Cabinet Hardware Guide: Knobs, Pulls, Hinges and Drawer Slides

Hardware is two separate subjects. The decorative part, knobs and pulls, changes how the kitchen looks and can be swapped in an afternoon. The working part, hinges and drawer slides, decides how the kitchen feels every time you open something, and it is ordered with the cabinets. Give the second one at least as much attention as the first.

Knobs, pulls and the alternatives

The traditional arrangement is knobs on doors and pulls on drawers. Pulls everywhere is equally common now and is easier on the hands. Knobs everywhere suits small, light drawers and period kitchens.

Handleless options

• Integrated grooves. A finger groove is machined into the top or side edge of the door or drawer front.
• Channel systems. A recessed metal or matching rail runs behind the top of the drawer fronts and doors so fingers can reach behind them. The channel takes space inside the cabinet, so drawers behind it are slightly shallower.
• Touch latches. You press the door and a spring pushes it open. They work without any grip, which makes them useful above a refrigerator, but leaning on a door opens it, and they do not combine with ordinary soft-close hinges unless the system is designed for both.

Handleless kitchens belong with slab doors and frameless construction. See framed, frameless and inset cabinets.

Sizing pulls

Pulls are sold by the center-to-center distance between their screw holes, not by overall length, so check which measurement a listing is giving you.

The common rule of thumb among designers is a pull about one third the width of the drawer front. It is a starting point, not a standard. Shorter pulls look traditional and understated; pulls of half the width or more look modern and deliberate. Two practical approaches both work:

• One size throughout. Simple, consistent and easy to buy. It can look small on a very wide drawer.
• Two or three sizes. A short pull for narrow drawers and doors, a medium one for standard drawers, a long one for wide drawers and tall pantry doors. This keeps proportions even across the room.

Panel-covered refrigerators and dishwashers need appliance pulls, which are larger and stronger than cabinet pulls because of the force needed to break a refrigerator door seal.

Placement

These are conventions, not rules:

• Doors. Hardware goes on the stile opposite the hinges: near the bottom corner on upper cabinets and near the top corner on base cabinets, so it is where your hand arrives. Pulls on doors are usually mounted vertically.
• Drawers. Pulls are horizontal and centered left to right. On a slab drawer front they are usually centered top to bottom or set in the upper third. On a five-piece front they go on the center of the panel or on the top rail.
• Stacked drawers. Decide whether pulls are centered on each front or all set the same distance from the top edge. The second often looks more ordered on a bank of unequal drawers.
• Tall doors. Place the pull at a comfortable hand height, not at the midpoint of the door.

Before any holes are drilled, stick the actual hardware to the doors with removable putty or tape, stand back, and open each door. Check that pulls on doors in a corner will not strike each other or stop a drawer opening. Installers use a drilling jig so every hole lands in the same place. A hole in the wrong place on a finished door is very hard to hide.

Hinges

Most current cabinets use concealed cup hinges: a round cup set into the back of the door and an arm that clips to a plate on the cabinet. What to look for:

• Three-way adjustment. Screws that move the door up and down, side to side and in and out, so gaps can be evened after installation and again later.
• Soft-close built into the hinge. Integrated damping is tidier and more consistent than a separate clip-on damper.
• Opening angle. Standard hinges open a little past a right angle. Wider-opening hinges are needed where a door must clear a roll-out tray or fold back against a neighbor, and restrictor clips stop a door hitting a wall or appliance.
• Clip-on mounting. Doors that unclip without tools make cleaning and painting easier.

Inset cabinets use either special concealed hinges or exposed butt hinges, which are part of the period look and are adjusted by the installer, not by a screw.

Drawer slides

• Undermount slides sit beneath the drawer box, out of sight. They leave the drawer sides clean, allow a slightly wider box and usually include soft-close. They need a drawer box built to suit them.
• Side-mount ball-bearing slides fix to the drawer sides. They are strong and inexpensive, visible when the drawer is open, and take a little width from the box.
• Epoxy-coated roller slides are the basic option found on builder-grade cabinets. They are usually three-quarter extension and have no soft-close.

Two specifications matter. Full extension means the whole drawer clears the cabinet so you can reach the back. Load rating is the weight the pair of slides is designed to carry. Ask for the rating, and ask for heavier-duty slides on wide pot drawers, trash and recycling pull-outs and tall pantry units. As a benchmark for moving parts, the Kitchen Cabinet Manufacturers Association says its A161.1 certification opens and closes doors and drawers 25,000 times under load.

Hinges and slides are specified with the box; how to judge the rest of it is in cabinet construction.

Finishes and how they wear

What the hardware is made of matters as much as its color. Solid brass and stainless steel are heavy and durable. Zinc alloy castings are the mid-market norm and perfectly serviceable. Hollow or thin stamped pulls feel light and can bend.

• Plated finishes (chrome, nickel, plated brass tones) are consistent and durable; wear shows first where fingers rub.
• Lacquered brass and bronze keep their color until the lacquer wears through, then tarnish in patches.
• Unlacquered "living" finishes darken and develop a patina with handling. That is the intent; do not choose one if you want it to stay as it left the box.
• Vapor-deposited (PVD) finishes are bonded to the metal in a vacuum process and are among the most wear-resistant.
• Painted and powder-coated finishes, including many matte blacks, can chip at edges.

How to coordinate hardware with the faucet, lighting and appliances is covered in mixing metal finishes.

What to check before you buy

• Order one sample of each knob and pull and hold it against your actual door. Check the feel, the weight and whether your knuckles clear the door.
• Confirm the center-to-center size and the screw length for your door and drawer front thickness.
• Count carefully, then order a few spares from the same batch, because finishes vary between production runs.
• Get the hinge and slide type, extension and load rating written into the cabinet quote.
• Open and close a showroom drawer loaded with weight if the showroom will let you.
• For edge pulls and handleless systems, try them with wet or greasy hands.

Who should choose which

• Anyone with arthritis or reduced grip, and anyone planning to stay in the house long term: pulls throughout, sized so the whole hand fits. See aging-in-place and accessible kitchen design.
• A traditional or period kitchen: knobs on doors, cup or bar pulls on drawers.
• A transitional kitchen: simple bar pulls in two sizes.
• A modern kitchen: long bar pulls, edge pulls or a channel system on slab doors.
• A household with small children: avoid touch latches at low level and sharp-cornered pulls at head height.

Where to go next

Hardware is a small line in the budget and a large part of daily use. The overview of kitchen cabinets shows where it sits in the order, and kitchen storage and pantries covers the pull-outs that depend on good slides. JDI Construction's itemized plan lists hinge and slide types with the cabinetry; see our Vancouver kitchen remodeling page to get started.