Front mount drawer pulls - how do they hold up?

11 years ago

My pulls are still back ordered. I'm so annoyed. I saw someone post that RH is having another F&F sale this weekend, and I'm about to cancel my order and just go buy the stuff I really love. I think this might be a sign. Lol

My builder discouraged me from the Gilmore pulls because the pulls screw in from the front. He thought that over time the continual force of pulling the handles in the same direction of the screws would cause them to loosen. He thought that eventually the screws would simply not hold up and the pulls would be loose all the time. He said he wouldnt have a problem installing them if that's what I really want, but he did want to warn me.

Has anyone had front mount pulls over a long period of time? Will they drive me nuts in 10, 20, 30 years?

Featured Answer

angie_diy

11 years ago

I don't see any reason that you cannot use machine screws (i.e., bolts) from the front, rather than wood screws. You will need to do two things for this to work: choose exactly the right length machine screw (with a tolerance of +0, -1/8"), and countersink the space for the nut.

For a normal installation that uses machine screws from the rear, you generally have to countersink for the screw head anyway, so the second item is not a real big deal. Neither is the first. Also, machine screws are available with any head style, so you can match the look of your wood screw.

Sort by:Oldest

Comments (10)

cat_mom
11 years ago
Don't know anything about front-mount pulls, but as far as the screws go, there is a loctite product that will supposedly prevent the screws from loosening up, but the screws can be removed if/when desired (as opposed to their product that is permanent).

HTH!
breezygirl
11 years ago
Not long enough for me to be included in your sample. I have about a year with the Aubrey pulls. No problem. My cab maker didn't have an issue either.
Related Discussions
Are your pulls mounted on your slab or thru the drawer box?
Q
Comments (16)
Ours are installed just through the drawer front. These are on slab drawers and, for the deep drawers, on the rail of 5-piece drawers. Contrary to other opinions here, I think that's the right way. The slab drawer fronts and rails are 3/4 inch which is plenty thick enough for sturdiness and the drawer inside is tidier without the pull screw heads showing. Of course if one is mounting hardware on a thin panel of a 5-piece, it needs to go through the drawer box because there may be too much force for the panel to hold.
...See More
Mounting drawer fronts with finish nailer
Q
Comments (8)
Per MathTeacher's comment, all of the pulls are held in by 2 screws as they are the longer pole type, and on the wider drawers there are two pulls, so I think the faces are fairly secure. I just wondered if this is a done thing, but it sounds like it is not.
...See More
How to do drawer pulls on 36" drawers?
Q
Comments (13)
My experience with using 2 pulls on a wide drawer has not been good. So for this kitchen I will only be using 1 pull per drawer. When you have 2 pulls on a drawer, it takes two hands and often you already have something in one hand. Or, if you just use one of the 2 pulls to open the drawer, it creates stress to the drawer on one side, and also the pull will loosen over time from being asked to pull the entire drawer open from one side. As a result, I am using 1 pull for my drawers. I am using different sizes. Just my taste, but I don't like all one pull size for the entire kitchen. I have read about the 1/3 rule, and the pulls I am choosing, the Top Knobs Princetonians, have many sizes. When deciding between two sizes that both fit roughly the 1/3 rule, I get the smaller one. The wider pulls are expensive, but as a percentage of the cost of my entire reno which is multi-thousands, I am spending about $450 for my pulls. The majority of mine are the 11-11/32" size which are about $13 each. I am getting 4 different sizes in all (includes 2 pulls that are 15" long hung vertically for pull-out pantries). I don't think it's that bad to spend a couple hundred more to get the size that looks good. The pulls really make a difference to how the entire kitchen looks.
...See More
36" Ikea Sink base w/ double drawer front--pulls/trash?
Q
Comments (9)
Terri, I have a head cold so my thinking is not 100% clear today. :-) I'm going to hopefully answer your question and not be confusing. (I'm not sure of my chances with this!) If you are talking about combining drawer fronts (regardless of whether or not they are 18" or 36") then it would look like the first picture in this post (but wider if 36"). That would involve connecting the drawer fronts with this Ikea part: http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/20277436/ I don't see any reason you couldn't combine the drawer fronts and drill hinge holes to make the combined drawer fronts in to doors. We used custom fronts in our Ikea kitchen, but we were able to drill the hinge holes ourselves in a few cover panels and it was not difficult. The important thing would be to make sure you put the connectors in a place that don't conflict with the hinge holes. (Probably moving them in a little bit. Or, a possibly much simpler solution would be to buy 2 18"x20" doors and two 18" by 10" drawer fronts. You could attach the 10" tall drawer fronts permanently to the sink base, so they don't move.It shouldn't interfere much with the access to cabinet, since the sink will be taking up the top of the cabinet. Then you could attach the two 18"x20" tall doors as regular doors with hinges and you could put the handle anywhere and even use the cup pulls and make them look like drawers if you want. Maybe you don't mind the idea of pull outs under the sink. But if you are not putting your trash there, it seems like the pull outs are more inconvenient for under sink access. I personally like having the doors there. I don't think hacking the cabinet/fronts in either of these ways would be too difficult. So if you think doors would be better, you can make it work. At the very least I would consider whether you want to do a 36" pull out versus 2 18". The really wide pull outs felt really awkward to me at the Ikea store. If you do 18" pull outs you can add a small piece of wood at the bottom to make that happen as is demonstrated in some of pippabean's links.
...See More
caryscott
11 years ago
I'm guessing that the pulls have screws where the heads match the finish of the pulls (I have chrome bathroom hooks that screw from the front that have matching screw heads) so you may not be that free to change the screws to bolts. I think your guy has a point but given the nature of drawer hardware now and assuming your kitchen doesn't get used harshly (ie kids or heavy handed spouse) I'm guessing it could be quite a long time before they would loosen and there are ways tighten stuff up if necessary. What sort of wood are we talking about?
Mom23Es
Original Author
11 years ago
Thanks everyone!

