“Handleless kitchen designs offer a strong visual aesthetic and allow different materials to be placed together without the distraction of handles, for example mixing exotic veneers against gloss lacquers. Handleless kitchens are very popular as they give a smooth and sleek finish and from a practical point of view, clothes and bags can not be caught. They work best where the units can be planned symmetrically or with clear linear forms and appliances are integrated to keep the lines of the kitchen clean.”

“There are three main types of handleless designs offered by Warendorf; rail based, electronic and electro-mechanical. The offset rail based system offers quick access and is operated in a manual pulling action from behind the drawer or door fronts, electronically operated drawers offer that true handleless solution and operate with a simple push on the drawer to access all your items. Electronically-opened drawers and touch-close doors are more suited where style and smoothness are most important.”

About Warendorf
Warendorf is the new name in kitchens. While it might be a new name, Warendorf is actually the location of a famous kitchen factory in Germany, steeped in a 35-year history of producing precision-designed, high quality kitchens built by passionate craftsmen. Warendorf is the new name for Miele die Kuche. It retains all the values and quality that Miele die Kuche was globally famous for, but moves the brand into a bold and fresh direction.

Warendorf kitchen furniture is based on one philosophy, to provide quality forever. All kitchens are designed to offer function with comfort, have confident clean lines, clever organisation and innovative storage ideas. Warendorf kitchens are modern for today, but their timeless elegance ensures they are poised to become the classics of tomorrow. A plethora of finishes, colours, natural wood veneers, highest quality lacquers and laminates, award-winning lighting options, dramatic work surfaces and an extensive choice of door and drawer openings allow customers to create a truly individual kitchen. The opportunities to mix and match are endless – no two Warendorf kitchens will ever be the same.

Warendorf is owned by the Swiss company, AFG (Arbonia-Forster-Holding AG) and is sold through a network of wholly-owned and independent specialist kitchen studios across the UK. The head office is based at AFG Kitchens in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, where the new Starck by Warendorf collection and an extensive selection of Warendorf kitchens and options are showcased in a spectacular 10,000 sq ft showroom.

Buying a Warendorf kitchen couldn’t be easier or more pleasurable. Every Warendorf designer will want to spend time with you to understand how you use your kitchen and what you want out of it. A kitchen is a major investment and you will want to get it absolutely right. It’s the most important room in your home – where you cook, live, eat, chat, laugh and enjoy every day life. Your Warendorf designer will be able to help guide you through the huge array of appliance and kitchen options available to meet your exact requirements, taste and budget. Once your design is finalised, your dream kitchen will be made to order at the Warendorf factory in Germany. Once delivered, a specialist team of fitters will ensure that the installation will be as smooth-running as possible, keeping disruption to a minimum.

When you choose a Warendorf kitchen, you are buying the very best quality, where modern technology and precision design work in harmony with traditional craftsmanship, passion and an eye for detail. Your kitchen will have been tested and certified by a dedicated Quality Management team to be enjoyed for many years to come.

Philippe Starck has created three stunning new kitchen designs available through AFG Kitchens. We’re very proud and excited to have the first UK installation of the Library kitchen within our design centre, so come along to Abingdon to view this impressive design installation and see for yourself how Philippe Starck has moved the concept of a kitchen into another dimension of ‘living rooms’.

Philippe Starck has always sought to introduce love and happiness into our lives by designing objects and settings which illuminate ones passage through the day. Designer extraordinaire, who would have loved more to have been an astrophysicist or a composer, Starck has continued with the same enthusiasm for more than 30 years to serve his cultural tribe and “to create poetic products” that bring to everyone, to his family, to his friends – a little dream, a little phantasmagoria.

Very early on Starck stood out with his desire “to give the best to the maximum number of people” whilst faced with the paradox of a “design” which was seen to be intended only for an elite. He thus developed plastic pieces of furniture with large Italian editors of which the most successful, technologically and culturally, is the chair Louis Ghost, a true object of modernity which represents a dematerialization of design, a topic close to the heart of the designer. His catalogue Good Goods was already proposing as early as 1998 “non-products” for “non-consumers” for the newly developing moral market.

Philippe Starck has been honoured with a multitude of prizes in France, in the United States and in Italy. Creator of the Year, Grand Prix of Industrial Design, Oscar of Design, Chevalier de l’Ordre National de la Légion d’Honneur, Compasso d’ Oro and many others.