Cabinet Hardware: The Small Jewelry of the Kitchen

The smallest hardware in the house does an outsized share of the work of setting a period. Cabinet hardware, the pulls, knobs, and latches the hand touches constantly, dates a kitchen or a piece of casework as surely as anything larger. It's the jewelry of the room, and like jewelry it's easy to lose and specific to match.

The forms track the eras

Early cabinets used simple turned knobs and cast pulls; the Hoosier cabinets and kitchens of the early twentieth century brought the bin pull, that cupped, half-round pull sized for a drawer, along with latches specific to freestanding cabinetry. Deco kitchens went geometric and often chromed; mid-century cabinets went spare and linear. The bin pull deserves its own mention, because it's both distinctive and functional, designed to be gripped from below and carrying strong period character. Latches and catches matter too: old cabinets often used real latching hardware, elbow catches, cupboard latches, icebox-style hardware, rather than the hidden magnets of modern cabinetry.

The matching problem is quantity

A kitchen needs many identical pulls or knobs, so finding a matched set in the right style, finish, and size is harder than finding a single decorative piece. A run of matching original hardware is worth seeking out and worth more than the sum of singles.