A Look at Kitchen Cabinet Hardware

A Look at Kitchen Cabinet Hardware

Kitchen is the heart of every household. If you are foodie or a passionate cook then you must be spending even more time there and want maximum utilization of space. Well-planned and well-designed kitchen cabinets can help save a lot of time and make life easier. The backbone of kitchen cabinets is the kitchen cabinet hardware since it determines the functionality and usefulness, durability as well as aesthetics of the cabinets.

To know more about them and how important they are, let’s take a look at the various parts of typical kitchen cabinet hardware.

• Cabinet knobs and pulls: Cabinet knobs and pulls are both functionally and aesthetically important. They help in easy handling of cabinets and safeguarding them from direct human touch. The basic difference between knobs and pulls is that the former is fitted on a single screw while the latter is fitted on two screws. Once you decide whether you want knobs or pulls for your cabinet, the next choice would include the style and finish. You can choose from various ornate or contemporary pulls and knobs depending upon whether you have Victorian style cabinets or modern modular kitchen cabinets respectively.

Different types of cabinet pull designs include:

-          Arch pulls

-          Cup pulls

-          Bar Pulls

-          Drop pulls

-          Wire pulls

-          Flush pulls

-          Ring Pulls

-          Finger / Edge Pulls

-          Appliance pulls

Different types of cabinet knob designs include:

-          Bar cabinet knobs

-          Birdcage cabinet knobs

-          Mushroom Cabinet knobs

-          Oval Cabinet knobs

-          Round cabinet knobs

-          Square cabinet knobs

Different types of finish include:

-          Blacks

-          Chromes

-          Copper finish

-          Brass finish

-          Bronze finish

-          Brushed Nickel finish:

• Cabinet hinges: Cabinet hinges are the ones that are functionally most important in kitchen cabinet hardware. They support the cabinet doors and take care of operational ease (open and close). The finish of the cabinet hinge must match your knobs or pulls to maintain the overall look of the cabinets. The different types of cabinet hinges include the following:

-          Concealed Cabinet Hinges

-          Flush Spring / Non spring cabinet hinges

-          Strap Hinges

-          Butterfly cabinet hinges

-          Pivot Hinges

-          Face Mount Hinges

Among all such similar kitchen cabinet hardware, soft self-closing hinges are highly popular among the modern day interior designers due to their ability to shut automatically without banging.

• Drawer slides: Drawer slides should be of high quality with good material and parts used as they should be able to take weight of the things stored in the drawer. Different types of basic drawer slides include:

-          Single extension drawer slides

-          Centre Mount Drawer slides

-          Mono rail drawer slide

-          Rollere Bearing Side mount drawer slides

-          Self closing drawer slides

Drawer slides need to be selected based on the length and depth of the drawer, considering the amount of weight the drawer will carry.

Just by making little changes to your kitchen cabinet hardware you can give your kitchen a whole new facelift. But care needs to be taken while choosing the new hardware so that they fit well in place of old hardware. For instance, if you are replacing your cabinet pulls, you need to make sure that their centre to centre measurements match or else you will have too many holes drilled in your cabinets leaving them to be filled with wood fillers or paints.