Designing a kitchen isn’t as simple as following a recipe. There’s always a surprising number of decisions to make, and choosing the right knobs and pulls for cabinets is often something that catches people off guard. The options for style, size and finish are just so abundant, and many kitchens need a carefully thought-out combination of knobs, handles and other hardware to convey the perfect look. Here’s how you can get your cabinet hardware just right.
Charleston Building and Development
Why Mix Cabinet Hardware?
The two main reasons you may want to use more than one style of cabinet knob and pull are simple: style and function.
From a style perspective, mixing different types of hardware can give a kitchen lots of character, adding subtle visual interest. Especially in a larger kitchen, you may want to avoid the repetitiveness of using just one handle for every single door and drawer.
Venegas and Company
From a functional standpoint, some cabinets are better suited to certain types of hardware than others.
For example, this kitchen by Venegas and Co. has round knobs for swinging doors, bin pulls for pullout drawers, a small handle for a flip-up door over the drink station and large handles for the paneled fridge.
No single one of these hardware options would be the ideal ergonomic choice for every application, so mixing them just makes practical sense.
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13thirty Designs
Tips for Getting Your Hardware Mix Right
So how do you mix your hardware so that everything makes practical sense but also looks elegant and organized? Ultimately a lot of it will come down to personal opinion and comfort, but here are some guidelines to help simplify the decision-making process.
Choose hardware with the help of a kitchen designer
Statires Development
Choose a single finish. Although it’s definitely possible to coordinate cabinet hardware in different finishes, it’s much easier and safer to mix different shapes of knobs and pulls in one matching finish. This automatically gives all the hardware a sense of being coordinated and makes the differences between each style less immediately noticeable.
Ben Herzog
Keep in mind that the “finish” isn’t just the material but also the texture. For example, brushed brass and satin brass are both gold in tone, but they look different because they have different surface textures and therefore different levels of shine.
For an even more coordinated look, you can use the same metal finish for your cabinet hardware and your faucet (and even other details such as light fixtures and switch plate covers).
This kitchen by architect Ben Herzog mixes metals, but the small hardware elements are all gleaming brass, creating a sense of consistency.
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schön
Think about the number of drawers and doors. Cabinet hardware will usually look best when used in multiple places so that no single knob or handle is the odd one out. For this reason, it can be easier to make multiple styles of hardware work in a larger kitchen with many doors and drawers.
Kimberlee Marie Interiors
If your kitchen has fewer than 20 doors and drawers, it’s safest to stick to two types of hardware max. In a compact kitchen with fewer than 12 doors and drawers, it’s a good idea to use just one style of handle all over, and introduce interest somewhere else, such as an open shelf.
This is certainly not a hard-and-fast rule, but it can help create an organized look.
Karen Berkemeyer Home
If at this point you’re thinking that mixing hardware styles isn’t for you, you’re in luck. Simple straight handles in a 3-to-4-inch screw hole spacing will work well enough for most cabinet functions. They work their very best on narrow drawers, but they can work fine for wider drawers (especially when installed in pairs) and swinging cabinets. If you want to use just one type of hardware all over and keep it simple, this is your go-to.
Use one style for upper cabinets and a different style for lower cabinets. A great option for coordinating the look of your hardware is to use one hardware type for the uppers (often a knob because they’re easy to grip when swinging an upper door open) and one for the lowers (often a short handle or pull, which can work for both the lower doors and drawers).
If you have pantry doors that are full-height, you can treat them like upper cabinets or lower cabinets, or even split the hardware between their upper and lower halves. However, if you split them they should follow a vertical line at counter height, or else you should pick one style to use on the whole pantry area, so there’s a subtle consistency the eye can pick up on.
Main Street Kitchens at Botellos
Use different styles for each function or door and drawer type. If you love the look of mixing more than two types of hardware or have a large kitchen with many different cabinets and drawers, you should look at choosing different hardware styles for each functional type of door and drawer.
In this design by Main Street Kitchens at Botellos, the typical swing doors (on the upper and lower cabinets) have simple round knobs, while most of the drawers have bin pulls. But you can see in this view that apparently one drawer has a handle instead of a bin pull. On closer inspection, this turns out to be a swing-down door that most likely hides a dishwasher. A bin pull could work here, but this handle can be grabbed from more directions and can be a bit easier ergonomically when opening a dishwasher. Plus, it signals a different function.
Main Street Kitchens at Botellos
From this angle you can see that similar handles are found on the paneled fridge and freezer, so all of the paneled appliances have the same hardware set. None of the areas are perfectly symmetrical, but the way each handle suits the function of its door front gives its own sense of elegance.
Consider the scale. This tip is closely related to the previous one, and it can apply to mixing two or three styles.
Sometimes mixing pieces that look almost the same can create a look that feels “off.” Two handles or knobs that look very similar but not exactly the same can come across as mismatched instead of intentionally coordinated.
To avoid this issue, make sure when mixing multiple styles that they’re noticeably different in scale. The kitchen shown here has medium-size handles for most lowers (likely 3-inch hole spacing), small (around 1-inch) latch pulls for the upper cabinets and much larger handles for the paneled appliances.
Robert Paige Cabinetry LLC
This kitchen by Robert Paige Cabinetry actually has four sizes, with small latch pulls, bin pulls, medium handles and long handles. The fact that each hardware group has a distinct size gives an unspoken sense of structure that helps your eye make sense of everything. It’s a subtle trick to avoid appearing cluttered even when there’s a lot going on.
