Some people do it that way intentionally; I think it's a personal preference thing. We're going to center ours, but there was an active debate about it---DH arguing that there was some functionality in having the handles at the top of the drawer, which is true.

I say try it out for a bit and see how you like it; if it still bugs you, switch it later. Filling holes is frustrating and you might find you get used to it.

I think it would look terrible to center on the drawers below. I'd call this a happy accident. Knobs on large drawer (and pulls) should not be centered up and down.

these are perfect.
I would never put them in the middle of the large drawers. They would be too awkward that way. really

Amity the same thing happened to me. I gave DH "clear" (I guess not) instructions. He only did one drawer before I realized it though.

I was a devastated drama queen. It caused quite the marital strife, lol. Anyway I thought that mistake drawer would bother me forever, sniff. But actually, I NEVER notice it.

Anyway, I actually like the way yours came out. Because your top drawers are shallower than the bottom drawers it looks like it was done on purpose. I'm not just saying that. If you fill and redrill you'll be able to see the holes filled anyway. I don't think that is a feasible solution. Give it time. Your kitchen looks beautiful and this small detail will not change that!

I can't figure out what you're talking about! Other than it was done differently than you pictured in your head, I think they look great! Better, in fact, than the way you wanted them.

Looks great to me. Your DH may have a bright future in kitchen design!

I think it looks wonderful! It took me a minute to see what you were talking about. My pulls are centered in my drawers, even the large drawers but my drawrs are all raised panel so they really needed to be centered. I think your DH did a very nice job and has a good design eye. Call it a happy accident and learn to love it.

If you centered the pulls vertically in the lower drawers, you'd have to reach that much further, bend that much deeper, just to grab the pull. That's bad ergonomic design. You don't want to do deep knee bends every time you open a drawer. I think the pulls are placed correctly as they are.

Looks great! I agree, you'd have to bend to low if pulls were centered on that bottom drawer.

I am crazy about symmetry and alignment, so I would have specified just as you did. But, looking at your pictures, I agree with the other posters...they are correct as-is!

It is nice that the middle drawer pulls visually line up with the knobs. I think it looks beautiful, and thanks for posting...I'm going to save these pictures to remember this!

What Johnliu says. I've never understood the choice to center the pulls vertically on the lower drawers. People go out of their way to minimize bending in their kitchen choices - ranges are a mistake, undercounter ovens are bad etc. etc. ... but then go and put the drawer pulls so low to the ground! You open kitchen drawers WAY more often than you open an oven door! Don't get it.

I think your DH did the right thing. It looks perfect.

The only difference between your door pulls and mine are my pulls are placed along the horizontal line of the inset panel.

I would not have centered the pulls on the doors.

It looks perfect! When I first saw the picture I couldn't figure out what was wrong at all until another post clarified it for me. I agree, if the lower ones were centered vertically as well, that would not look as good. The kitchen looks beautiful!

I too had to get used to having our pulls installed the way yours were installed... but now I love them that way. You'll get used to it and be glad you don't have to reach down the extra few inches to open the bigger drawers! Looks good!

It looks great. Don't change a thing.

Personally, I always think that the side to side and top to bottom centering is an artificial idea put forth by decorators and compulsives. This "mistake" is a good thing for a working kitchen. The miscommunication itself is not a good thing, of course--am dealing with that perpetually myself with deaf DH--but in this case, it's become a good thing.

However, because he doesn't know he's made an error, you can't parlay your anger into a bargaining point, such as a big vacation or an induction range or whatever. From the scheming wife point of view, you are making a mistake yourself. But as a good woman, you have done well and you won't regret this. If he never learns what you wanted him to do with the knobs, you will get points in heaven.

They look wonderful! I think your drawers are too deep to put the pulls in the center, for ergonomic reasons as well as aesthetic.

But I have to say: your topic sentence ("Left him alone with simple instructions. [fill in rest]" is the story of my 45 years of married life!!!

When I first looked at your pictures before reading the text I wondered "I don't see anything wrong here." Having back issues, I'd want my pulls like you have yours. I think it visually balances out the look to have them where they are.

But, I know how it feels to have the hubby do something you don't expect. My poor hubby trembles every time I send him to the store! LOL I liken it to him sending me to the hardware store & picking out the item he wants...he'd be taking a huge chance! I'm seriously thinking of sending along a picture book with the exact item I want...I even did a run through in the store & made a list where each item is so he wouldn't have to run around so much. Gotta love those hubbys! :)

The location of the pulls is wonderful. Your back will thank you too because you won't have to bend so far to grab a handle.

