The essentials in 1 minute
- Handles save neither time nor money: a vertical grip profile costs us around €35 incl. VAT and replaces three to five handles that cost about the same.
- At retailers handleless often costs more: it counts as modern and needs more precise installation.
- Around nine in ten Kolev kitchens have the recessed grip in the carcass, never the front, with no surcharge.
- About one in ten opens by push-to-open. With small children, Kolev stays with the recessed grip.
- The dishwasher and fridge need no push-to-open: the grip profile simply runs on in the carcass.
Rusi KolevArchitect & Founder
Real Estate Economist (ebs)
Questions in this guide 15
- Handles or handleless: what really matters day to day
- What it costs: one profile against three to five handles
- Why handleless kitchens still cost more at retailers
- My personal view on handles
- Recessed grip in the carcass, not in the front: how it is built
- Push-to-open: the one kitchen in ten
- The mistake almost everyone makes
- How we do it at Kolev
- Frequently asked questions
- Next step: the first consultation
Handles or handleless: what really matters day to day
A handle does not open a front any faster or more easily than a recessed grip. A front only needs a place where the hand can pull it open. Whether that is a bar on the front or a recess in the carcass behind its edge makes no difference to opening it. The common solutions, sorted by how much sits on the front:
| System | Where it sits | What you see on the front | At Kolev |
|---|---|---|---|
| Handle | screwed onto the front | a handle on every front | not our standard |
| Handle rail | aluminium profile on the edge of the front, usually the top | a metal edge on every front | we do not plan it |
| Recessed grip in the front | milled into the front, often with an inlaid aluminium profile | a recess in every front | we do not build it |
| Recessed grip in the carcass (Gola profile) | aluminium profile in the carcass behind the front: horizontal in the side panels, vertical between two carcasses | smooth, unmilled fronts with a grip gap above or beside them | standard, in around nine in ten kitchens |
| Push-to-open | fitting in the carcass, the front springs open when pressed | smooth fronts, only the joint | in about one in ten kitchens |
Handles exist on kitchens because they always have. They are made in large numbers, count as standard, and nobody asks whether they are needed. Nobody charges extra for a kitchen with handles either. Handleless, by contrast, counts as the modern, high-end kitchen. For your daily life neither means much: handles save you no time, and they make practically no difference to the price of the kitchen, as the calculation in the next section shows.
Even the one thing a handle could add is lost in many kitchens. A horizontal handle says: pull a drawer out here. A vertical one says: a door opens here. If all handles are fitted vertically because it looks calmer, the handle no longer tells you anything, and anyone who does not know the kitchen pulls at every front, exactly as in a handleless one.
What handleless gives you, on the other hand, you see every day. In a modern kitchen with smooth fronts and joints that line up across the whole run, every handle is a detail that breaks that calm. Nothing sticks out for your hip or sleeve to catch on, or for a child to bump into. One thing really is missing without handles: the drawer handle in front of the sink where the tea towel usually hangs. So we plan a place of its own for it, more on that below.
What it costs: one profile against three to five handles
A vertical grip profile for a tall unit costs us around €35 incl. VAT and replaces three to five handles there. In the end it is the same money. The profile comes from Scilm in Italy, sits between two carcasses, clips onto brackets on the side of the carcass with no visible screw, and serves the fronts on both sides. A good-looking handle costs around €10 in the shops, one with fine details that you enjoy touching every day €15 to €20. Worked through for a tall unit with four fronts:
| Example: tall unit with four fronts | Price per piece, incl. VAT | Total |
|---|---|---|
| Good-looking handles | 4 × around €10 | around €40 |
| Handles with fine details | 4 × €15 to €20 | €60 to €80 |
| Vertical grip profile, one side | 1 × around €35 | around €35 |
| Vertical grip profile, both sides (most expensive case) | 2 × around €35 | around €70 |
Depending on the handle, the sum comes out in favour of one side or the other. In the most expensive case, with a profile on the left and right, the recessed grip costs around €30 more than good-looking handles. Usually, though, two neighbouring units share one profile, and at the end of a run one side needs none at all. For a kitchen from €14,999 incl. 19% VAT, plus appliances and often a renovation, that is a difference you would not notice in the offer. I am happy to absorb it so that there are no handles on the kitchen: with us the recessed grip is included in the fixed price, and handleless costs no surcharge.
