The Art of Placing Cabinet Hardware

The most common placement option is to center hardware in the middle of the drawer front. Centering provides a pleasing and symmetrical aesthetic, but its functionality may not be optimal especially on bottom drawers. Many of our designs feature a mix of styles where we specify slab fronts for the top drawers and more decorative styles for lower drawers. The look is a less formal style and one that is favored by many of our clients. In this design option, we often center the cabinet hardware in the middle of the top drawer only and place the hardware on the top center of the rail on the lower cabinets. This makes it easier to open and close bottom drawers.

Another common approach is to center all of the hardware on the rail of the drawer, which provides symmetry that many of our clients want and improved functionality especially if the primary users of the kitchen are taller. For kitchens featuring slab cabinets, we can maximize the aesthetic and functionality by centering the hardware on the top third of the slab front.

Some of our customers prefer to have two pulls on a drawer or cabinet front. To achieve a balanced look, we perform a simple calculation by envisioning the drawer as two drawers. For a 48 inch cabinet, we would view each half as a 24 inch cabinet and then place one pull 12 inches from the left and right edge of the drawer front.

If you would like to know the best placement option for cabinet hardware and how different options affect look, feel and functionality, please give us a call at 215-657-6110 or visit our showroom at 2124 Moreland Road, Abington, PA 19001.