Cabinet hardware placement guide · pulls & knobsSmall parts.
Seen every day.
Where a pull sits, and how long it is, changes how a whole kitchen reads. Try the placements our designers start from, on slab and shaker doors, and see what each choice looks like.
The placements we start from
Typical positions,
with the numbers.
These are the placements built into the design software our designers use. They are starting points. Your door style, your hardware and your hand decide the final marks.
Doors
Hardware goes on the opening side, opposite the hinges, in the corner that is easiest to reach: the top corner of a base door and the bottom corner of a wall door. A knob always goes in that corner and is never centered on the door. A pair of doors mirrors. On a tall pantry cabinet, the lower door follows the base doors and the upper door follows the wall doors.
- Rail & stile
- 1½″ in from the opening edge, with the nearest screw hole 2″ from the top of a base door or the bottom of a wall door.
- Corner
- Tight to the opening-side corner: 1¼″ in and 1¼″ from the end.
- Above corner
- 1½″ in, with the nearest hole 3½″ from the end. The pull sits a little farther along the stile.
- Centered on stile
- For pulls only: 1½″ in, centered on the height of the door. Knobs stay in the corner.
Drawers and pull-outs
Drawer pulls run horizontally. Choose one rhythm for the three-drawer stack and let every other drawer follow its top drawer. A trash pull-out slides as one front, so its pull centers on the top rail like a wide drawer, not at a door corner.
- Centered
- Centered side to side and top to bottom on every drawer.
- Top rail
- Centered side to side, 1¼″ down from the top edge. A very short front goes back to the center.
- Dual hardware
- Two pieces on a wide drawer, at one third and two thirds of its width.
- Center & rail
- The top drawer centered, and the deeper drawers below it on their top rails.
Rails and stiles
Door style
changes the numbers.
The frame around a shaker door is made of rails (top and bottom) and stiles (the sides). Their width decides where hardware can sit.
- Slab
- There is no frame, so every measurement comes from the edges of the door. The typical 1½″ in from the opening edge works on most slab doors.
- Shaker, 2¼″ rails
- Center the hardware on the stile: half the stile’s width in from the edge, which is 1⅛″ on a 2¼″ stile. On drawers, the top-rail placement centers the pull on the rail the same way.
- Slim shaker, ¾″ rails
- The frame is too narrow to hold a pull or a knob. The hardware moves onto the flat panel, at the same edge distances as a slab door, so it clears the frame.
- Wider or detailed frames
- Measure your own rail and stile and halve it. Whatever the number is, keep it the same on every door in the room.
How long should a pull be?
Thirds.
And three sizes at most.
A pull about one third the width of its drawer looks balanced. Followed exactly, that rule can put five or six lengths in one kitchen.
The rule of thirds
Divide the width of the drawer front by three and choose the closest pull length. A 15-inch drawer takes a pull of about 5 inches. A 36-inch drawer takes one of about 12. Pulls are sold by the distance between their screw holes, so match that measurement, not the overall length.
Three sizes or fewer
Then simplify. Group the drawers into narrow, medium and wide, and give each group one length. Doors take the shortest. Three sizes still follow the thirds, and they are easier to order, to install and to live with. Switch between the sizing options above to see the difference.
Before anyone drills
- Tape the hardware in place first and step back. Open the door with it.
- Use a drilling template so every door and drawer gets the same marks.
- Check behind a drawer front for the drawer box before choosing a screw position.
- Hold a long pull against a narrow drawer. If it runs close to both edges, go down a size.
- Decide the placement before the cabinets are installed, and write the numbers down.
Questions about hardware for your kitchen? Text or call us at (513) 760-5000.
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