How to Choose Kitchen Hardware for Cabinets

Consider your whole design with these simple tips when it comes time to choose kitchen hardware for your cabinets. This post is sponsored by Armac Martin, however, all opinions are 100% my own!

I recently shared our Kitchen Design Board for our new build, and today I want to talk about the kitchen hardware. This hardware gets its very own post because it’s not always easy to find the perfect hardware for your kitchen. There are many things to consider and I’m going to walk you through how we chose hardware for our kitchen and some of my thoughts throughout our build! We chose Armac Martin for our kitchen and I couldn’t be happier! It is the most beautiful high-quality hardware I’ve ever seen in my entire life. When you hold it in your hands you can just feel the weight of solid brass that has been hand-finished. Let’s take a look at how to choose kitchen hardware.

Choose Kitchen Hardware Styles

When it comes time to select hardware for a kitchen, it’s often easiest to first decide on the style you want to use. As I was designing our kitchen the first thing I considered was our cabinets. I looked at their style as well as their color. Our cabinets are a skinny shaker style and have a modern shape. However, I did balance that with a wood species that provided some softness to those harsh edges and corners. Because our stain is a soft medium wood tone that grain doesn’t necessarily jump out at you, but it is noticeable.

Leebank Appliance Pull | Leebank Pulls | Leebank T bar | Withenshaw Knob

Ultimately I felt like I should mirror the modern edges and soft woodgrain in my hardware, but almost in reverse. I chose a rounded style of hardware from Armac Martin’s Leebank Line that has straight lines incorporated into the design. Finding balance has always been my top priority in this whole design. I didn’t want anything to feel too modern or have too many curves, I wanted a balance of both things. That balance seems to meet perfectly when you consider permanent fixtures (like cabinets) and accessories (like hardware and lighting).

Cabinet Hardware Style Options

There are several different styles of cabinet hardware. However, don’t ever feel like you can’t mix those different styles. There have been some pretty amazing combinations throughout time and sometimes that’s exactly what can set your kitchen apart.

Modern Hardware tends to have straight edges with a sleek look to them. Whereas more traditional styles will have curved silhouettes and more intricate detailing. There are many options to choose from.

Cabinet Hardware Color

With over 20 finishes available, Armac Martin has the best selections when it comes to color options. No matter what direction you take your kitchen, they will have the perfect metal finish for your hardware. You can see a full list of their color offerings here.

The color of your hardware is just as important as the color of your cabinets. When trying to determine your hardware finish, ask yourself these questions:

Do you want your hardware to make a bold statement?

Should your hardware blend with cabinetry?

Is your hardware an accent or a focal point?

Do you want a more casual or formal look to your cabinets?

We ultimately went with black hardware for our cabinets. We have both stained and painted cabinets and I wanted the hardware to pop with all cabinets. I briefly considered a burnished brass tone, but ultimately decided that wasn’t the look I wanted to be paired with our stained cabinets (which make up a majority of our cabinetry). Plus the undertones of our stain really allow black hardware to shine and it ties everything together beautifully.

Mixed Metal Combinations

If you’re like me and enjoy mixing metals, here is how we are mixing metals in our kitchen:

Dominant Color: Black

Accent Color: Polished Nickel

While those are the two main colors in our kitchen, you will also find some antique brass nearby in some of the light fixtures.

Why choose polished nickel over chrome or stainless steel?

This is often a question I see because they don’t often look much different in color. There is however a difference. Polished nickel has a warmer undertone to it while chrome has a cooler undertone and can take on a more bluish color. One isn’t necessarily better than the other, but more depends on your overall design. With that said, though, polished nickel is typically more expensive. Polished nickel was our choice because of the warm tones in our cabinet color and stone.

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Our Kitchen Hardware Choices:

• Leebank Appliance Pulls
• Leebank Pulls
• Leebank T-bar
• Withenshaw Knobs

Overall the cabinet hardware took me quite a while to nail down. It’s an investment and I wanted to make sure that I not only love the look of the hardware but that it would blend with our overall design aesthetic. I’ll be sharing a guide on choosing knobs vs pulls, how big pulls should be, etc. So make sure you are subscribed to our newsletter so you can stay up to date with new content! In the meantime, if you’re looking for hardware I’ve rounded up some of my favorites from Armac Martin!

We went with the Leebank Collection for our pulls and t-bars and incorporated the Withenshaw Knobs alongside them. I can’t wait to share how we used the different size pulls, knobs and t-bars to provide definition to our cabinets!

Leebank Collection | Bromwich Collection | Cotswald Collection | Rotunda Collection