I think they look more finished with hardware and you're not always touching the cabinet door to open and close. It's a preference thing. You don't need them. I think it was the 90s when hardware wasn't used on cabinet doors. Many people use a mix of knobs and pulls. Some will even use different lengths of pulls (same style) for different size drawers. I have knobs on my doors and pulls on the drawers. We also have hidden hinges. Some people like mixing different color metals in a room and others don't. I think the bathrooms can be treated separate, but would want the house to have a unified look overall - I wouldn't want a tropical theme in one room and something modern in the next.

I would spend some time looking at photos online or in magazines and see if you can sort through what's appealing to you. You can always ask here for feedback on different options.

I think hardware really adds the "jewelry" to the cabinetry and does also serve the practical functions Shee mentioned.

We used a combo of pulls and knobs in our kitchen and we felt no need to match them to any other cabinetry in the house. Rather we went with what was going on in the room.

We have only knobs in our kitchen and baths as we prefer that look to pulls. But, we have a different finish in the kitchen versus the bath, to match what is going on in the different rooms.

a) no, they don't. but it's often times easier if a door gets used regularly

b) what you might need to mix-the sizes. Taller door or longer drawer will have to have a pull or a handle, not a knob. You can keep to exact the same design though.

You can mix and match too. That's how I sold our first starter home)). The buyer-after escrow was done and they were getting the keys and all-told me all the homes they looked at were pretty much the same, but she loved the knobs on my kitchen drawers))

(I agonized for weeks about these knobs lol. It was pre-internet time...every day after work I would go to the same hardware place and spend there an hour looking at them. I took home samples and looked at them too. Several times. I think they all signed with relief, in that store, when I finally made a purchase)

c) no, you don't have to have matching hardware all over the house(unless you want to). At all. but you do need to consider the space itself and how it relates to other spaces..as the others have already suggested.

There's no right and wrong here - you do what appeals most and works best for you. I prefer my cabinets to have hardware to grab onto, particularly those that are painted white. Grabbing the doors to open will over time cause wear to the painted finish. We chose a mission style bronze pull for the kitchen and liked it so much that we used it throughout the home in 3 of our 4 baths (the 4th being a powder room and having a different style vanity that already had hardware on it), as well as the laundry room.

I also like the way cabinet hardware dresses up a room. As has been said, it's like a bit of jewelry to finish off a look.

aprilneverends - Totally funny.