Opening moves
With so many choices, hardware worth a bit of thought
Whether you’re building a new house or sprucing up an existing space, door knobs, drawer and cabinet pulls are a fun way to finish off a design. Interior designer Julie Maleski Putzel says she recommends new hardware to clients who just bought a house and want to personalize it to their taste; homeowners looking to freshen a room to prepare for selling the house; and to people who, say, have been home a lot more lately and want a new look but don’t have the cash to spend on new cabinets.
If you’re asking yourself, “What’s the big deal? It’s just a knob,” consider the selection of cabinet pulls on build.com, a site Maleski Putzel recommends to clients. There are nearly 10,000 products to choose from and that’s just cabinet pulls. Scroll over to knobs for another 4,700 choices.
To avoid decision paralysis, Maleski Putzel asks clients to apply filters. First: Price. You could pay $1,820 for one knob (not kidding, look it up). Pick a price range. Second: What kind of cook are you?
When selecting hardware, such as knobs and pulls for kitchen cabinets, give some thought to how the styles will merge into a whole.
If you’re cooking from scratch, baking and regularly making a mess, choose a durable stainless steel for no fingerprints, no scratches. If you want to look at something pretty and your idea of cooking is heating takeout leftovers in the microwave, enamel or glass enter the picture. Third: Building a flashy kitchen or bathroom with a lot of flourishes and printed tile? Keep the hardware simple.
“You want to complement what you just did, not detract from it,” Maleski Putzel says. “But if it’s a minimalist look, the hardware is like jewelry — a highlight or subtle detail that pops.”
As far as trends go, brushed nickel and oil-rubbed bronze remain mainstream choices for finish, says Tom Donaldson, a showroom consultant for Ferguson Bath, Kitchen & Gallery. “Hardware finishes are now available throughout the whole metallic spectrum, from soft rose gold to strong black stainless steel.”
Mixing metals is still going strong, leading to even bolder choices — different styles on the periphery cabinets than what’s on the island, for example, or pairing a geometric or round crystal pull on upper cabinets and oversized, modern pulls in matte black on lower cabinets.
Bar and handle pulls are currently nudging knobs out of the spotlight. Slim, linear bars are sleek and eyepleasing, while wider bars lend a more industrial vibe. On a practical level, if you have arthritic hands or other mobility issues, a handle pull is easier to use than a bar, cup or knob.
HGTV holds huge sway in trends (see: shiplap overlap and barn doors hung without irony in suburban ranches) but if you’re looking for something no one else will have, take a walk through the Architectural Parts Warehouse in Albany. Amid the salvaged doors, windows, headboards, sinks, toilets and light fixtures there is a treasure trove of door hardware presided over by a guy who knows
ON THE COVER
Historic Albany Foundation / Getty Images Glass door knobs and draw pulls at the Architectural Parts Warehouse, in Albany. Other examples of doorknobs.
what he’s talking about.
Warehouse manager Tom Gazda has done his own restoration work and can walk you through how to install an old fixture on a newer door. The selection runs the spectrum from door knobs salvaged from old, old houses, to midcentury modern enamel, cup-style drawer pulls. Ware
house customers, Gazda says, range from people simply looking for something beautiful, do sticklers who have specific needs for a historical era.
“The last 5% of any project will drive you bananas, and that often means the screws,” Gazda said. “To get it to look right, the connector pieces matter.”
What he means is a brand new Phillips-head screw is going to look silly holding a patinaed brass door plate. For starters, Phillips head screws weren’t even invented until the 1930s.
And now you know more than you ever thought you wanted to know about door knobs.