Blum Aventos or Gas lifts?

[Colour Republic]

Just starting out on a design at the moment which is a kitchen come diner come living room, and the brief is storage and more storage!

Anyway in order to save some space i'm thinking of doing some bench seating behind the peninsular, and at the same time creat some storage space in the bench. So effectively it will be 3 x 600mm low base units with a custom made laminate worktop (maybe 25mm thick) to sit on (although it will in fact it will have cusions on the top.

Anyway, I want the worktop/lid to lift up, don't want to use a piano hinge so i'm thinking some blum aventos lifts, maybe 4 of them. Or maybe some gas lifts, I've used some pretty good Kesse ones in the past which I think were about 180N.

My problem is knowing if it will work or not? The size of the worktop will be 1800 x 450mm x 25mm. I'm concerned that if I don't get multiple lifts all perfectly in line, it could in fact make it harder to lift. I'm not entirely sure they would have the power to keep it upright although that's not a deal breaker, i'm more concerned in it not slamming shut on someones fingers, especially the young children they have.

Or has someone got a better solution?

[jonny round boy]

Rob,

How about doing the lift-up part in 2 or maybe even 3 sections rather than all-in one? If it's in one, it's going to be quite awkward to get into the centre of the cupboard without removing the table each time, whereas if it's in, for example, 3 sections you could sit on one of the outer sections to lift up & gain access to the centre section.

I'm sure one pair of HD lifts would then do for each section?

[Daniel]

Nice design Rob, I have done this a few times and each time chickened out (due to the complexity and cost) and gone for a fixed top and just drawers below.

I know you could argue the drawers aren't as easy to open as a lid and they perhaps aren't as user friendly, but I don't think a bench lid opening gives you enough benefits over drawers to warranty the extra work required.

Renderings are coming along 

[Colour Republic]

Rob,

How about doing the lift-up part in 2 or maybe even 3 sections rather than all-in one? If it's in one, it's going to be quite awkward to get into the centre of the cupboard without removing the table each time, whereas if it's in, for example, 3 sections you could sit on one of the outer sections to lift up & gain access to the centre section.

I'm sure one pair of HD lifts would then do for each section?

Do you know what, that thought didn't even cross my mind!  Cheers Jonny, I think it would too

Nice design Rob, I have done this a few times and each time chickened out (due to the complexity and cost) and gone for a fixed top and just drawers below.

I know you could argue the drawers aren't as easy to open as a lid and they perhaps aren't as user friendly, but I don't think a bench lid opening gives you enough benefits over drawers to warranty the extra work required.

Renderings are coming along 

This one is a bit of a head scratcher as its got lots of obstacles in the way, boiler, 2 chimney breasts which have been removed but still have the supporting pillars (you can see these sticking out the top of the units in the visual but will have a scribed filler going the whole length of the room to hide), a steel that runs across the room, couple of bulkheads.

They haven't got a huge budget so trying to keep the customisations down to a minimum. I've manged to do most of it with standard Comprex units with just 3 custom panels, so not bad really.

If i get my measurements right i'm hoping the bench lid will swing past the top of the table so it won't have to be moved, or at least not very often. Could do drawers I suppose but I would lose some space (i.e the would have to have shallow 300mm drawers) and this couple need every inch of it.

The visuals crap though! I have haven't started playing with it yet, just got the boxes in the right places.

[Daniel]

..... thats why I said the renderings are 'coming' along nicely 

[allanp]

Following on with the idea of splitting the hinged bench top…

How about drawers opening from the ends of the bench?
The ends would be made like a highline drawer cabinets
with a deep internal drawer.

That would create two areas of easy-to-reach storage
that could be stuffed full and still be useful.  The centre
bench section between the backs of the drawers could
be hinged and would be shorter and lighter to hinge.

[Colour Republic]

Another bloody good idea! In fact I think I like that one best.

Would have to put an additional end panel in between the peninsular and bench, as the peninsular will have a worktop slab end which will over hang slightly and the drawers will need to pass this but I think that would give them the easiest access to storage. If I did 2 x 500mm deep drawers coming out the sides then that should give me around 700mm center storage. So worktop flap section at around 500x700x25mm, I reckon some blum aventos wound up to full tension would do that 

[Daniel]

Following on with the idea of splitting the hinged bench top…

How about drawers opening from the ends of the bench?
The ends would be made like a highline drawer cabinets
with a deep internal drawer.

That would create two areas of easy-to-reach storage
that could be stuffed full and still be useful.  The centre
bench section between the backs of the drawers could
be hinged and would be shorter and lighter to hinge.

..... thats a great idea Allan 

[allanp]

... I reckon some blum aventos wound up to full tension would do that

Sounds like an ejector seat!