The present invention relates to furniture and, more specifically, to handles for drawers.
Many articles of furniture include drawers to provide storage space. Desks, tables and cabinets typically include one or more drawers to store or conceal items and provide easy access to those items. Often, the storage space required by a user cannot be satisfied by conventional furniture, for example, desks or tables. Accordingly, a drawer pedestal including one or more drawers is used to increase the storage space. Conventional drawer pedestals are constructed either to stand alone or be positioned under a desk, table or similar furniture.
Most furniture and associated drawers are constructed from wood or metal, and fastened together with screws or bolts. Accordingly, the furniture and drawers typically are quite heavy. This makes shipping expensive and movement of the pedestals by an end user relatively difficult. Moreover, when furniture components are disassembled, they are not readily stackable because the components are constructed from rigid wood or metal, which makes handling and storage of the disassembled components space-consuming.
Recently, furniture is being constructed from plastic because of its lightweight. In many cases, its strength is similar to that of wood or metal. Some consumers, however, believe that plastic furniture looks and feels xe2x80x9ccheap,xe2x80x9d and thus are unwilling to purchase and use it. For example, when physically tapped on by a user, most plastic units create a hollow, resounding thud, which makes the unit sound structurally inadequate. Additionally, drawers of plastic furniture units, which also are constructed of plastic, add to the unappealing feel of plastic furniture. Specifically, most plastic drawers are a single molded part, and to decrease production costs, include an integral drawer pull which is typically an indent in the front panel of the drawer that a user may grasp. Thus, the handle is made of the same plastic as the remainder of the unit. Because many users associate the feel of plastic with inexpensive and poor quality items, these integral plastic handles have a substantially negative impact on many users"" satisfaction with plastic furniture pieces.
Several attempts have been made to increase the aesthetic feel of the handles of drawers. However, all the attempts are time consuming and require additional processing of a drawer. In one process, an adhesive-backed rubber material is applied to the handle of a finished drawer. This material, however, is quite thin and, therefore, difficult to permanently secure to the finished unit. Misalignment, wrinkling and tearing of the material commonly complicates its attachment to drawers. In another process, a liquid rubber-like compound is applied to the integral drawer handle to increase the feel and gripability of the handle. After time, however, the material tends to delaminate from the drawer unit, resulting in an aesthetically unappealing, frayed or torn drawer handle cover. In another process, a second plastic material is molded over a portion of an already-formed plastic drawer to form the handle. This method is problematic, especially where the drawers are large or include multiple internal compartments, because a large complex mold must be used to injection mold the rubber-like material onto the formed drawer.
Thus, many opportunities exist to provide a drawer that includes an inexpensive and easily attached drawer pull that is aesthetically pleasing and/or soft to the touch.
The aforementioned problems are overcome by the present invention wherein a drawer pull is provided that easily and securely attaches to a drawer. Preferably, the drawer pull includes a xe2x80x9csoft-touchxe2x80x9d material that significantly improves the aesthetics and feel of the drawer pull.
In a preferred embodiment, the drawer pull includes a plastic substrate and a softer material that is secured to the substrate via molding or adhesive. The softer material is a soft, rubber-like material. In a more preferred embodiment, the substrate defines a channel and includes one or more locking tabs that project into the channel. The locking tabs may project from opposite sides of the channel toward one another.
In an even more preferred embodiment, the drawer to which the drawer pull is secured includes recesses or slots or holes adapted to receive the locking tabs so that the pull interlocks with the drawer. Where the drawer pull includes opposing locking tabs in the channel, the drawer may also include recesses to engage the opposing locking tabs to enhance the interlock of the drawer pull to the drawer.
The drawer pull of the present invention offers many benefits. The pull is easy to manufacture and install. The pull may be manufactured with a two-shot injection process where the rigid substrate and soft material are molded to one another in a relatively small mold. The its interlocking tabs, the pull may easily be snapped onto the drawer, making installation of the drawer-pull a simple step in assembly. Furthermore, different pulls may be colored differently and installed on drawers to the custom order of the end user.