we're going thru the same questions on door pulls as you. A never ending struggle.... Plus the price of the larger size pulls are outrageous!

once the fronts are on, make paper (or better, card stock similar to the color you want) patterns of the lengths that your pulls are available and stick them on. you can try various lengths and orientations, live with them a day or so. its an important decision, dont try to decide without a good mull.

your contractor may say he has to have them available when the doors go on. pfft. they always have to come back to do a million things anyway.

Patrica I want a uniform look though and everything will be placed horizontal including the upper cabinets. Do you think doing different sizes will take away from the minimalistic look I'm going for?

(having a horizontal pull on a cabinet is ergonomically uncomfortable)

I really like all one size. Use two for a 36" drawer. The only time i make an exception is when there's a little stub of a drawer, like 6-9", in which case I try to find a matching smaller pull. But I think uniform is a more modern look.

Acm, thank you! I was planning on going with a 5 1/4" overall length. Do you think that's a good size? The next size up is 6 3/4" and I was worried that it would start to be too much because they are chrome and will definitely stand out.

That's the length I used in my kitchen (all but the tiny drawer to the right of the stove, heh), although I'm not quite as modern in style as you're going for. Here are some pics:

Mine are arched, rather than square, so yours will look a little longer than this already at the same length. However, with flat fronts and/or tall uppers, a longer look might be good.

Here are a few with larger pulls:

Even these huge ones look pretty sharp, although I think they might feel funny to use on cabinets, at least:

Hope this helps! I'm big on using some contractor tape to map out handle size and position, so you might try putting the two sizes side by side on a set of cabinets and see which you like better in your setting.

If your going for a more modern look your handles should be bigger and all the same size!

Annie, my smallest cabinet is 15" wide. What length do you recommend? I thought the full length of the cabinet look was kind of treading away now and people were going a little more minimalistic. Am I wrong? Thanks for the help!

I would use stainless steel pulls rather than chrome.

I use 13" pulls on my 36" drawers. It's hard to imagine a smaller pull there. I do like being able to open drawers with just one hand. Hope this helps.

My 36" drawers have 10" pulls and 15" drawers have 8" pulls. Emtek Mod Hex

Hi!

In my opinion both look great, it depends on your personal taste.

Take into account that bigger handles mean that you will notice them more, they will be more importante in the kitchen than if they will be smaller.

In Europe we usually put all the handles of the same size.

You can see it really varies depending on style and personal taste. We have used done both for clients, which you can see here in our designs below:

Using IKEA pulls, I installed them all horizontally.

Whatever you choose do not go with the ones like are in the 'Modern Napa' above as they will catch on your clothes. I would not choose to mount them all horizontally. Compare all photos as shown above. Gives you such a good visual of how yours will look. The card stock idea presented by ninigret sounds like the best way to visualize the look.

I do like the longer very straight ones for a minimalist look.

Design directives, do you normally use different lengths depending on cabinet size or all the same size? Also how do feel about mounting them horizontally?

My kitchen looks very sterile, so I thought the chrome would give it a little bit of glimmer or pizzazz, as I have very commercial looking appliances and a chrome faucet. It seems that people do not like the chrome on this thread. Chrome is timeless and very modern. I am curious to as why people say not use chrome handles?

Sandra this is the handle I was going to use.

I love your calacatta hold counter !
I chose that counter (with waterfall on island) and white slab cabs too. I chose a similar lull and asked that they be installed horizontally, even on uppers.
I put 13 inch pulls on my 33 inch banks of drawers.
I put 8 inch on all 15 inch cabinet doors.
I put 10 inch on 18 and 21 inch doors.

The kitchen isn't finished yet. I hope it will be nice. I was also going for a clean look. I ended up picking brushed/stainless though. My kid and husband seem to put prints all over my chrome pulls now. Although I love the look of chrome.

Calacatta gold, eternal series.

I don't know what others think, but I would avoid chrome handles because I wouldn't enjoy wiping them down all the time. I have a big polished chrome faucet, and that's as much as I am willing to wipe down constantly!

Blahnik1 please post pictures!!! Even if it's not fished yet... would love to see your progress. I hear you about the chrome pulls. They do show everything!

They make these clear plastic things that you can attach to the back side of your cabinet and they will hold a drawer pull in place so that you can see how they look without installing them.

Kelly c where do I get those??

I would use a single pull on your wide drawers, not two smaller ones. I know some people disagree, but the problem with two pulls is that you can't open the drawer with one hand. For my 36" wide drawers I used 8" pulls, for my narrower drawers I used 4", and for my pantry doors (really they are very tall cabinets with pull outs inside) I used 12" turned vertically. For the rest of my cabinets I used knobs but clearly that's not the look you're going for. But for me the hardware was intended to be a subtler material, not a standout feature. I'd go larger if I was looking for the hardware to be high impact, and personally I would hesitate to use chrome. But I'm willing to wipe it more than others probably - to me the beauty of it is worth a little extra effort.

Our kitchen is in a new build, that we haven't moved into yet. I'll post when we move in. The reason I opted for longer pulls (8 inch as opposed to 6) is that my pulls will all be installed horizontally. On cabinet doors with horizontal pulls, I think it's more ergonomically friendly.

I'm installing my pulls horizontally as well. I am going for a linear look...

I put up some masking tape to visualize the pulls.

This has been such a helpful thread! We haven't even demo'd our kitchen yet, but I'm worrying about every little element. We are installing shaker style cabinets in a medium stained maple. Our countertop will be grey quartz (Pental Quartz Stormy Sky) and our backsplash will be a lovely natural slate mosaic from PetraSlate. We're probably going to get a Blanco silgranit sink in Cinder with a brushed stainless faucet. So now I'm wondering about cabinet pulls! I know we want brushed nickel/brushed stainless, and we definitely want bar pulls rather than knobs. We'll have a mix of drawers and cabinets, with our narrowest drawers being only 12 inches (that's all the room we had on one side of our fridge) and our widest drawers being 36 inches. I think I prefer the look of one longer bar pull on the wide drawers, and it seems like it will make one-handed opening easier too. I like the look of the Top Knob Princetonian pulls (they mimic the handles on my Kitchenaid appliances), but they're a little pricey. Any advice on more cost-effective, but good quality options is much appreciated! We do have a small kitchen, and I want a minimalist look. All our drawer fronts will be slab rather than 5-piece fronts. Does it matter if the pulls are mounted at the top end of each drawer, or should the bar pull go right in the middle of the drawer (from top to bottom)? Or is it just a personal style preference? If we wait to install pulls until after we have lived with the kitchen for a week or two, how do we open the drawers/cabinets since they are full overlay? Thanks in advance for your thoughts!