FINISHING TOUCHES | HÄFELE

THE IMPORTANCE OF FINISHING TOUCHES

Jamie Mclaren, business development manager at Häfele UK explores products and services that can help installers achieve a winning finish.

Whether you’re a designer or installer, kitchen details are key to achieving a wow factor and a happy customer. But when a busy order book and a shortage of skilled installers combine, it is crucial that manufacturers like us keep evolving with products and services that make the job easier.

From time saving hardware that aids precision, to new lighting solutions with added benefits for customers and installers, there are a variety of solutions available that help enhance the quality of finish and longterm performance.

HEAVY-DUTY HINGES

While aesthetics is always crucial to the wow factor, the ‘feel’ of a kitchen is transformative too meaning elements such as hinges shouldn’t be overlooked. With this in mind, we have recently launched Metalla, a collection of hinges of varying functions and price points. The result of three years of global research and development, the range was created with quality and long-term performance firmly in mind.

The Metalla 310 hinge is the first to launch to the UK market and has been specially designed to give kitchen manufacturers and installers a highquality choice, whatever the application. The 310 offers a large assortment mid-range hinge suitable for wide angle openings, post hinge, and 30 or 45 degrees opening. It is available in softclose or a non-soft close variant and is ideal for standard installations such as common 110˚ angle openings.

While in the UK, residential and commercial hinges need to meet BS 6222-2:2009+A1:2017 Level H, we have tested the Metalla 310 hinge – regardless of application – to at least 40,000 cycles and 48 hours against corrosion resistance in accordance with EN 15570 level 2 / LGA quality certification. It also comes with a 25 year guarantee, meaning installers can be confident they are providing complete reliability, ease of use and enduring quality.

MAKING QUALITY EASIER

In the world of kitchen cabinetry, one of the biggest changes is constructing furniture with multiple elements quickly, but also robustly, to give the customer the solid finish they expect.

To help improve this process, at Häfele we have focused on making furniture construction as tool-free as possible. An example of this is Ixconnect CC 8/5/30, a claw connector for wooden drawers that can be used without dowels.

Because it has an innovative claw, it compacts the chips in the front panels of wooden drawers for quick fixing of panels and sides over 12 mm. When combined with a rear panel connector (Ixconnect RPC D 5/24) that clamps the rear panel with the side walls, Ixconnect CC 8/5/30 reduces the number of drill holes needed, cutting down assembly time and giving complete precision. It’s also entirely concealed once in place improving overall aesthetics.

Products like Ixconnect might be simple pieces of hardware, but they make a big difference. In fact, it halves the number of holes required and can reduce assembly time by up to 70 per cent, while also ensuring a precise and robust join. As well as developing hardware to improve accuracy and ease of fitting, we are also developing services that remove the hard work for installers entirely. Häfele to Order is a bespoke service where users can specify a range of products to an exact size, quantity and finish, before they are cut, packaged, labelled and delivered to site ready to use. One of the newest additions to the service is handmade bespoke timber drawers.

Expertly crafted timber drawers are the epitome of a quality finish, but they take skill, care, attention, and, critically, time, which isn’t always available. Through the service, customers can order handmade, solid timber drawers personalised to their needs and complete with full dovetail joints, in around a two to threeweek turnaround.

The Häfele bespoke timber drawer service is completely made to order, meaning customers can tailor their requirements against a long list of design and personalisation options. These include choice of timber, finish and size, along with shaped sides - flat or stepped top - and notching and drilling for runners. Saving valuable time, while still delivering exceptional quality, these handmade wooden drawers are the perfect way to achieve a beautiful finish. →

HERO HANDLES

Alongside hinges, handles – and equally handle-less profiles – are critical to achieving a kitchen that looks and feels exceptional. The choice of handle truly cements the overall aesthetic of a kitchen and contributes to its overall functionality, thus warranting special consideration.

Handles can be used to enhance a style: for example, making a minimalist kitchen feel sleeker in design, or to build contrast by creating a standout feature. But when advising your customer on handle shape, ensure they are considering practical elements too. Does the customer have specific mobility requirements meaning easy-grip styles are preferred? Is their kitchen a compact space meaning more streamlined handles will give them those extra few millimetres? Think about what will go inside the cabinet too. Will the handle need to open a heavy larder and require robust weight distribution?

To ensure installers and retailers can offer customers a handle to suit their tastes and needs, Häfele has curated one of the largest handle ranges in the UK market.

The collection features a range of styles from simple profile handles for a ‘barely-there’ look and linear styling, to a practical cup handle that gives a heritage finishing touch. There is also a variety of textures available included popular knurled handles with subtle texture that is only seen and felt closeup and natural finish options like wood that bring warmth and uniqueness into a room for added personality.

As well as offering a spectrum of styles, colours and textures, handles are also chosen for their quality ensuring their wow factor continues long beyond their initial fitting.

HIGH-LIGHTING

For a variety of reasons, lighting can be overlooked when planning a kitchen design, either left as an afterthought or not truly considered at all. However, lighting is not only essential to creating a functional space – making task areas more useable for example – but can transform the look and feel of a kitchen too with different colours and ‘temperatures’ of light affecting the warmth or coolness to cabinetry finishes.

Lighting is also an area where customers are becoming more discerning, with many homeowners now requesting that LED strip lighting for plinth and under cabinetry areas appear dot-less with lighting chips not visible. For installers, this previously has been a challenge, with resourceful fitters routing profiles to a depth where standard LED strips appear continuous once in situ to answer customer desires. However, routing in this way creates weakness, and especially in slim profile worktops that are becoming more on-trend, meaning the integrity of the material can be compromised.

Recognising the need for a better solution for such situations, we have just introduced Loox LED ‘chip on board’ strip lighting that gives a dotless appearance. With 480 diodes per metre, this new strip lighting offers the improved aesthetic customers are increasingly asking for while still being easy for installers to fit. Like the rest of Häfele’s Loox LED lighting range, these new chip on board strips are part of a modular plug and play system and are simply fitted by removing the high bond backing and sticking as required.

The new additions are available in monochromatic options with two warm and two cool white light temperatures, plus they connect to a range of controls via our app or wireless switches, giving the homeowner full command over all aspects of their lighting. They also allow customers to set their own brightness for a truly personalised experience that is activated at the touch of a button.

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