Jan
22
How To Buy Cabinet Hardware #1: New or Used
Cabinet hardware can be tricky business. The options are nearly infintesimal. Finding the perfect cabinet hardware can turn into a full time job, if you let it. The best way to avoid that is to decide what you want and then find it. Don’t just go on a shopping walkabout until the right piece of cabinet hardware is staring you in the face. Plan ahead to save yourself money, time and a lot of unnecessary headaches.
You’re going to have to choose between cabinet knobs and cabinet pulls. Both are wonderful ways to decorate your cabinets the only real difference is how they are installed. To install a cabinet knob you’ll drill one hole and screw the knob in. To install a cabinet pull you’ll drill two holes.
If your cabinet doors are blank then you can choose either one with no worries. You’re starting with a blank slate. If your cabinet doors have knobs or pulls already installed, it gets a little more complicated:
If you already have cabinet knobs…
- …and want to replace them with new cabinet knobs then you don’t really have a problem. The hole is already drilled so all you’ll have to do is unscrew the old knob and then screw in the new one. This is actually the best situation to be in. Swip-Swap and you’re done!
- …and want to replace them with cabinet pulls then you’ll need to drill another hole, at least. It might not be as simple as just drilling another hole, though. You probably want your pull to be in the same spot as your knob was. But the hole for that knob will now be either the top hole or the bottom hole for the pull so the actual pull will either be above or below the spot where your knob was. If you want to avoid that you can fill in the hole the cabinet knob was using and drill two new holes. Just make sure the three holes aren’t too close together, because then you could end up with a giant hole.
If you already have a cabinet pull…
- …and want to replace it with a cabinet knob then you can use one of the two drilled holes for your knob and fill in the other one. Or fill in both and drill a third hole in between the two of them for your knob.
- …and want to replace it with a different cabinet pull then you need to know the Center-to-Center measuremnt (CTC) of the two holes. This measurement is the distance between the center of the top hole and the center of the bottom hole. If you want to put in a different cabinet pull without any additional drilling then the CTC measurement for both pulls must be exactly the same.
Basically, before you start shopping for something new, look at what you have now and how it’s installed and figure out what you’ll need to do or what you’re willing to do to put something else in it’s pplace. Once you know that you can really narrow down what your new cabinet hardware is going to be.
We offer cabinet hardware from Ann At Home, Baldwin, Emtek and Top Knobs.
Start browsing our cabinet knob collection today!
You can shop by manufacture or, if you know what you want, you can view just cabinet knobs or cabinet pulls!
If you have questions about cabinet hardware please call us at 1-800-272-7734 or send your question to Ask Jim!
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