| Deer Skye Quilt and Home Design

Drawer pulls and knobs are the jewelry on your furniture. The finishing touch that serves a purpose and elevates the design of your cabinets and furniture. Use this style guide to create a beautiful, functional, and stylish look to your cabinetry and furniture pieces.

Think about the color of furniture or cabinetry when you go to pick out your knobs and pulls.
Choose your knobs and pulls according to the style of your cabinetry or furniture needing the cabinet hardware.
Consider the size of your piece of furniture or the size of your drawers.
Style options include: Contemporary/Modern, Rustic, French Country, Shabby Chic, Traditional, Industrial, Farmhouse, and Transitional styles.
Know your options when it comes to cup pulls, bar pulls, finger pulls, bin pulls, and oversized pulls.
There are lots of finishes to choose from. Choose one or two that represent the style you are trying to achieve.
Convenience and safety should be a factor in your choice of cabinet hardware including knobs and pulls.
Comfort should be a consideration when you pick out cabinet hardware.
Novelty and Unique Knobs are another possibility depending on where you are going to put them.
Check not only hardware stores for your drawer pulls or knobs for cabinets but you can also shop places online and craft stores like Hobby Lobby.
You can successfully choose your knobs and pulls by buying samples and trying it out first before your buy more than one.
You can mix two finishes of pulls and knobs if you balance it out in the room with other furniture or accessories.

One sure way to give your old cabinets a lift or to give new cabinets that zing is to add the right cabinet hardware. Just follow this style guide one step at a time. Now I hardly doubt that if you buy a package of knobs and apply them to your furniture that people will come into your home, see them and say how awful they look right! However you want to be confident they look great on your piece of furniture, they are comfortable to use, and the style fits the cabinet or furniture piece.

What Color is Your Furniture Or Cabinets That You Are Adding Cabinet Hardware to?

When you get ready to choose the jewelry that goes on your cabinets or furniture, what color is your cabinet or piece of furniture you are going to attach the hardware to? In my entryway, I have a dresser as my main piece. I repainted it three times. Yes you read right thrice (is that a word?). I wanted to be happy with the color. When you choose your cabinetry hardware, make sure your drawer pulls or knobs compliment your color.

I chose a bronze dark brown finish on my hardware that compliments my light blue dresser drawers. Originally I was looking for glass knobs but fell head over heels for old antique looking cows and bin pulls. I chose the bin pulls carefully to make sure they went with the cows and a little curvy fancier looking bin pull. I love the look and feel the blue and the bronze brown compliment each other perfectly! A little French Farmhouse looking.

Style of Knobs And Pulls Should Compliment Your Furniture or Cabinets

What is your style? What style do you want your cabinet or pieces of furniture to be? Consider this when you pick out your cabinet hardware. If your style is modern, you don’t want to put a shabby chic glass knob on your contemporary drawer. If you aren’t sure what hardware would look best with your style take a gander at some of the shops online that carry cabinet hardware. Shop for hardware “by theme” to find knobs and pulls that will look best with the style of your home.

Keep Size in Mind When Shopping

Size of cabinets or furniture drawer should be a consideration when you are trying to pick out the hardware or jewelry to put on your furniture. If your piece of hardware is too big for a small drawer, it will overwhelm it and look out of balance. If your hardware piece is too small, kind of the same thing, people will notice that it isn’t in scale to the size of your piece of furniture.

Take a picture of your cabinet or your piece of furniture with you when you go shopping. Have it on your phone at the ready so you can refer to it when trying to pick out the right size of hardware jewelry. Don’t be shy about picking out hardware. You can do it if you do a little research online looking at pictures of various furniture and the hardware on it.

There Are Many Options When It Comes To Style

When you take a look at the style of your room and the piece of furniture or your cabinetry, you should try to purchase hardware that will reflect the style you want your room to be. However, take heart there is so much leeway here! Many times styles of hardware overlap. Modern, Industrial, French Country, Rustic, Traditional, Farmhouse, Transitional, etc…whatever it be you can find just the right cabinetry hardware if you are patient and do your research.

A good idea is to look for pictures online or in magazines that reflect your style. Observe cabinetry hardware in friend’s homes when you go to visit. See what hardware they use for the style of room they have. Also know what you like. If you find a knob or pull that you have your heart set on and it doesn’t seem to fit the style, maybe you can combine it with another knob or pull and make it work.

It took me a while to find the right hardware for the dresser in my entryway. I looked several times at Home Depot and Ace Hardware. Just couldn’t find what I wanted. Then found what I wanted in a most unexpected place…the craft store! I fell head over heels for an antique looking head of a cow. I had to travel a ways to get to the craft store because I live in a rural area. Once I found the cow knobs, I found a contrasting bin pull that complimented the knobs perfectly! It took me several weeks after painting my dresser to find the right knobs and pulls but the wait was absolutely worth it!

Know Your Cabinetry Lingo

In order to choose the pull you may want for your kitchen, bathroom or furniture jewelry, it pays to know the difference.

