Everything listed under: hardware

At Habitar Design we are proud to include Häfele hardware in our custom builds.  Today we'll look at some of their options for appliance garages.  If you are planning a kitchen renovation or rebuild, please let us know how we can assist with your project.  Custom cabinetry is one of our specialties.

Appliance garages can be a great way to maintain a clean look in a kitchen.  These different closures each have their own elegance and usefulness.

1 - Flipper Door Slides
The door flips up and then back across the underside of the top of the cabinet. This is the most economical solution of the four. Your cabinet must be deep enough to retract the door the desired amount. Maximum retraction is equal to the door height minus approximately 3 1/4”.

2 - Strato Lift Up System
The door pulls forward and then up in front of the cabinet above the appliance garage, remaining vertical. Includes “Soft and Silent” closing feature which is a very popular feature. This type of installation works for a wide variety of door sizes and requires minimal cabinet depth. No special cabinet construction is required. The door projects between 10 7/16” and 12 3/8” forward of the cabinet in raised position.

3 - Libra 20 H Vertical Sliding Door System
The door slides upward vertically without projecting into space in front of the cabinet. This is done using a track, cables and a counter weight at the back of the cabinet.  For this option to work, the space above the  appliance garage must be open with no door. Requires special cabinet construction including a 2” cavity behind the back panel to make room for the counter weight. This one accomodates inset or overlay doors as well.

4 - Tambour Doors
This option is beautiful and elegant.  A custom aluminum roller shutter lifts vertically and either rolls onto a spindle, coils up inside the top of the cabinet or rolls across the top of the cabinet and down the back. Shutters that roll onto a spindle or coil up have a counter balance mechanism. Shutters that roll down the back of the cabinet do not. Tambours come is anodized aluminum  or a stainless-like finish. Custom finishes are also available. Slat heights are either ¾” or 1”. Glass tambour doors are now available as well.

 More hardware options can be found here.

Hafela (Haefela, Hefela) offers several different corner cabinet pull out drawer systems.   We installed the LeMans and the Magic Corner one in two kitchens.  Here are some things to consider when choosing between these various pieces of hardware.

1. Careful measurements of the size of your box and the size of your opening are critical.  The LeMans requires less space and is easier to install than the Magic Corner.

2. The door swing for these two systems need to be toward the cabinets on the other wall of the corner.  This means that if your door is on the wrong side, your installer will have to reswing the door.  It will require patching a whole where your handle was or require a new matching door -- which can be a lot of work.

3. The Magic Corner II opens differently so that it has the opposite door swing -- the door swings back toward the cabinets on the same wall.  The issue we had with the Magic Corner II was that it required a larger cabinet opening than we had.

Below you will see pictures of Hafela LeMans install.  The owner is not overly pleased with it, but her nanny likes it alot.   This might indicate that it's helpful but not seen as a good value to this particular owner.  Prior to installing this unit, this corner was not being used at all; now it clearly is being used.   The limiting factor in this cabinet which is 19.5 inches tall is the height.  In a taller cabinet, the LeMans would be able to carry more on its top shelf. 

This top notch hardware is not inexpensive.   With install it ranges from $975 to $1300 depending on the particulars.

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