Design Loves Detail
Think long-term. Ultimately, the finish and style of your hardware can be changed down the road, or even right away.
What can’t be changed so easily are the holes drilled in your cabinets, which is why it’s important to carefully consider all the shapes and sizes available and make a choice that will be functional for you now and later, regardless of what style you find fashionable today.
J NORD WOLFE General Contracting Inc.
If you do have a situation where you regret the placement of holes (drilled by you or a previous owner), you can avoid having to replace or refinish the doors by choosing new hardware with a coordinating backplate, which will cover the unused holes and add an additional gleaming accent.
Toronto Interior Design Group
Color within the lines. As mentioned before, although it’s helpful to stick to one finish for your hardware, it’s certainly not impossible to mix finishes to create beautiful effects. However, if you’re going to mix materials, consider the following guidelines.
- When using hardware with small metal elements (such as a crystal knob that has a metal neck), it’s best to match that metal to your other metal hardware.
- Create simple rules for yourself about which type of hardware will go on each cabinet. For example, in this kitchen (and the previous), accent knobs are used just on the upper cabinets, so the change in materials is very obviously planned and rhythmic.
- If you want to, you can forget all the other rules. In this kitchen, just a few handles are in a steely silver shade, while all the rest are boldly brass. It helps here that the cool metal tones are picked up in the faucet and appliances.
Ultimately the decision to mix the two handle finishes had to come down to a sense of whimsy and a gut instinct.
Robert Paige Cabinetry LLC
Common Types of Hardware
So what types of hardware should you use for different situations? Here are some tips on the major options and how to mix them.
Shalford Interiors
Round knobs. Round knobs (as opposed to square, T-shape or other more rigid shapes) have the major advantage of being comfortable to grab from many directions, making them easy to pull.
The major disadvantage of round knobs occurs with wide drawers that can’t easily be pulled from one small central point. If you have a heavy load in a drawer or your drawers aren’t especially high-quality, using a single knob in the center will put a lot of stress on one point. This means you’ll want to use two knobs, which may necessitate having to open the drawer with both hands.
Shalford Interiors
On a drawer this size, a single handle is a bit more functional because it can be pulled with one hand or two.
Still, both options can work, so personal style is a big factor. And quality drawers, like the one shown here, that glide easily without much force can overcome the issue altogether.
Breathing Room Design
Even if you aren’t going to use round knobs everywhere, they can be a great option for unusual spots, such as a lone pair of doors in an area with mostly drawers.
The apron-front sink in this kitchen by Breathing Room Design has a low pair of doors at a different height from the other panels around it. If those doors had horizontal handles like the others, they wouldn’t line up. Using two little round knobs creates a more elegant solution and suits the contemporary farmhouse charm of the sink.
Kristina Crestin Design
Cup pulls and bin pulls. Cup and bin pulls are handles that have a cupped shape that fingers can slide into from underneath, as opposed to a handle that can be grabbed from above or below. Pulls are reminiscent of the handles on file cabinets and storage bins and carry a slight retro feel.
Shalford Interiors
Bin pulls tend to look best installed centered and running horizontally, and they also function best on drawers and pullouts. For these reasons they’re often confined to drawers.
Notice how, in this kitchen by Shalford Interiors, the pairs of knobs on the cabinet doors line up nicely with the bin pulls below. The one stand-alone knob next to the oven is asymmetrical but still elegant.
Kitchens by Peter Gill
Bin pulls work especially well when dressing a single row of drawers that runs all the way across a set of cabinets or around the entire kitchen, giving a pleasing “cap” to the look without being bulky.
Statkus Architecture Pty Ltd
Finger pulls. Finger pulls usually attach to the back or top of each door and drawer and wrap around to create a lip that can be grabbed with a curved finger, much like a cup pull but wider and with a more minimal shape.
Finger pulls aren’t usually mixed with other cabinet styles because they tend to appear in modern, minimalist kitchens. They work best either in one consistent width or sized to match each cabinet.
However, short finger pulls can be useful when mixed in for semihidden cabinets such as ones on the back of the island, where protruding hardware would be in the way of knees and elbows.
NEKA Granite | Marble | Quartz
Latch pulls. Latch pulls or cabinet latches have a certain old-world appeal. They literally latch shut and hold the cabinet door closed until they’re unlatched.
Depending on the manner of latching, they can take a bit more effort to open than a typical pull, potentially acting as a mild child safety lock or a deterrent for clever pets. But primarily they serve as a style statement.
Well-Designed Interiors
Latch pulls work well to accent a few doors in a transitional, traditional or farmhouse-inspired kitchen, giving a sense of sophistication and a certain visual richness.
It should be noted that because latch pulls come as two pieces they can’t be attached to just any door: They need one that’s flush to the frame so the two elements can connect properly.
Latch pulls can be combined with simpler knobs for the majority of the doors so that the more commonly opened cabinets don’t require the extra step of unlatching.
Kristina Crestin Design
What to Think About Before Meeting With Your Kitchen Designer
Preferred grasp. Do you like the feel of a knob or a pull better? Would something square or rounded suit you?
Maintenance. Shiny polished finishes can take more work to keep clean than brushed finishes. Think about the time you want to spend keeping everything looking good.
Drill holes. If you aren’t planning on refinishing your cabinets, you may be stuck with the existing hole locations. For example, if you have pulls that have 3-inch center-to-center screw holes, your new pulls will need to be the same size (unless you find hardware with a backplate that will cover the old holes). Going from knobs to pulls is much easier (for doors) because you simply drill another hole.
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