Bar Pulls- are long horizontal pulls that your hand fits through to open a door. These come in a variety and I mean lots of variety of styles! Sure to fit any decor that you are looking for.
Cup Pulls- fit to your hand and are rounded in design. You grasp it underneath and pull on it to open your drawer. The design runs from very simple and sleek to more ornate and elegant. Come in a variety of finishes and sizes.
Finger Pulls- sleek look and smaller in design. Designed not to take away from your piece of furniture but stands out in beauty. You can pull it with your finger.
Bin Pulls- rectangular in shape and like the cup pull but varies in style.
Over sized Pulls- just what it sounds like these are super sized.

Cabinet Hardware Finishes

Choices, choices, and more choices are yours when it comes to choosing your cabinet hardware. It is okay to choose up to two finishes in the same room even on the same piece of furniture. As you consider your options when it comes to picking out the hardware for your furniture, look around your room. What are your chairs like? What are the light fixtures like. What is your faucet finish? Your appliances? You may want to match finishes on your cabinetry and furniture to these accessories in your room to help keep it balanced. This might make your choice easier including this in the mix!

The 7 most common hardware finishes include:

Polished Brass- is shiny gold and has a warm tone to it.
Antiqued Brass- is not as shiny as the polished brass. It has a vintage look to it and is gaining popularity. Consider your style. If you are in the modern, industrial, or transitional style then this might not be a good choice for you.
Chrome- is a safe choice for a classic style and there are a lot of options if you go with this finish.
Polished Nickel- is warmer than chrome but still shiny. I think it has a more high end look to it then chrome does.
Satin Nickel-coordinates well with home appliances and doesn’t show fingerprints as well as the shiny silver finishes do. It is considered the most popular choice for hardware and works well with almost any design style.
Bronze both aged and Oil Rubbed are a deep brown with almost a hue of copper I would say. If you go this color route, make sure you buy all of your knobs or pulls from the same manufacturer because this color varies from store to store. This is also a popular choice for many homes including mine!
Black is a basic hardware color but very effective in making a home design statement. It is gaining a thumbs up because it hides fingerprints and dirt nicely! A big plus in most people’s books!

Convenience & Safety

Who would have thought that convenience and safety would be a thing when choosing your knobs and pulls. It’s true though. For example, pulls provide an easier grip and a bit more stability when pulling out a drawer. Safety wise, some pulls grab your clothes as you walk away. Make sure you have the best pulls that won’t tear clothing or have sharp edges that might catch your hand in some way. Try them out before buying if possible.

Comfort Is Essential

Yep. Comfort is a thing too! Some knobs are more comfortable than others when using them on a daily basis. Give the knobs, pulls, etc… try before you buy like mentioned previously. Think about this. If you are going to be using a certain knob or pull day in and day out in your kitchen or bathroom, you will want it to be comfortable…trust me! Now if you are putting your hardware on a dresser or desk that you may not be constantly using, then you can go for looks all the way baby! Well within reason of course!

Novelty Knobs

There are times when the whimsical or the really creative knobs or pulls are a great compliment to your furniture piece. I just discovered this. I already talked about putting decorative antique looking cow heads as knobs on my dresser. Then added some decorative cup pulls in the same finish on the lower drawers. What can I say? It sings to me! It is the first thing people see when they enter our home. The bronze finish compliments the blue because it is a dark hue of orange or copper which on the color wheel works because blue and orange are compliments. It also compliments the style of my entryway.

You can also DIY your own knobs and pulls out of forks and spoons, kids blocks, and other creative items. Don’t be afraid to let your imagination run wild a bit!

Creative Places To Shop

You might be in the mindset that hardware stores are the only places to shop for your cabinet hardware. Now nothing against those stores but they are kind of stuck in the usual pulls and knobs. If you are looking for something a little elevated and more unique try out Hobby Lobby and other craft stores. Even wood hobby stores might have a knob or pull you didn’t expect to find there.

Purchase Samples

It makes such a difference in the hardware you put on a piece of furniture or on your cabinets. It can really make a piece of furniture stand out! This shouldn’t scare you. Make a design board and buy some samples to try cabinet hardware out if you need to. This is a good idea if you are questioning how a knob or pull will look in your kitchen. Better to spend a little money on trying hardware out before you outfit your whole kitchen in a knob or pull that you attach to your drawers or cupboards and don’t love!

Mix And Match

You can successfully mix more than one finish on cabinet hardware in a room if you do it tastefully. Take note of the other finishes already in your room, kitchen faucets, cabinets, china hutch, chair legs, your appliances, your light fixtures, etc… then choose accordingly. You don’t want to overwhelm a room with too many varied finishes but choose one or two to use throughout. A word about more than one knob or pull style. There are times when you can have up to 3 different styles if you keep the same finish. For example black knobs on tall overhead cabinets, black horizontally placed bar pulls on cabinets under the uppers ,black knobs on lower cabinets and a different style of black bin pulls on drawers that may be right next to your cabinets. Study it out, use your samples and come up with the perfect fit for you!

An Easy Style Guide For Choosing Cabinet Hardware