I think cup pulls are the white subway tiles of cabinet hardware.

urboros4- Does that mean they are simple and timeless or boring?

I considered cup pulls so I bought cup pulls and regular pulls and attached them to be soon to be gone kitchen just to see how they would work. I did not like the cup pulls and my family agreed. You have to always reach under to pull the drawer and with a regular pull you can reach under or over. It was just more comfortable for my family. I also tried out several knobs. It came down to comfort for us. Good luck with your kitchen.

When we updated our kitchen, we went from regular pulls to cup pulls, and happy we did. I suppose it depends on the style of pull you get, but with our old pulls, our clothes would get caught on them :) Seriously, no lie! If I just brushed by the cabinets, a loose shirt or even my knit type of pants would get caught on them. I hated that.

I don't find the cup pulls to be hard to "grab" at all, I really like them. I don't think you can go wrong, its personal preference.

Good idea LRy511. I might as well install them on my soon to be gone cabinets to get a feel for them!
Thanks, MissyV.

I think cup pulls have been very "in" for a few years, so in a short while will be "out". There is usually a backlash after something gets popular...
Of course, if it is something you love and feel strongly about, then in and out do no matter. If it is only one of a few choices, I'd skip them.

I don't mean simple and timeless - white subway tiles certainly aren't, they will be tacky in the near future. Why? They're frikkin' EVERYWHERE right now.

Just like cup pulls.

Both design elements have a mid-20th century retro feel.

I think they will become dated. If not already, sometime next week.

If you just like them, I suggest that you find pulls with holes in the 3 3/4" range (96mm), so that you can easily change them when they are dated or get tired of them. You can change the whole look of the kitchen cheaply and in minutes by changing all your pulls!

Wow pretty strong words uroboros... "tacky"? I hardly think so. Cup pulls, as well as white subway tiles, will not look "tacky". Ubiquitous, yes, overdone, sure - they are very popular right now and I agree that many kitchens with them will date themselves by this trend. But done properly, especially in a period kitchen, they look classy and elegant and simple. There are several kitchens on the FKB that illustrate the look when it is done well. Tacky is a look more associated with bold accents that are trendy for a time but have little long-term appeal - think roosters and fake ivy and 70s color schemes.

I've never had them, but as yucky as my regular ones get (kids who like to cook and I'm not the neatest cook either), I think I'd find them too hard to clean for us.

We have cup pulls on our drawers and bar pulls on our doors and I love the contrast it provides. I guess I would say our kitchen is transitional and I think they look really good together. We love the cup pulls.

Good suggestion, uroborros5. I should check the size.
Espressler- I'd love to see it. Are you part of the finished kitchens?
Thanks everyone~

in my kitchen i have: cup pulls, handle pulls (in two sizes), crystal knobs, drop pull knobs AND ice box latches.

i'll just have to suffer through the pain of it all as my guests remark how "tacky" my kitchen is. oh well, i tried.

Actually I was going to suggest mixing pulls. This way, frequently-opened drawers get the most ergonomic handles you can find, but then you can put cup pulls on a separate bank of drawers for a more interesting look.

Isn't hardware one of the easiest things to change if your kitchen becomes dated, or, god forbid, tacky? Buy what you want and in 5 years, get new ones if they're 'out.'

I am thinking of mixing pulls. We are not handy and the cabinets are custom painted, so once the pulls are on, that's it.

lolauren: Too funny... I too commit the heinous crime of opening lower drawers with my toes! Of course 9 out of 12 months here is pretty chilly (6C/43F this evening!), so at least I wear socks usually!

I agree with others: considered cup pulls, still love the look, but ultimately went with handles on drawers (and knobs on doors). Someone also told me the inside of cup pulls get pretty dirty/germy, as they're rarely wiped inside.

I think the debate about if cup pulls are 'in' or 'going out' is kind of moot. It all depends on the style of pull and the style the kitchen is being modeled in. I personally think the pulls in my kitchen (1920s traditional/french country) are VERY fitting to the home. I've seen pictures of kitchens in homes similar to mine and they all have bin pulls and rounded knobs. I tried to model my own kitchen after that look at least a bit.

I find them very easy to clean and no big deal. It also helps that they haven't caught on nearly as much in my area.

EMH107-
No, my kitchen is not part of the finished kitchens because we are not completely finished. We still need to update our floors and I would love to get new countertops one day. I will see if I can post a picture for you of our cabinets.

We've had cup pulls on all our kitchen drawers and I find them very comfortable to use. Our kitchen is transitional/contemporary and the pulls we used fit very nicely with that style, IMO. There are a great many styles of cup pulls - some are very retro and others are more sleek and modern. Ours are very smooth and we chose a large size which I think makes them more comfortable to use.

I've seen some cup pulls that were formed from sheet metal and the edges of those where too thin to be comfortable for me. Ours are cast so the edge is comfortable. Whatever hardware you choose, I'd recommend getting samples to try first so you can see if they are comfortable to use. The cup pulls in the catalog you linked to look like their edge might be a bit too squared off for comfortable use.

We haven't had any issues with them getting dirty. I'd be more concerned about the difficulty of keeping pulls with groves clean.

As already suggested, mixing cup pulls and bar pulls can work really well.

Segbrown was my inspiration to mix hardware in my kitchen and I have different lengths of bar pulls, cup pulls and knobs on different cabinets and drawers. I like the more casual effect and I am pretty sure my friends won't call it tacky to my face, LOL! In my part of the country the white cabinets, subway tile and black counter is much less common than other areas so I am not too worried about it looking like everyone else's.

Here is a link that might be useful: Segbrown's finished kitchen

I love the look of cup pulls (and white subway tiles) and had found some that I loved - http://www.lewisdolin.com/glassbin.html , but ended up going with regular pulls because I knew BF would hate using them. We spend equal time in the kitchen and I had to take his likes/dislikes into consideration. If you have the top doors made as slabs and find you or someone in your family don't like using them after all, it should be easy to change to a pull.

Lolauren, I use my toes to open my trash pullout when my hands are messy. It's gross, but not as gross as my messy hands!

LOL. I love it! It's nice to know I'm not the only one ;)