We have maple cabinets with plywood construction. I don't really know/understand much more about them. They're Medallion brand cabinets, painted white. Our hardware will be polished chrome.

Well, I went ahead and cancelled my order. It's so frustrating because I ordered August 19th, and there was no indication that anything was back ordered. I received my knobs but not my pulls. They called about 2 weeks after the order and told me it was back ordered until mid-september. They also failed to send me a couple other things I ordered and claimed to have sent it. Nothing but a headache. Anyway, I guess my lesson is that you get what you pay for. At least I can get a lot of the RH stuff locally and order the rest.

I think it was a sign too. My heart was really set on the RH style, but they were much more expensive and my builder wasn't crazy about them. Well, we just went into contract with our current house and the new house is supposed to be completed in 3 weeks. I NEED my hardware!

It all works out! Happy sigh of relief. :-)
breezygirl
11 years ago
I'm glad it worked out. You're in the home stretch now!
lazy_gardens
11 years ago
My parents had front-mount pulls for 20-something years and 4 kids.

Not a problem
Mom23Es
Original Author
11 years ago
Lazygardens- that's exactly what I wanted to hear! :-)

I ran over to RH this morning, and man, they really don't have much in stock. I walked out with 9 Gilmore pulls, 1 Gilmore knob, and 1 bistro pull. Really? I ordered a zillion others online from the store so I got free shipping. I also fell in love with their lightbulbs they had displayed in their chandeliers. Those can only be purchased online. Is RH just a showroom these days?!?!?
2LittleFishies
11 years ago
I ordered my Gilmore Pulls 2 days ago : ) woo-hoo!

In older threads, I read the screws are really bad and some suggested to buy all new screws. (babushka cat)

I'm wondering if anyone knows if this is still the case?
jane__ny
11 years ago
I had pulls for 18 years and they never got loose. As a matter of fact, when we were staging the house to sell, I decided to update the pulls. Had a heck of time getting the old ones off. They were so tight, we broke a few of the screws.

I wouldn't worry about it.

Jane

Front mount drawer pulls - how do they hold up?

angie_diy

Comments (10)

cat_mom

breezygirl

Related Discussions

caryscott

Mom23Es
Original Author

breezygirl

lazy_gardens

Mom23Es
Original Author

2LittleFishies

jane__ny

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US

Front mount drawer pulls - how do they hold up?

Comments (10)

Related Discussions

Mom23EsOriginal Author

Mom23EsOriginal Author

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US

Mom23Es
Original Author

Mom23Es
Original Author