Visually, he did it the right way. Ergonomically too. This is the one time his lack of listening skills paid off.
Be glad you did not make a stink because everyone else who will see these in the real world would agree with your dh. Mine would make me out to be mean and horrible and I'd have to hear about how everyone agrees I am wrong (he does that when his family takes his side in things, despite being wrong, lol). Crisis averted.

He was just matching the stove.

Unless you intended to move the handle on the oven door down a foot.

he actually did the right thing...the bigger drawers can use the pull higher up. i think it looks great!

I agree with everyone else -- happy accident! Ours was planned they way your DH installed yours. Although centering on each drawer might seem logical. I actually like that the distance from the top of the drawer to the handle is the same on each drawer -- it lends consistency in my kitchen where I have drawers of varying heights. And it helps with the bending issue!

If you had shaker cabinets, I would agree that it should be centered, but with your doors, it looks much better the way your DH did it. I'd give him a huge kiss and hug for doing it the right way even though he didn't listen. (How typical. lol)

You guys...errr, women, your are the greatest!!!

Reading these replies I am grinning from ear to ear with a few of the replies that made me literally LOL. Well, OK, more of a snorting but you get the idea.

The pictures you included were wonderful as I'm a visual person and sharing your examples of your DH and their inability to follow instructions had me nodding my head "yes, yes, yes!!"

OK, so maybe I was just a little overtired last night.
I looked again a couple times this morning and I saw where I was getting the "they look wrong" attitude.

I see the second row of handles smooshed up close to the first row and then a large space before the third row of handles.

And yet, I see the pics you included and yours look wonderful! Go figure....my brain is misfiring, sending out strange signals. LOL

Ya know, all this time every single decision I've made w/r/t the kitchen has been made with my Mom's health/disabilites coming first and foremost.
And yet, when it came to handles on drawers, it never dawned on me that having them placed higher on the larger drawers would be so much easier on her.
That fact alone that so many of your brought up, means those handles are staying put.

So last night I praised him, hugged him a bunch of times, grabbed the camera, took pics, acted all excited and thrilled with his work.
Today when he comes home from work, I am going to do the same but this time I will really mean it! lol

You all are just the best....THANK YOU!!!!

It looks perfect. I'm so glad you didn't tell him he did it wrong. I've done that to my DH too many times to count and then regretted it. I know in my heart that his dear feelings are worth more than the perfection of some little project I've given him to do.

Having said that, I also have a lot of things that paid contractors were "left with instrutions" to do and did wrong. Now that hurts in the pocketbook. DH has told me a million times, and I've finally learned it myself: You do not leave a workman alone. You have to check on them continually. LOL but so true.

I did that intentionally so I wouldn't have to reach down as far on the lower drawers.

I'm glad you're feeling better about this and didn't make Mr. Amity feel bad. I'm too quick with my mouth and would have fussed about it the second I saw it without stopping to think if I even liked it first. Even if I changed my mind later and thanked him, the damage to his ego would already have been done. That's much harder to fix than drawer handles.

This means you're getting close to being DONE, right?? Yea for that.

Mine are the same way, and I wouldn't want them in the middle.

I think they look beautiful! I'm looking forward to the rest of the pics! :^)

You're lucky your hubby did it in your absence, because I totally agree with the consensus above that his solution is the right one.

If you had raised panel or inset drawers then yes they probably should be centered horizontally, but for your drawers your hubby did it perfectly. Ergonomically better, and nicer on the eyes too IMO.

Love your hardware, btw!!

Although I envy your handle placement (via your DH's innocent diligence) I need to say as a disclaimer that because we have the "Shaker" style, we're dealing with a different reality and a different aesthetic and may end up with your planned style of handle placement. I have been mocking up the position of my pulls and I realize that if they're in the recessed center panel but too close to our wide thicker upper frame area, I will lose some hard-won clearance space for fingers and will hate them every time I use them. It will be worse than having to bend low from hip because the handles are gonna cause a scraping of the frame wood on my knuckles.

Bottom Line: I like your door style and your DH's solution better.

I think it looks terrific! And, being as I have partial overlay cabs, would love more info on your cabinets. Looks great. Give Mr. Amity a kiss!

I think they look fine too. I just had to go look to see which way ours were done. They are in the center, but if I had guessed before looking, I would have said they were at the top because I like the way that looks.

