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trudymom_gw

One Drawer Pull Or Two Drawer Pulls?

trudymom
15 years ago

How did you decide whether to use one or two drawer pulls on the lower drawers? I prefer the look and convenience of one pull, but does weight matter--width of drawer? Did any of you do one pull and wish you had two?

Thank you!

Comments (14)

  • nwpepper
    15 years ago

    I read once (Martha Stewart maybe?) that any drawer wider than 27" should have two knobs. It sounds arbitrary, but I've followed that guideline, placing the knobs a quarter way in from each side, or centered over door below, and it has worked well, both visually and functionally. Not sure if that applies to pulls...

  • paul_ma
    15 years ago

    I've only got one per drawer. Of course its nearly the width of the drawer, so there wouldn't be room for another. :-)

  • raehelen
    15 years ago

    I'm humming and hawing too now.

    Where I have one drawer over a set of bigger drawers, I went one pull all the way down.

    But, I have a carpenter making two large drawers for a cabinet base that has two smaller drawers on top, ie he's making 2 X 36" wide drawers, and I have 2 X 18" drawers on top. Haven't decided whether I should 'match' the two pulls above or not...? Hadn't occurred to me until just this weekend when we finally got our other doors back and could finish putting rest of knobs and pulls on. Been living with green masking tape pulls for so long, missed this detail!

  • sarschlos_remodeler
    15 years ago

    I find that drawers are much easier to operate with one pull centered. I have several dressers/chests/etc. with 36" wide drawers with two handles on the doors and you have to use both hands to get them open. PITA. I frequently go rummaging through the kitchen drawers with the baby or something else in one hand and setting baby or whatever I'm holding down to open the drawer is annoying.

  • trudymom
    Original Author
    15 years ago

    So for a 36" drawer full of dishes, is it easy to pull open still with just one pull handle on the drawer?

    Thank you!

  • nuccia
    15 years ago

    I think it depends on how smoothly your drawers glide. I have blumotion self closing hardware and it's not a problem. Before I made my final decision, I tried opening a large drawer with just my pinky and had no problem.

    All of my banks of drawers have two pulls because I liked the look. If I only used one pull in the center, I would probably have chosen a larger one so it wouldn't get lost visually.

  • arleneb
    15 years ago

    I agonized over this with my current kitchen. I chose to use ceramic pulls in the same cream color as the cabinets and worried that one small ceramic pull wouldn't hold up on my huge drawers, especially the one with all my heavy stoneware dishes. I figured if they didn't work out, I'd replace them because they were inexpensive. In the first year, maybe 4 or 5 of them came apart; since then, they've been fine. I think in my new kitchen I'll choose larger metal handles, but I'll stay with one central one because half the time I don't have both hands free to use a second handle.

  • holligator
    15 years ago

    I put one pull on all but one bank of drawers. That one is 36" wide, and it's the only bank of drawers on that wall. I thought one pull would have made the drawers look less substantial. They aren't drawers I open every day, so it's not really an inconvenience to use both hands.

  • lowspark
    15 years ago

    Did any of you do one pull and wish you had two?

    I have one pull on all drawers, no matter what the width. I have 27s, 30s and 33s. Not even for one second did I regret going with one only. I'm into convenience, form following function, etc. I don't know if a drawer would get messed up if you only pull one when you have two installed, since you're always pulling from the one side, but I don't want to find out the hard way. Anyway, I like the look of one pull only.

    So for those trying to decide, I'd say to ask yourself the following questions:
    -- Do I like the look of two better than one?
    -- Do I like that look enough to make it worth having to use two hands to open the drawer every time?

    Only you can answer for yourself, there's no right or wrong answer except as it applies to your own situation. I will say that having had kitchens where two hands were required for things that could have been accomplished with one, there's just no contest.

  • Alexander Timofeyev
    9 years ago

    Having come across this thread in planning my kitchen remodel, I'll add that I just tried out a sink tilt out with two pulls and it was impossible to open with one hand. You really need two hands for two pulls.

    Visually, I like the look of two pulls on wide drawers, but one pull in the middle is far more useful and far easier to use.

  • annkh_nd
    9 years ago

    Timobkg, I had the same problem with my sink tip-out - until my cabinet maker replaced the hinges with Blum soft-close. Now it opens easily with either pull.

  • zeebee
    9 years ago

    Just decided this. Our chosen pulls are very narrow and I thought a single one looked too flimsy and insubstantial on our 30" and 33" drawers, so we're going with two pulls there. On the 24" drawer, I'm using one 6" pull.

  • Alexander Timofeyev
    8 years ago

    annkh_nd, having recently tried drawers with Blum glides, I have to agree. If you're getting great glides with Blum, you can pull drawers open with one hand without a problem.

    Is there a general guideline for how to position two pulls on a drawer? We're putting two 8" pulls on our stack of 39" drawers, but not sure how we should place them. We have shaker style drawers with 3" wide stiles on the sides. Should place the two pulls 6.5" in from the side to mirror the 6.5" from the side placement of the 24" drawer stack next to it with single centered pulls, or should we place further in, like 7" or 7.5" in from the side, so they don't have that much space between them?

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