Why handleless kitchens still cost more at retailers
Handleless kitchens often cost more at retailers than the same kitchen with handles, and the material is not the reason. I see two reasons: being classed as premium, and the more precise installation.
Handleless counts as modern, handles count as standard, and that is how both appear in the price lists. What I often hear from clients: “I don’t want my grandma’s kitchen.” The second reason is real work. The profile itself clips on quickly, but it is dead straight and forgives no tolerance: the units to its left and right must stand exactly plumb. In a kitchen with handles you set up the carcasses, screw them together, and a millimetre of offset goes unnoticed. Behind a white profile in front of a white carcass, the same millimetre over two metres of height becomes a visible, wedge-shaped gap, whatever tolerance a standard allows. Installation becomes more precise and slower, and that costs whoever does it time. I understand that.
Production makes hardly any difference: the carcass for a horizontal profile is the same 18/19 mm Egger E1 board, just with a notch milled into the side panels. For anyone who has their boards cut on a CNC router, that is one more operation in the same pass. With us that precision is planned in anyway, with 0 mm deviation from the plan and a 3 mm front joint in every kitchen, installed by our team under the architect’s direction. That is why we charge no surcharge for handleless.
My personal view on handles
You rarely touch a handle, but you look at it all the time. That is why I think the idea behind handleless is a great one: the front is the visible surface in front of the cabinet and also does the job of the handle. You take hold of it by its edge, and the grip channel behind it sits in the carcass. One detail that does both. And for me there are too many details in a kitchen anyway, in pretty much everything really. I see at once how the fronts relate to each other, where the joints run and at what height everything sits, and every handle is one more detail that need not be there. I like calm, pared-back design. Everyday life already has enough lying around that screams for attention.
That does not mean it fits everywhere: in some cases a completely different design is right, even the exact opposite. That is why context matters so much. But if you ask me what I would choose for myself: handleless, always.
Recessed grip in the carcass, not in the front: how it is built
The recessed grip profile (Gola profile) is the same throughout the kitchen, sits in the carcass and never in the front. The front is simply placed in front of it. By “recessed grip” (Griffmulde), manufacturers and retailers mean two different things: a recess in every single front, milled and often with an inlaid profile, or a recess in the carcass behind the front. With us nothing goes into the front: no milling, no profile, no rail.
Our recess is lined with an aluminium profile from Scilm, the grip profile. Horizontally it sits in a notch milled into the side panels of the carcasses: as an L-profile under the worktop and as a C-profile between two drawer fronts. Vertically it sits between two carcasses, for example next to the tall unit with the oven or fridge, clipped onto brackets. Vertical profiles do not only open doors: a tall wall unit gets a profile on the left and right, you take hold of the flap from the side, and it swings up. A drawer next to a vertical profile can also be pulled open from the side. On Hettich AvanTech YOU it runs smoothly enough for that. The front stays a smooth, unmilled surface with a 3 mm joint, as everywhere in the kitchen.
I do not like a recess milled into the front, and there is a solid reason. Milling needs a front that is lacquered afterwards, usually raw MDF with lacquer. Our fronts are mostly Senosan boards with a multi-layer acrylic surface, which milling would cut through. For me, lacquer is the weaker surface. In my experience lacquered fronts fail far more often in the long run: we often get requests to replace only the fronts because the lacquer is peeling, in kitchens long out of warranty. And if something happens later, it gets expensive: from renovations I know that a single lacquered front can hardly be made again in a matching colour years later, and in the end the whole row is replaced. A Senosan front, by contrast, we make again singly, today or in five years, to the same size and colour, as long as the shade is still in the range. More on this in Fronts compared.
A handle rail is something else: a handle in rail form on the edge of the front, usually the top. We do not plan it. The questions below explain how it differs from the recessed grip.
Push-to-open: the one kitchen in ten
About one in ten of our kitchens opens by push-to-open, on the pull-outs with Hettich Push to open Silent and with the same 3 mm joint as the recessed grip. We only use it where the front still closes by itself. On doors we accept only two quietly self-closing hinge types for this, one with springs and one electric. The drawback is obvious: a front that opens at a tap also opens when a child, a dog or a back leaning against it pushes on it. With small children in the household we therefore stay with the recessed grip.
