Ever since I came across this crazy good kitchen remodel a few years ago, I’ve been thinking about horizontal pulls on upper cabinetry. They definitely make for a streamlined look as opposed to a bunch of knobs. There’s something about the vertical lines of the cabinetry mixed with the horizontal lines of the hardware that provide an aesthetically appealing contrast. They seem pretty practical, too. But maybe that’s because I’m on the shorter side {5’4″ on a good day}, so reaching up and opening a cabinet via a horizontal pull feels more natural than the same action via a vertical pull.

Whatever the reason for my obsession over the placement of cabinet hardware, I saved the two images above in my kitchen inspiration folder noting ‘horizontal hardware?’ It should come as no surprise that when it came time to install hardware onto our own kitchen cabinets I suggested to Handy Hubby the idea of placing pulls horizontally on the upper cabinets. After seeing the simplicity of them {HH has a more modern aesthetic than me}, he was game.

We went with the VÄRDE handles from IKEA and chose not to use the rosettes.

Using a drill template that we had leftover from hardware installation in our previous home, HH added the handles to the cabinets. {Never mind the photo styling. It’s what I like to call ‘we just moved in 5 days ago and are still emptying box contents wherever.’ And the bar stool goes to the island. I haven’t found one for the desk area yet.}

Like my inspiration pics, we installed them horizontally on the upper cabinetry centered at the bottom of each door.

They have a good weight to them and feel nice in your hand when you open and close the doors.

Leaving the rosettes off gives a cleaner look.

More of the same on the other side of the kitchen. Unlike my inspiration pics, we didn’t do only horizontal placement on the lower cabinets. We kind of just went one-by-one pretend opening the drawers and cabinets and placing the handles the way that felt most natural to us. Basically, all the lower cabinet doors {except for the dishwasher panel and trash pull-out} got vertical handles and the drawers got horizontal ones.

It’s nice opening the drawers and doors via actual hardware instead of strips of masking tape…which is what we were doing. Little by little, it’s coming together.

images: 1) Cottage Living  2) flickr  3) IKEA  4-8 ) Dana Miller for House*Tweaking

I really need to get a FAQ page together and have it as a tab on my home page.  It seems you all have a lot of the same questions.  Until that FAQ page shows up {please, Fairy Blog Mother?}, I’ll try to answer the most popular ones in the form of a post.  In just the last few weeks, I’ve had more than one question about the measurements of our kitchen cabinet hardware.  They are the stainless steel IKEA LANSA handles and I blogged about adding them to the cabinets here. They’re available in packs of two and cost ranges from $6.99 to $9.99 per pack.  They’re suitable for cabinet doors or drawers 1/2″ to 3/4″ thick.  They come in several lengths for various types of use. The sizes listed on IKEA’s website and packaging are the distances from screw hole to screw hole.  The length of the actual handle {longer than the hole spacing measurement} is listed under ‘product dimensions’ on the IKEA website.  We only used 2 sizes in our kitchen:  10 1/16″ and 6 1/4″…which seems to now be listed as 6 5/16″.

On our taller 42″ upper cabinets we installed the 10 1/16″ handles…

Above the microwave and refrigerator we used the 6 1/4″…

On the wider lower drawers we added the 10 1/16″…

On the narrower drawers to either side of the stove we added the 6 1/4″… {Note: the bottom door is really a pull-out trash/recycling center so we placed the hardware horizontally for ease of function.}

Finally, on the kitchen island we mixed things up.  The wide drawers have the 10 1/16″ handles while the cabinet doors have the 6 1/4″ handles.

I think the thing to keep in mind while picking cabinet hardware is the width/height of each door and drawer.  Personally, I like the hardware to mimic the size of the cabinet or drawer.  A big ol’ door would look awfully naked with a teeny handle.  Likewise, a smallish drawer would look pretty silly with a crazy big pull.  Keep things to scale.  You may even want to buy several sizes and hold them up to the doors/drawers before making a commitment.  Just return the ones you don’t use. I’d also suggest buying a few extras {we have 2 backup handles of each size we used} in case something happens to the handles and they need replaced.  If it’s been several years since you installed your hardware, there’s a good chance it’ll be discontinued.

Adding hardware to plain stock cabinets and even older outdated cabinets is a cheap upgrade.  We love ours.  Try it yourself!

FYI – I was not compensated in any way for this post.  I just love sharing great products!

images: all Dana Miller for House*Tweaking