When I ordered our kitchen cabinets back in August, I breathed a huge sigh of relief. It was a big job and there was so much to figure out along the way. But once that order was in, my work wasn’t over just yet. I had to figure out the kitchen hardware. Did I want knobs? Pulls? How big should they be? Where should I place them? There was a lot to consider as I answered these questions and made decisions.

I don’t think there is any “wrong” way to do it, but I do want to share my thought process and how I figured out exactly what to buy for my particular kitchen. Hopefully, it will help you as you figure out the kitchen hardware for your own space!

Deciding on Hardware

I knew that I wanted to use brass knobs and pulls in our kitchen to warm things up. I’m a big fan of mixing metals in a room because it makes it look more interesting and layered. (You’ll find more about my thoughts on mixing metals in this post.) In here, we will have both polished nickel (faucet and pot filler) and brass (hardware and lighting). I ended up ordering a few pieces from multiple places to figure out exactly what kitchen hardware would work best in here. I ordered from Rejuvenation and Build.com. Both have a lot of gorgeous hardware to choose from.

In the end, I decided to go with this brass knob and these brass pulls. Well, I say brass but the color is technically “golden champagne.” This champagne loving gal loves the sound of that! I highly recommend using the same finish for all of your kitchen hardware. Also, it’s a great idea to use knobs and pulls from the same collection of hardware. The color and style will be the same and it will just feel more cohesive.

Oh, and when you order your kitchen cabinets, ask if you can get a door shipped to you so you have the exact color on hand. It will be a long time before your actual cabinets arrive and you’ll want to have the sample so you can choose other elements of the room.

Pull vs. Knob

For the most part, I decided to go with knobs on cabinet doors and pulls on drawers. However, on really tall cabinets (the pantry and the glass cabinets on the bar) I decided to go with long pulls. I just felt like the knobs might look a tad dinky.

I also varied the pulls based on the size of the drawer. A general rule of thumb is to make sure the pull is about 1/3 the size of the drawer. So if it’s 15 inches wide, you’ll want your pull to be about 5 inches. I also doubled up with two pulls if the drawer was larger than 30 inches. I would definitely look for a kitchen hardware collection where the pulls come in multiple sizes.

In order to figure out what I needed for our setup, I printed out photos of our kitchen cabinets and started counting exactly what I would need. I wasn’t always able to find pulls that were exactly 1/3 the size of the drawer, but I did my best!

• 22 knobs for cabinets
• (16) 5-inch pulls for smaller drawers and drawers that need two pulls
• (12) 7-inch pulls for tall cabinets and 24-27 inch drawers
• (2) 3 inch pulls for 9-inch drawers
• (4) 3 3/4 inch pulls for 12-inch drawers

I ordered all of my hardware ahead of time because I wasn’t sure how long it would take to get it delivered and I didn’t want the crew waiting on me. But if you have time, you can wait until your cabinets are installed and then use painter’s tape to really visualize what the pull will look like on your cabinet.

Kitchen Hardware Placement

Okay, so I had all of my hardware ready to go, but I still had to decide where my contractor would install all of the knobs.  I went back and forth on this multiple times and decided to have the knob centered with the decorative edge of the cabinet. Here’s what that looks like in a rendering. (Note: this is the cabinet style, but not the color of our cabinets.)

It really is wild the little things you have to think about when renovating a kitchen. I never thought I would agonize over where to place a cabinet knob, but it is those little details that make a kitchen feel thoughtful and put together nicely.

What’s Next?

Well, as you saw earlier this week, the cabinets are just about all in! The team still hasn’t installed all of the hardware on these beauties, so I’ll be sure to show you once they’re in. Then it’s appliances, countertops, lighting, painting… Yes, there are still quite a few things left on the punch list. That’s okay, we are inching towards that finish line.

Next week, I’m planning to show you the gameplan for the dining area of the room. I’ll admit the table and chairs have been sitting in my garage for a month and I haven’t even opened the boxes yet! But I’m very excited about the items I chose for our space. More to come…

Casey

Catch Up On Our Kitchen Renovation

• Kitchen Before Photos
• Hiring a Designer
• Our New Kitchen Layout
• Design Plan & Mood Board
• Single vs Double Bowl Sink
• Ordering Our Kitchen Cabinets
• Tasks To Do Before a Kitchen Renovation
• Our Old Kitchen Is Out
• Creating Our Electrical Plan
• Our Kitchen Cabinets Are In!
• Kitchen Hardware Guide
• Dining Nook Design Plan
• Choosing Quartz Countertops
• Painting the Kitchen
• Our Dining Room Nook
• Finding a Kitchen Runner
• Our New Lighting
• Our Wood Butcher Block
• The Kitchen Renovation Timeline
• The Big Kitchen Reveal
• What I Learned from Our Kitchen Renovation
• Kitchen Before & After Video
• Our Kitchen Appliances
• Renovation Budget & Cost