The mistake almost everyone makes
The most common misconception about the handleless kitchen is the assumption that the recessed grip has to be worked into the front. Almost inevitably the second follows: because the appliance door of the dishwasher and the fridge could then not be opened without a handle, push-to-open gets planned there. Neither is true. The profile sits in the carcass and simply runs on beside and above the appliances: next to the fridge the cabinet front opens on the appliance’s fixed-door hinge. Above the dishwasher a grip gap of about 3 cm to the worktop remains. How the fridge is planned in detail is covered in Fridge in a handleless kitchen.
How we do it at Kolev
When you plan handleless with us, the details are in the workshop drawing, not improvised after installation. For the tea towel we usually plan a 15 cm slim towel-holder pull-out from Kesseböhmer beside the sink, whose carcass gets concealed ventilation holes for it. In the horizontal profile there is, on request, a warm-white LED that doubles as task lighting, and flaps in the wall units run on Blum AVENTOS HK top. Whether a tall unit is planned as a pull-out larder or with an extending carcass is covered in Pull-out larder or pantry. In the video offer you see the recessed grip on your floor plan before you commit.
Frequently asked questions
Is a handleless kitchen more expensive than a kitchen with handles?
Not in material. A vertical Scilm grip profile for a tall unit costs us around €35 incl. VAT and replaces three to five handles there. Good-looking handles cost around €10 each in the shops, handles with fine details €15 to €20. On a tall unit with four fronts that is around €40, or €60 to €80. In the most expensive case, with one profile on each side for around €70, the recessed grip costs around €30 more than good-looking handles. Usually two units share one profile, and at the end of a run one side is not needed. At retailers handleless still often costs more, mainly because of the more precise installation. At Kolev the recessed grip is included in the fixed price, at no extra charge.
Recessed grip or handle rail: what is the difference?
The handle rail sits on the front: an aluminium profile on its edge, usually the top, that you reach into, strictly speaking a handle in rail form. The recessed grip is a recess to reach into, either milled into the front or, as with us, in the carcass behind the front, lined with an aluminium profile (Gola). Beware of the terms: some catalogues also call a long bar handle a handle rail, and “recessed grip” sometimes means a groove in the front, sometimes a recess in the carcass. A milled recess usually needs a lacquered front. We do not mill our Senosan fronts with their acrylic surface. We plan only the recess in the carcass: the front stays smooth and unmilled, and the joint stays 3 mm.
Can a dishwasher be handleless?
Yes, and usually without push-to-open. The usual solution is a horizontal grip profile in the carcass that leaves a gap of about 3 cm above the appliance front to the worktop, into which you reach and pull the front downwards; alternatively two vertical profiles to the left and right of the appliance front. Both sit in the carcass, never in the front. The same principle applies to an integrated fridge: the vertical profile sits beside the appliance, and the front opens on the fixed-door hinge.
How much joint does push-to-open need?
Push-to-open needs at least a 2.5 mm front joint, so that the front can be pressed in and popped out again. On our pull-outs that is Hettich Push to open Silent, and on the appliance doors in a push-to-open kitchen the electric Blum SERVO-DRIVE flex. We plan the handleless joint at 3 mm throughout, so that push-to-open and the recessed grip give the same joint pattern. If you want to retrofit, first measure the existing joint.
Where does the towel holder go in a handleless kitchen?
A handleless front offers no handle to hang a towel from. Above all, the drawer handle in front of the sink is gone. So plan the spot in rather than improvising: for this we often fit a 15 cm slim towel-holder pull-out from Kesseböhmer beside the sink, in which the towels disappear, concealed, into the carcass. Alternatives are a rail on the side panel or a magnetic bar. With push-to-open, no towel should hang on a press zone.
Does push-to-open make sense with small children?
Only in part. Handleless has no projecting handles for children to knock into, a plus in narrow kitchens. But push-to-open opens at a tap, so it also opens when a child or a dog pushes against it. The recessed grip, by contrast, requires a deliberate grasp; with children in the household that argues for staying with the grip profile.
Next step: the first consultation
If you are weighing up whether a recessed grip or push-to-open suits your kitchen, or whether you are still attached to handles, we talk it through in the first consultation: directly with the architect, 45 to 60 minutes, for Frankfurt and the Rhine-Main region.
And a piece of advice no kitchen studio likes to give: get three offers and compare them. We are one of them.
Which fronts sit in front of the recessed grip and why we stay with a 3 mm joint: Fronts compared. How the fridge opens without a handle: Fridge in a handleless kitchen.