Ways to Revamp your Kitchen with Cabinet Knobs and Pulls

If you’re looking to remodel your kitchen into a space that leaves you excited to cook in and host family and friends, every detail from the largest to the smallest should be considered. One thing you can do is repair or switch up the hardware — small design details such as cabinet knobs and pulls can allow you to strike a perfect balance between form and function.

Selecting the right cabinet and drawer handles to suit your lifestyle is an essential part of pulling your design scheme together and imbuing it with a flair that reflects personal taste.

Below are ways you can revamp your kitchen with cabinet knobs and pulls.

Enhance an existing aesthetic

If your kitchen leans towards a more contemporary or modern style, opt for something with a clean, streamlined profile that looks sleek and smooth to touch. Square bar pulls with straight lines or hexed pulls are the perfect choice. For a farmhouse kitchen aesthetic, handles like bin pulls — which are handles that look like caps — are your best bet.

Elaborate ridges, curved silhouettes, textured detailing or even drop pulls effortlessly find their place in a more transitional, traditional or vintage kitchen setting. Whatever your style may be, your hardware should be in keeping with your kitchen’s existing aesthetic, and must be comfortable to use, too.

Add style impact with the right finish

A good reason to love cabinet or drawer knobs and pulls is that they are available in a plethora of finishes to enhance the style of your kitchen, including polished, tarnished, burnished, satin, matte and antique. 

If you’re adding new hardware to a modern setting, polished finishes or finishes in matte black, chrome or stainless steel will add a clean and sleek touch to the scheme of things.

Yellow or brown-toned metallics such as gold, brass, nickel and bronze work especially well in a kitchen with a more contemporary or transitional style. However, there are no strict rules that suggest that you can’t mix things up to add an eclectic and unique contrast to the room.

Consider variation to bring visual interest

While there are no hard and fast rules, a common preference is to install knobs for all cabinet doors and pulls for drawers, or vice versa. Even better, you can simply mix both knobs and pulls for more visual impact.

For this to play out really well, the trick is to opt for the same finish and color so that they still feel like they belong together in the same space.

When selecting the type of finish and color, try envision what will feel the most functional for your lifestyle, as well as bring the best out of your kitchen’s overall design scheme. Consider the color of the cabinets, the finish of your appliances, faucet and lighting, and whether your space leans towards a more warmer or cooler color scheme.

Determine size for a more cohesive look

To achieve a more consistent look that doesn’t feel overly cluttered or overwhelming, you may want to choose the same length of handles throughout. Both cabinets and drawers vary in proportion, so it can be quite tricky to determine the size you need.

If kitchen cabinet doors are full-height or taller than the standard height, an ideal pick will be longer handles to make it trouble-free to pull them open. The same consideration should apply when it comes to drawers — anything wider than 80 cm will work best with longer pulls than knobs for a more well-thoughtout look.

What’s more, it’s possible to go with two shorter pulls on extra-wide drawers or a drawer space dedicated for heavy pots and pans. This adds an element of interest to the overall look of your kitchen.