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KNOBS and PULLS and LATCHES, OH MY!

Posted by Amy Siders on October 03, 2022 0 Comments

KNOBS AND PULLS AND LATCHES, OH MY!

You’re ready for a kitchen remodel but your bank account hasn’t quite caught up to your lofty dreams?

Waterhouse bath & kitchen studio can help.

You'd be surprised how much simply swapping out your old cabinet and drawer pulls and knobs can change the entire look of the room.

It can mean the difference between blah and beautiful.  It's like Botox for your home.  You'll know that you made the change, but if you do it right, you'll just get glowing compliments from your friends and family.  They won't know exactly what you did, but they'll know it looks great!

Read on to learn how to glow up (instead of blow up or tear up) your kitchen, making it fresh, sparkling, and (almost!) brand new!

Choosing the right decorative hardware for your cabinets requires a balance between functionality and style. The knobs and pulls you select will effortlessly tie your space together when coordinated with the relative scale of your cabinet doors and drawers.

 

What color hardware should I choose?

  1. Warm gold tones, including brushed or polished brass

Whether it is brushed, polished or champagne, gold is the beautiful new way to go! Champagne bronze and Satin Bronze are popular finishes when you want the gold style but want it to be softer and more inviting.  Brass looks great with crisp whites, black or even greens and blues.

Polished brass can make a real statement and unlacquered brass is having a moment (for those who appreciate a rich patina – and maintenance). Brass looks lovely against crisp whites, taupe, black, and earthy blues/greens, if you plan to paint your cabinets.

  1. Matte Black

Black is still the most popular color trend for this year.  Black hardware will update your cabinets in an instant, whether you love knobs, pulls, or want to take a mix-and-match approach.

It looks great on light colored cabinets and gives a classic modern look. This will also look great on bathroom vanities and laundry room cabinets.

  1. Tubular or square, slim and sleek

Slim and sleek pulls are still the most popular cabinet hardware style. Modern bar pulls, whether tubular or square are top sellers, and for good reason. They look great on most cabinets, come in many finishes, and are a flexible design choice.

  1. Be Unique

Who said you HAVE to follow the trends? The best style is to be UNIQUE! Choose what you love. 

It’s your kitchen.

You like curves and round lines instead of square, do that. If you like to combine square with round, do that. The options are endless.

With pulls, knobs and appliance pulls available in 37 finishes, Top Knobs offers a wide array of styles to match nearly every décor and color palette. Interior designers and homeowners continuously turn to Top Knobs to complete the look of their project.

And where do you find Top Knobs?

Right here in the middle of Waterhouse bath & kitchen studio.

Can I mix colors?  Can I mix styles?

Yes.  And yes.

Mostly.

There are a few “guidelines,” but, as we said earlier, it’s YOUR kitchen.

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.

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.



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).

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.

Fewer than twenty doors and drawers?   It’s safest to stick to two types of hardware.

Less than twelve doors and drawers?  Use just one style of handle all over.


This is certainly not a hard-and-fast rule, but it can help create an organized look.

Other options?

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).

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.

 

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.

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.

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.

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 semi hidden cabinets such as ones on the back of the island, where protruding hardware would be in the way of knees and elbows.

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.

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.

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.

Okay – I picked out my finish.  Now what?

It’s time for a count:

How many small drawers?

How many large drawers?

How many small doors? 

How many large doors?

Oven?  Refrigerator?  Dishwasher?

Any odd-shaped spaces?

Before pulling out your measuring tape, it’s important to note some key terms when it comes to measuring knobs and pulls:

  • Overall Length: The distance from one end of the pull to the other end
  • Center-to-Center: The industry standard for measuring pulls, the distance from the center of one screw hole to the center of the other screw hole
  • Diameter: Refers to the width of a knob or width of the thickest portion of a pull
  • Projection: How far the pull or knob sticks out from the surface of the cabinet once installed

 

Knobs

Knobs are the most versatile hardware options. Available in a broad range of styles and finishes, standard size knobs range between 1-2 inches in diameter and will complement cabinet doors of any size.

When arranged on drawers less than 16 inches in width, we recommend installing one knob directly at the center. As for drawers larger than 16 inches, two knobs should be installed. For a symmetrical appearance, measure the drawer into thirds and set the knobs in the center of the two outer portions.

Pulls

Pulls come in a variety of styles and lengths, which can prove to be daunting when selecting proportionately sized hardware. Bar Pulls are traditionally measured center-to-center and they should not exceed one-third of the length of a cabinet door or width of a drawer.

Pulls 3-7 inches in length will sit the most comfortably on doors less than 24 inches tall. Cabinet doors 24-36 inches tall are best adorned with pulls 7-12 inches long, while cabinets taller than 36 inches such as pantries, built-in appliances and pullouts should be accompanied by pulls longer than 12 inches.

One pull measuring 3-5 inches in length should be installed in the center at the center of a drawer less than 16 inches wide. Drawers 16-32 inches wide are best embellished with two smaller pulls 5-7 inches in length or one larger pull 9-12 inches long. Any drawer broader than 32 inches will require a pull longer than 12 inches.

Cup Pulls and Tab Pulls

Cup and tab pulls will follow the same sizing recommendations as bar pulls however, their placement will vary.

Due to their size and configuration, cup pulls are commonly reserved for drawers and are positioned at the top center or directly in the center. When installed on drawers, tab pulls should be placed along the top center of drawers. On upper cabinets, tab pulls are either installed vertically on the opening of the doors or horizontally on the very bottom.

Appliance Pulls

Appliances pulls are the perfect way to match your appliances and oversized cabinet doors with your decorative hardware. Appliance pulls are available in a variety of sizes from 12 to 30 inches. They should be placed on cabinet doors taller and drawers larger than 36 inches.

Waterhouse bath & kitchen studio has more choices that you would ever imagine.

We’re like a jewelry store for your kitchen and your bathroom vanity. 

You don’t have to stop there – why not update that dresser in your bedroom? 

The pulls on your desk drawers?

Let Waterhouse help you give your home a mini-facelift.

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