more than 4,000 vanity combinations. It’s known for affordable, stylish design with on-trend finishes, such as the rectangle and tubular boldness of the new Larkin and Spencer Collections. For production work, the Elements line from Hardware Resources was designed to offer desirable pricing for the commercial, multi-family, retail, and builder markets.

The trend toward top-hinged doors continues and Häfele America (hafele.com) is supporting that with the introduction of some new Free Space swing-up hinges. There are several models, and the right one can be selected based on cabinet height and the weight of the door. The new 1.11 hinges are for doors with handles, and the 1.8 versions are for doors without handles (push to open). Color options include white, anthracite, and light gray.

Tresco Lighting (trescolighting.com) has introduced several new pieces of hardware for controlling lights in the interiors of cabinets. The new sensors come in a standard 1/2” diameter, a shorter length, and simple connectors for easy wiring. The Round Controllers are available in single door, two door, touch dimmer, and motion sensor versions, and in black or nickel finishes. They can control all Tresco brand 12/24VDC single-color lights.

Hardware Resources is expanding its soft-close compact hinge line to include the new 9390ADJ Series, which is an easy-to-adjust, variable speed, soft-close hinge. It has 10 adjustment options to control the closing speed, and it’s an ideal choice for custom cabinetry shops who want to standardize with a single hinge for various door sizes and weights.

Another new product from a Hardware Resources’ subsidiary, the Tunable-White power strip, comes in an angled housing. Designed by the Task Lighting & Power division, it provides designers with an option to change the color of the light and add more appliance outlets to the bottom of wall-mounted cabinets. It also has a two-wire TandemLED connector for fast and easy installation. The strip can be combined with the company’s tape lighting or linear fixtures for interior cabinet, crown, and toe kick lighting to create a very custom lighting experience. It’s powered by a remote power supply (sold separately) and offers a high light output of 600 lumens per foot. The tunable aspect means that it can be adjusted from a warm white 2700K to a bright white 5000K, or anywhere in between.

Electronics and new materials are rapidly changing the very nature of cabinet hardware, and the only way to really appreciate all the advances is to walk through a large industry show and physically see and even touch this vast host of new products. As casework continually trends toward streamlined monotones, accessories such as lighting, pulls and rollouts are more and more likely to be the factors that can define a room. Innovation in this sector means that hardware still offers designers a way to put ‘custom’ into the cabinets that we build. 

This article was originally published in the August 2023 issue.