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crystal6145

Cabinet Hardware Finish Decision

Crystal6145
11 years ago

Does your cabinet hardware blend with your cabinets or contrast? Can't decide if I want to go with bronze to blend in more to my cherry cabinets so they won't be noticeable or go with a contrasting nickel to match my stainless steel appliances/faucet. It is a traditional kitchen with full overlay cabinets. Also can you mix pulls and knobs or should you stick with one type?

Comments (7)

  • a2gemini
    11 years ago

    Went through this decision.
    In the end, mt faucet needed company, so antique brass won with my cherry cabs. It was close and if I had seen bagdergal's kitchen and her pulls might have changed my mind.
    Bottom line- badger convinced mr to stick with my first choice and love the 5 inch arc pulls. ( with a couple 8 inch accents on the giant pantry and the caves- his and her storage)

  • Gracie
    11 years ago

    We love nickel and planned all along to use it for our natural cherry cabs, but when we held up a sample, it did nothing for them. I think you need some kind of dark element to contrast with natural cherry, which is why it's paired with black granite a lot. Our countertop is a light-colored quartz, so the ORB helped bring the dark in, as will the backsplash.

    We used knobs for the doors and pulls for drawers. My kitchen is small so I didn't want to make it busy with pulls everywhere.

  • notlazysusan
    11 years ago

    So glad to see this post. I would love to hear more about the pulls vs knobs decision as I am currently trying to make a decision. We will have a lot of cabinets in the new kitchen and had thought I wanted all pulls, but now have heard it is nice to have a variety. Any additional comments and thoughts are much appreciated!

  • MeMcG
    11 years ago

    We just installed cherry cabinets, stainless appliances / sink / faucet and went with oil rubbed bronze (really almost black) pulls all around. I didn't like stainless hardware with the rest of the look of our kitchen and don't like mixing knobs & pulls. It's all about personal preference.

  • badgergal
    11 years ago

    There is no right or wrong answer for which finish to use or whether to use all knobs, all pulls or a combination. As I told a2gemini, the cabinet hardware just has a supporting role in the kitchen. It is not the star of the show. So don't worry about it too much.
    My kitchen has natural cherry cabinets. My choice of hardware was limited because I knew I wanted oversize pulls to emphasize the "contemporariness" of my kitchen. I didn't have a gorgeous ORB faucet like a2gemini so I opted for stainless steel pulls to go with my faucet and appliances.
    The cabinet hardware does not have to be the same finish as your faucet or appliances. Since there are so many choices out there, just try to narrow it down a little first but keep an open mind too.
    FWIW here is a picture of some of my cabinets and hardware
    {{!gwi}}

  • ginny20
    11 years ago

    I had the same experience as may flowers. I expected to put nickel with my stained cherry since I had SS appliances and faucet. I went to HD and Lowes and bought one each of lots of knobs and pulls in different finishes. For me, ORB won, hands down. I also ended up with much different shaped pulls than I originally expected. There's nothing like actually seeing them held up to the door or a sample of a door, especially of you have a sample of the counter and floor there, too.

    notlazysusan - I have knobs on the doors and pulls on the drawers. That, too, is a matter of personal taste. there is no rule. If you look at lots of kitchen pictures, lots of display kitchens, you'll figure out what you like.

    Here's a recent thread that shows different hardware styles, and a lot of them are on cherry.

    Here is a link that might be useful: Show me your cabinet knobs and pulls

  • springroz
    11 years ago

    I used pulls on the uppers, cup pulls on all the lower drawers, and knobs on the 5 lower cabinets. They contrast, being antique brass on off white.

    Nancy