Different Kinds of Modular Kitchen Fittings

 

The material that you use for the carcass decides the longevity of your kitchen but the internal fittings define to functionality of the kitchen. The different kinds of internal accessories that you will choose will decide not only the look of your kitchen but also the ease of cooking. In this article we will try to cover the essentials that are required to make any good modular kitchen, then move on to the ones that add more functionality to your kitchen and end with the fancy gizmos that make your kitchen into a cooking space of the future. We will discuss briefly the quality that you should be choosing as well. 

 

Basic Hardware

If the wood work of the kitchen is the skeleton of the body then these basic internal fittings are the major organs. These are basically the hinges on which the shutters open and channels on which the drawers run. Some of the other basic accessories are shockers and lights. These need to be of great strength an rust resistant because the major movement of the kitchen haps on these accessories. 
The hinges can be divided into normal and soft close. The normal ones do not have a hydraulic system that provides a buffer before they close completely. The soft close hinges are made in a way that they do not bang on the box when they are closed. It basically works as your door softeners but this is for kitchen shutters. The advantage of the soft close hinges is that it reduces the noise in while one is working in the kitchen. Since these hinges make sure that there is not banging on the box it also increases the life of the carcass. The only disadvantage is that it is more expensive as compared to normal hinges. These are the internal accessories that ensure the basic ease of use of your kitchen. 
The two basic kinds of drawer channels that you can use in your kitchen are innotech and telescopic. For a detailed point by point comparison please go to our article drawers vs baskets. But the basic difference is that innotech channels have better movement, durability and utility than telescopic ball bearing channels. The reason for this is that the telescopic channels are open ball bearing channels that rust easily and whose movement can be hampered by residues of dust. The soft close innotech channels may be a little expensive while you are buying them but they are an investment for a smoother running kitchen. 

 

Functional Hardware

This the type of hardware that optimises the space that is being used in your kitchen and adds to the ease of use as well. These hardware can be divided into corner solutions, pull downs, tall unit fittings and mechanical fittings.  
There are multiple types of corner solutions that one can choose like the s-crousel, magic corner and  round crousel. The advantages of this fitting is that it makes it possible for you to access the dead space of the corner with ease. The two trays of the S-crousel fitting can be pulled out. The magic corner fitting has two parts, one is installed on the shutter and the other one can be pulled out. The last one is the round crousel or the 180 degree crousel. The advantage of these fittings is that it makes the corner dead space accessible. The disadvantage is that some box storage space is wasted because the maximum load bearing capacity of any corner fitting is 20 kg spread out.

 
The pull downs make it easier to access the top shelf. It also makes sure that you can arrange kitchen boxes in an organised way. The other pull down is a Spicerio. This takes up the space in your wall box (explained in the video as well ) and is a very convenient fitting. You can keep this fitting open while you are cooking so that you do not have to move again and again to access your spices. This fitting does not take up a lot of space but provides an additional functionality in the kitchen. 

The pantry unit or also know as the tall units can be utilised in three ways. The fist one is using shelves to divide the space, the second is to a pantry channel fitting and the third one is to install pantry drawers. The advantage of using shelves it that there is no limit to the amount of load you can put on them. If you take removable shelve you can even adjust the hight of each in accordance to you needs. The disadvantage though is that you would not be able to access the things that you will keep at the back of each shelf because is would no be visible or accessible to you. The second option in the tall pantry unit that you can opt for are the fittings. These come is different material from wire baskets to glass. The advantage is that they make the entire cabinet space accessible but the disadvantage is that you cannot keep more than 6 to 7Kgs on each shelf since the over all load bearing capacity is not more than 90Kgs. The most efficient way of using the 2 feet depth of the tall unit is to use pantry drawers. The load bearing capacity of each drawer is 50 kgs. One can use upto 4 drawers in the each pantry. The drawers make sure that the entire box space is accessible till the back of the box.

 

Accessories

Accessories are generally defined as inserts or dividers that you can put inside the drawers or other fittings. A good example for this is the cutlery tray. It comes in various sizes and materials. They are basically used to organise the different cutlery, knives and cooking equipment. The other kinds of inserts are used to divide  the deep drawers into compartments to organise them better. One example of that is the plate organiser. It divides the drawer in a way that it makes it easy for the plates to be stacked in an organised manner and restricts their movement so that they do not bang into each other when the drawers are opened and closed. The disadvantage of these fittings is that close to 30% of the space gets wasted. There are many such accessories available and they keep on evolving everyday. Click here to explore the other internal accessories 

We hope that after this article you will be able to recognise which internal fitting is best suited for your kitchen and your needs. If you have any questions leave us a comment and we will try and answer them.