Even cabinet pulls can stick out and get in the way when you're in a cramped kitchen or bath. There is cabinet hardware that's designed with a minimal projection, but there's also the option of fully integrating a pull into the millwork itself. This way, cabinet faces are completely flush. A few ideas...
The Parker four-drawer dresser has finger pulls drilled right into the drawers. They're about 3/4" holes centered in the face of each drawer. This could be done on both cabinet drawers and doors.
A mid-century modern cabinet from Treadway Gallery has elongated cutouts in the drawer fronts that act as pulls. Again, this is like the drilled hole option above but it's a slot for the whole hand. Could be cut out of the top or sides of cabinet doors.
Magnetic touch latches are a way to open doors and drawers with absolutely no visible pull. Press the door/drawer face and it pops open. The drawback: you may end up leaving dirty fingerprints all over the faces of your cabinetry. The system shown here is by Blum and is integral to the drawer glides. The system pictured below (by Surreal Designs) can be mounted to doors and drawers:
Other options include: overlay door and drawer edges can be profiled with a groove for your fingers, but be sure to leave a reveal so the edge can be accessed (as in the photo at left by Bulthaup). Upper doors can lap over the bottom of the cabinet so you can simply pull the door open by grasping the bottom edge of the door.
See more helpful comments on hardware-less cabinetry in this post, where a reader asked the good question, "How Can My Cabinets and Drawers Open Without Outside Hardware?".
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Forget the pulls, I want that view!
view TrueTex's profile
Finger holes on a cabinet door seem like a good way to break a finger. Swing it open a little too hard when you're mad and *snap*.
view seraph's profile
Instead of the $100k Bulthaup kitchen, you could have picked a $5k Ikea Solaer kitchen as another example of integrated pulls - but that probably wouldn't have come with the same view...
view particlebored's profile
The new Bulthaup system looks very nice.
view art's profile
"Instead of the $100k Bulthaup kitchen, you could have picked a $5k Ikea Solaer kitchen as another example of integrated pulls..."
Or the ubiquitous 1980's almond-laminate cabinetry with the integral oak-strip pulls.
view bepsf's profile
I wouldn't recommend integrated pulls. Cabinetry is a major investment- and not something you can replace on a whim if your tastes change two years later. Knobs and pulls? A cheap way of refashioning a basic cabinet front. If your pulls are built-in, there's no changing them, and you're faced with a major over-haul.
view shockthebourgeois's profile