Gloss
Reflects light into a small or dark room, which can transform it. Glass laminate gives the same depth with far better fingerprint resistance than a lacquered gloss.
The finish that makes a small room bigger, and the only one that adds light rather than using it.
A gloss run works like a second window. It takes whatever light the room has and puts it back, which is why a galley or a single-aspect kitchen can be transformed by it in a way no colour change achieves.
It also has depth. A good gloss door is not simply shiny — there is a sense of looking into the surface, and on a strong colour that is what separates it from a plain painted front.
There are two routes to it. A lacquered gloss can be mixed to any colour you like; a glass laminate front puts real glass over the colour, which keeps the depth and adds far better fingerprint resistance. We would show you both before you decide.
It borrows light
The single most effective finish in a small, dark or single-aspect room. Facing a window or a garden door it can double the sense of light in the space.
Depth, not just shine
On a strong colour there is a sense of looking into the door rather than at it, which is what makes gloss feel expensive rather than merely bright.
Lacquered or glass
Lacquered gloss can be mixed to any colour. Glass laminate keeps the same depth and handles fingerprints far better — the choice usually comes down to colour freedom against day-to-day ease.
Long runs look best
An unbroken bank of gloss doors keeps the reflection continuous from end to end, which is why it suits handleless German furniture particularly well.
Give it something matt opposite
Timber, stone or a honed worktop gives the eye somewhere to rest and makes the shine read as depth. The contrast is what makes it work.
Pale or deep, both work
A white gloss disappears and makes the room feel bigger; a deep gloss becomes the feature of the room. Very little in between is as effective.
Place it to face the light
Set against a window, a garden door or a rooflight it pays you back every day of the year.
A matt worktop steadies it
A honed or textured worktop gives one calm surface against all that reflection, and it is what makes a gloss kitchen feel composed.
Gloss kitchens
Matt and gloss, both
White high gloss TIO
Silky Beige matt and Snow White gloss
Puro in Natural High Gloss
Como High Gloss White, with dark oak
Going with the Flow
High gloss white with terra oak
Go with the Flow
High gloss Solo and smoked oak, in Bedford
Solo in high gloss white, with smoked oak
LANO in arctic white high gloss
