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Kitchen cabinet pulls - ok to install on the cabinet panel?

12 years ago

Has anyone out there installed pulls on the cabinet face (vs the rail) on their cabinet doors (upper / lower / pantry / dishwasher panel)? Is there a drawback to this? Will it weaken or split the door? Anyone have pictures if they've done it? The rails on my cabinets are not wide and we are not happy with knobs. Thanks!

Featured Answer

mama goose_gw zn6OH

12 years ago

My kitchen is currently undergoing a facelift, but I'm keeping some upper cabinets. They have knobs, mounted on the panels--that position seemed more comfortable to me. Prior to the knobs, the cabinets had large pulls--I didn't like them, but they seemed OK structurally. I filled the vacated holes and painted the cabinets, and they're still fine.

Here is a link that might be useful: Pantry doors

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Comments (9)

Buehl
12 years ago
You mean like this? All my pulls are installed on panels except the trash pullout's pull....

No problem yet!
Tim
12 years ago
I think they're talking about doors, in which case you might have an issue.

On drawers, there is typically a solid chunk of material behind the drawer front which provides the structure for the pull to mount to. When you pull the drawer open, you're pulling on the drawer box not the front.

On a door of course there isn't any material behind the panel.

Would ultimately depend on the thickness/material of the panel and the door construction.

How thin are the frames on your doors? Surely there must have been a plan for the overall door design to accommodate some form of hardware.
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Buehl
12 years ago
If that's the case, then I can't help...my knobs are all on the rails. (I have knobs on doors & pulls on drawers.)
be21
Original Author
12 years ago
TorontoTim - I think you get what I'm talking about. The rails are not that narrow - about 2" wide. It can accommodate a pull, but I'm worried it will look squished and unproprotionate. The cabinets are Omega cabinets - 3/4" thick solid maple. The center panel looks like it is about 1/2" thick.
buehl - thanks for the effort and pix; for reference, I'm thinking about placing a pull about 2 or 3 inches lower than the pull you have on your trash pull-out.
artemis78
12 years ago
Yes, and it was a terrible idea---our cabinetmaker had to take it back to the shop to fix and repaint! (In fairness, he did warn us...) In our case, it was the handle for the trash pullout.

It depends on what your center panels are made of, though. If they're solid wood, you should be okay. If they're MDF (as ours were since our cabinets are painted), having the pull in the center panel eventually caused the panel to start to splinter. Our cabinetmaker says we would have had the same problem with plywood, though not sure if that's the case. (He mostly does stained cabinets, and uses solid wood for the center panels on those, which I gather works fine for pulls.)

We do have all of our drawer pulls mounted on the center panel (like buehl's photo) and those are fine, but that's because the pulls are held by the drawer box on the other side, as TorontoTim says.

I don't like it as much aesthetically, but function won out over form in this case. I'd check with Omega to find out what the panels are made of to be sure.
mama goose_gw zn6OH
12 years ago
I found another pic. This is of the trash pull-out door, which is a re-used upper cabinet door, with a bin pull. The panels are only 1/4" (or maybe 3/8"), so I had to add a small piece of wood to the back of the panel, to accommodate the length of the screws.

Here is a link that might be useful: Trash pull-out
Buehl
12 years ago
What Omega door style is it? Is it Dynasty? Omega Custom?

Ours are also Omega, btw, Dynasty for the most part, with a few Custom mixed in.

I'm not sure I would put pulls on the center panels...and not just b/c of strength concerns, but also aesthetics. Personally, I don't think I'd like the look of pulls in door panels. Have you considered knobs for the doors instead?
emagineer
12 years ago
I added pulls to the corner/lazy susan door slabs. A lot of Kitchen posters like this type of storage. But my klutz side always seems to get fingers pinched using knobs where they should be in these. 5 years and no problems. Hard maple doors. They do not look out of place and am considering for the pantry doors too. Kichen has aged bin pulls for drawers and matching knobs for cupboards.

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