Cabinet Hardware Trends for
Memphis Homes
The Impact of Hardware on Aesthetics
Aside from the functionality they provide, the knobs, pulls, and handles of your cabinets are like the jewelry of your cabinetry. It completes the look of your cabinets and accentuates the statement of the style you are trying to convey in your space. It ties the room together to create a harmonious and cohesive appearance for your bathroom, kitchen, or living space.
Alternatively, cabinet hardware can break the monotony of your cabinet’s appearance with striking designs or contrasting colors. It can also add character to your space or express your individual style with unique or custom designs.
Current Trends in Cabinet Hardware for Memphis Homes
Mixed Metals
Matte Black Finish
Matte black hardware gives your cabinets a sleek and sophisticated appearance. The lack of shine or gloss creates a subdued, but still, elegant appearance. And, unlike hardware with a gloss finish, smudges and watermarks are not as evident, which helps maintain a sleek appearance despite heavy use.
A matte black finish is a great choice for traditional, contemporary, and modern hardware. It works great for complementing the design of a modern interior or toning down cabinets with a traditional appearance.
Brushed Gold
Gold as a color is timeless and persists through various design styles and trends. Having a brushed gold finish on your hardware adds a contemporary look and creates a subtle, muted luster.
Brushed gold is a great option if you like gold color on your cabinets but prefer a warmer and inviting look. It offers great versatility with how it can contrast navy, black, and other dark hues and complement white, cream, and other warm-colored cabinets. As long as you have the right design, brushed gold hardware can fit your space whether it’s traditional, rustic, contemporary, minimalistic, or modern.
Minimalist Designs
Vintage-Inspired Pieces
Vintage-inspired cabinet hardware adds rustic charm and a sense of history and craftsmanship to your space. Some examples of these pieces include antique brass knobs, glass pulls, and ceramic handles from bygone eras, and pieces with intricate designs like embossed patterns, filigree, and aged finishes.
Vintage-inspired pieces can be paired with raised panel or arched cabinet doors to create a cohesive traditional design or with shaker-style cabinet doors to create contrast with their clean and straight lines.
How to Choose Hardware for Different Cabinet Styles
1. Identify the Style of Your Space
Before selecting your cabinet hardware, you need to identify the interior design style where you will place your cabinets. Whether it’s traditional, modern, or transitional, identifying your style and understanding its overarching theme will help narrow down your choices to the best designs, colors, and themes that complement or contrast your space.
Below is a short guide you can use for narrowing down your hardware options to the ones that suit the popular cabinet design styles in Memphis, TN:
- Traditional: Features fine ornamental features, yet conveys a familiar and comfortable look. Examples of this style are polished brass, natural wood finishes, antique pewter, oil-rubbed brass, and basic shapes with elegant detailing.
- Modern or Contemporary: Features clean lines, minimal detailing, and reflective surfaces. Some colors and materials for modern style include neutral and metallic colored pieces like polished chrome or brushed nickel finish.
- Transitional: Combines the clean and sleek look of modern style and the classic accent and details of traditional style. Transitional hardware is great for bridging styles by adding a touch of modernity to traditional cabinets or traditional to modern cabinets.
- Farmhouse or Rustic: Aims to exude a comfortable and warm atmosphere in your interiors. Ceramic knobs, polished silver leather knobs, satin brass handles, and vintage pulls with distressed finishes are good examples of farmhouse cabinet hardware designs.
2. Decide Whether to Use Pulls or Knobs
The choice between pulls or knobs for your cabinets is a matter of preference. As long as it suits the design you are creating, you can choose whatever cabinet hardware you prefer. You can even combine the two to create a different look. For example, you can use knobs on all upper cabinets and pulls on lower cabinets, or knobs on all cabinet doors and pulls on all drawers.
Pulls (or handles) are more popular since they have two attachment points that allow for better durability. On the other hand, knobs are better at creating a statement given their larger visual impact and larger space for elaborate details and designs.
3. Consider Additional Cabinet Hardware
Hinge
- Traditional hinges: As the name suggests, this is a classic hinge design that suits a more traditional style.
- Wrap hinges: It wraps around the edges of the cabinet and comes in self-closing variants.
- Butt hinges: This hinge consists of two identical rectangular leaves and is recessed into the door and frame and is known for its durability. It features a larger knuckle situated on the exterior of the cabinet door.
- Surface mount hinges: This type is attached to the outside face of the door and frame of your cabinet. It adds a decorative flair for transitional and traditional cabinet designs.
- Strap hinges: This hinge has two long flaps and can be attached inside or outside of your cabinet. This hinge has designs suitable for rustic, vintage, farmhouse, and modern-style cabinets.
Full-extension drawer slides
- Undermount drawer slides: A great choice for drawers with dovetail or finger joint construction.
- Side mount drawer slides: The most popular and versatile drawer slide since it is available in partial and full extension drawer slides. The only drawback is it's visible when the drawer is open.
- Bottom mount: Also referred to as European drawer slides. They are attached to the bottom corners of the drawer and are available in partial and full-extension drawer slides.
Backplates
Cabinet latches
4. Determine the Size of Cabinet Hardware
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Cabinet pull size If you prefer consistent hardware throughout your cabinetry, pulls should be at least 3 and ¾ inches between screw holes or at least 5 to 6 inches in length. These sizes are large enough to make grabbing the handles comfortable but still small enough to fit on most drawers. If you prefer a smaller size, it is best to use two pulls on wide drawers to create a balanced appearance. If you prefer varying sizes of pulls, it should be a third of a drawer’s length. As for cabinet doors, the pulls should generally be 5 to 7 inches for upper cabinet doors.
For a modern cabinet design, you can use full-length pulls that span nearly the entire width of your drawers and cabinet doors. - Cabinet knob size A safe size for cabinet knobs is at 1 and ¼ inches. You can size down if you have a minimalist design or size up if you want to create a statement with embellished cabinet knobs.
5. Choose the Material and Finish
Cabinet hardware is available in a wide variety of materials. Most of these are metals like brass, bronze, stainless steel, pewter, and nickel. But, there is also glass, crystal, ceramic, and wood cabinet hardware. What you choose depends on your preferences and the interior design style of the space.
As for the finish, you can choose from: antique, brushed, burnished, matte, oil-rubbed, polished, painted, satin, or weathered.
Here are some suggestions on the material and finish to choose based on the design style of your kitchen, bathroom, or living space:
- Traditional design: Pewter and brass
- Farmhouse or rustic design: Bronze
- Transitional design: Black for light-colored cabinets and white for dark-colored
- Modern or contemporary design: Polished or brushed stainless steel
For a more striking impression in your interiors, you can coordinate your cabinet hardware and countertop design by creating contrast or matching their color or finish. You can click here to learn more about our premium curated selection of countertops and see how you can match or complement your hardware cabinetry with them.
Ways to Incorporate Memphis’ Unique Style
- Combine different materials, shapes, and finishes for your cabinet hardware to create a unique and visually interesting look.
- For Art Deco interiors, choose hardware with clean lines or geometric shapes for your cabinetry.
- For historic homes or newer ones styled after Queen Anne, Victorian, or Craftsman style, choose traditional cabinet hardware that complements their design like those with intricate carvings, contrasting textures, and unique shapes.
- For mid-century modern design, go for brass cabinet hardware with clean lines and minimalist shapes.