Long Live Kitchen Klappot?

Klappot, according to today's kitchen designers, are in. "Zeh ma she'holech hayom" – it's le dernier cri, as the pushy designers keep telling me. Or at least they kept telling me, until I shook them off and chose a carpenter who still remembers how to make ordinary cabinets and doors (which, not surprisingly, are cheaper than klappot).

The subject of klappot recently came up on the Hebtranslators list on Yahoo Groups. By now – late June – I'm quite the expert; but when I first set foot in the sumptuous show rooms of several large kitchen companies, I was ignorant.

My Facebook friends may have noticed recently that I am considering the advantages of living in a cave. It says so in my "status", which has not changed in a while, because I am still considering.

I can tell you right off the bat that the main advantage of living in a cave would be that no cabinet maker or handyman would pursue me there with outrageously expensive proposals for renovating my kitchen. Not worth their while; caves don't usually have kitchens.

Yes, I know, I should be grateful that I have a kitchen and the wherewithal to refurbish it. Many people would be happy to have a kitchen half the size of mine – though in that case the fridge and stove/cooker would have to move out to the hall and they might have to eat on their laps. But – take my word for it – my kitchen cabinets, their door hinges beyond repair and the drawers beyond salvation, are about to come crashing down, dishes and all. The old terrazzo tiles are badly chipped, the fridge manufacturer has long ago run out of spare parts, our technician barely recognizes the model, I can't reach anything on the top shelves without a stepladder (dangerous for osteoporosis-prone ladies), and, in short, I had all the excuses I needed for ordering a new kitchen.

So how dare I complain?!

Um… who's complaining? I'm just, like, sharing.

Back to the klappot business. As the helpful folks on Hebtranslators list pointed out, this contraption comes to replace ordinary cabinet doors; it has special hinges and it opens upwards. See illustration 1 and Illustration 2, for instance.

I thought it was a funny name, possibly onomatopoeic in origin: clap, clap!

The klappot they (Décor, Regba, Topaz) were trying to sell us were huge, at least a meter long each. Can you imagine pushing up a 120 x 40 cm horizontal door, just in order to get out your favorite coffee mug each morning?... Seems somehow inefficient to me. Not to mention expensive. Yes, klappot are in – they're fashionable, expensive, and being aggressively promoted by most kitchen companies. Are they here to stay? Probably not. One day an alien archeologist will say: "Hmm… see this large flap with the primitive bit of metal looking somewhat like a hinge? Indicates early 21^st century interior. Let's tag it and bag it. Was called a klappa if I'm not mistaken."

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