When looking down the row beginning with the door knobs, it looks like the 2nd row of drawers lines up with the knobs.

Do you have more pictures of your kitchen? Your cabinets look great from these pictures.

Wow, more positive reinforcement....THANK YOU SO MUCH!

Of course I praised him all over again when he got home from work tonnight and he was walking around like a proud peacock.

I too am so glad in my heart that I didn't 'correct' him when I got home last night for the supposed 'misplacement' of the handles.

Now that I've had all day working in the kitchen, I look at them and Love them!
I'm sure that love came from all of your positive responses and it transfered over to my new love for my drawer/cabinet hardware. LOL
Did I mention before...You all are the Best!

I would love to give you details about the cabinets but all I know is what I was told as I'm not a cabinet expert....never dreamed I'd be giving my 1950, modest tract home a new kitchen.....so researching cabs was not something I had ever done.
Most I had done was pop over to this forum over the years and drool at the pictures everyone was posting of their completed/almost completed kitchens.

Don't know if you know the history of our kitchen re-do but we didn't much have a choice in the matter....lots of water damage along with heavy mold and lots of asbestos issues.

No funds. Enter.... Craigs List!

We must have seen 3 dozen sets of cabinets in person while searching CL, weekend after weekend and some days after Mr. got home from work.

None of them came close to fitting the size/shape of our kitchen......Long Galley kitchen with only a 4 ft. aisle.
In fact, after deciding to purchase these cabs..... seeing most of them removed from precious owner's walls and packed/wrapped in dark butcher paper...it wasn't until a couple months later that we realized that butcher paper and the couple boxes hid a multitude of sins.
We were able to fix/repair/modify all cabs except one so we exchanged it/size with one of the extras and boy, does that area really stick out like a sore thumb now. lol
That's ok. They are up, they are filled to the brim and now I'm loving my hardware!!!!

The hardware is what we had on the original kitchen....we did that during a mini facelift about 6 years ago.
I needed a few more, went to Ebay to find the Seller from six years ago and luckily he was still selling the same brand/style of hardware so I purchased a few more.

Back to the cabs. CL Seller told me they purchased the cabs three years ago, put them up, a year later she lost her job.
She was in the process of removing them before letting the house go back to the bank.
She told me the cabs are oak with a dark cherry finish and some dry-brush antique over top. *shurgs shoulders* I guess that's a good way to describe them.

I am perfectly fine stating that all of your "before" pictures of your kitchens, look so much nicer than my "after" pics.
I don't have beautiful solid pieces of granite or soapstone.
No Farm sink.
No gorgeous backsplash.
Only one dishwasher and at that, to raise it for my Mom we had to come up with our own 'cabinet' and then stain it to try to match the rest.
No warming drawers, no prep sink, no gentle self-closing drawers, no....well, you get the picture.

With the exception of the little espresso table/chairs for my parents in the eat-in area and the extra knobs and handles, all the "new" stuff in the kitchen comes from Estate Sales, Ebay, Craigs List, Goodwill and PenneySaver.

And do I have pics of the progress so far? Oh My Yes!
I documented the whole history of the kitchen re-do progress.
In part at the beginning because I wanted to make sure a judge saw them in case he wanted to give me life without parole. He'd see what I went through with the insurance and restoration companies and surely he'd go lenient on the murder charges brought against me.

I have five pages of PhotoBucket pics.
Want the whole lot or just specific pics?
Lemme know and I'll be happy to add some links.

Again, You all are just so kind, your encouragement, pats on the back, understanding and generous advice.....priceless.

I think they wouldnt have worked as well in the middle. It is funny because the exact opposite happened to me. I have a very contemporary home and asked the handyman to put the knobs on the bathroom cabs. as your husband did. I was horrified to find them in the middle of the cabinets, in line with the drawer knobs. I posted on this board and everyone assured me they looked good. Now I am glad he did it. That was for a contemporary bathroom. For your kitchen, though, I think your husband was right on!

I never noticed handle placement until this post. I lived with this for 20+ years and not once paid any attention to where the handles were located. That's just where they were when we moved in. I'd say your Mr. did a great job on your cabs!

{{gwi:1970566}}

I can't seem to access your photobucket but I love your cabinets. They look better than mine but I'm still going to keep mine because there is nothing really wrong with them, just not modern.

Our kitchen designer suggested the way that your husband put them. It will be much easier on your back not to have to bend down so much.