C-Profile or J-Profile: Which Gola Goes Where

The rule that decides it

Ask one question per location: does the channel need to serve one front or two? A pull that sits between two stacked fronts has to be grippable from above and below at once, and that is a C-profile. A pull at the top of a cabinet, under a worktop or at the head of a tall door, only ever serves the front below it, and that is a J-profile.

That single rule covers almost every layout. What follows is the same rule applied cabinet by cabinet. If you want the background on how the system works before choosing, start with the gola system guide and come back.

Where the C-profile goes

The C-profile is open on both faces, so the drawer above and the drawer below share one channel. It runs horizontally across drawer banks, and between a pair of stacked doors where both need a pull at the same line. The channel it sits in is routed to roughly 20mm.

Count one C-profile run for each gap between stacked fronts. A three-drawer base cabinet takes two C-profile runs: one between the top and middle drawers, one between the middle and bottom.

Where the J-profile goes

The J-profile is open on one face, giving a finger pull from a single direction. It runs along the top of every base cabinet, tucked under the worktop, and along the top of tall unit doors. Its channel routs to roughly 25mm. In a typical kitchen it is the profile you order the most of, because the entire base run takes it whether the cabinets below hold drawers or doors.

The naming trap: the J-profile and the L-profile are the same extrusion. Some shops and suppliers call it J, others call it L, and quotes sometimes list both. If a quote shows a J and a separate L as two line items, query it before ordering; you are almost certainly looking at one part written twice.

Sizing the doors and drawer fronts

This is where most gola orders go wrong, and the arithmetic is simpler than people expect. For every gola profile that crosses the cabinet face, deduct 1 1/4 inches (31.75mm) from the combined height of the fronts. What remains is yours to divide however the design calls for: equal drawers, a shallow top drawer over two deep ones, a single full door. The profile takes its fixed slice; you choose how to split the rest.

A worked example: a 30 inch base cabinet face with a J-profile under the worktop and one C-profile between two drawer fronts has two profiles crossing it, so deduct 2 1/2 inches and 27 1/2 inches of front remains. Split equally, that is two drawer fronts of 13 3/4 inches. Split for a shallow top drawer, it might be 9 and 18 1/2. Both are correct, because the deduction is fixed and the division is free.

A single door under a J-profile only loses one deduction: the same 30 inch face gives a 28 3/4 inch door. Do this on paper before anything is cut. Trimming fronts after the fact is the mistake that costs a whole run.

Counting lengths for an order

Gola profile comes in stock 3000mm lengths and is cut on site, one section per cabinet, each cut about 2mm short of the cabinet width at each end so the aluminum drops in without binding.

So count per cabinet, not per wall. List every cabinet, note its width and which profile each of its pulls takes, then group the cuts into 3000mm lengths the way you would nest any stock extrusion. Round up per profile type. With no minimum order, one spare length is cheap insurance against a miscut on site.

A worked example: a 3.6m base run of four 900mm cabinets, two of them three-drawer banks, needs four J-profile cuts of roughly 896mm for the top rail (two lengths) and four C-profile cuts of the same size for the drawer gaps (two lengths). Six lengths total, ordered as two line items.

Finish: one per sightline

Both profiles come in the same four finishes: matte black, brushed gold, grey and silver. The C and J sections in one run must match, because the channel reads as a single continuous line across the kitchen and two finishes in one sightline is the complaint you cannot fix without replacing profile. Pick the finish once, for the room.

The pre-order checklist

• Every pull location assigned a profile: C between stacked fronts, J at cabinet tops.
• Rout depths planned to the profile: roughly 20mm for C, roughly 25mm for J.
• Front heights: 1 1/4 inches deducted per profile from the total, the remainder divided as designed, before cutting.
• Each section cut about 2mm short of cabinet width at each end.
• One finish across the whole sightline.
• Length count grouped into 3000mm sticks per profile type, plus one spare.
• J and L confirmed as one part on any quote that lists both.