For drawers, in the middle.

For doors, where my hand would naturally go. My pulls aren't bars, but knobs so direction wasn't an issue.

I'm sure your contractor will decide the exact setback placement from the edge for the doors, though.

good ?
The best answer I found was from a veteran here.... ?Sweeby
Close your eyes go to cab/drawer & reach to open - that's where the pulls/knobs should go

I used blue painters tape to do mock-ups on my drawers. I measured out different lengths and tried various options. I ended up going with one size pull for all of the drawers regardless of size (some of my drawers are pretty wide 32" and some are smaller 18"). The size I ended up with is about 6" end to end. I also only used one pull per drawer. For the knobs on the upper cabs, I have shaker style cabinets and I had the knobs placed at the level where the horizontal part of the frame meets the vertical part. I hope I'm describing this accurately.

I misread your question and told you how I picked the size--oops. :) My answer to your actual question is I placed the pulls in the middle of the recessed panel on all of my drawers---except my pull-out trash and dishwasher drawers. On these I put them on the top of the stile. My contractor said the wood was thicker and would hold better than placing it on the thin recessed panel.

Thank you for your advice! I am going to try the close your eyes method and see where I land-though I am vertically challenged!
Melinda

Another thing that really helped me and gave us a finished product that we very pleased with was to browse kitchen picture galleries (like the Finished Kitchens Blog) and look at the knob/handle placement in other kitchens. I was quickly able to identify "looks" that I liked and those that I didn't.

Like Gardenergwen, I looked through the Finished Kitchens site here and through my (way too many) kitchen magazines to see what they did. But, in the end, I just went with what seemed to look and work best for me. My hardware was just put on day before yesterday, so I haven't really been able to actually use them yet. I put my drawer pulls in the middle, etc. The only real dilemma I had was what to use on the pantry cabinet doors (x4). I ended up using pulls instead of knobs, as they felt better for those bigger doors and I'm a very practical person.

Bob: excellent info. Beautiful cabinets. How wide are your widest drawers? I'm trying to decide how long the handles need to be given that we have all-drawer bases. And several pot and pan drawers are 33 inches wide. I think some cabinetmaker said the wide drawers might rack if you don't have 2 handles. But, I just don't see us using 2 handles; we're gonna yank only one. Maybe it should be those 12" long ones??

I got advice through this forum that if a drawer was over 30" wide you used 2 knobs, under 30" 1 knob.

When my GC asked about knob placement I just blurted that out. When he asked how I knew, I said "My people told me."

That worked well in my kitchen, but I think the only important rule is to do what feels right with your cabinets for your use.

amck: Do you think the rules are the same for pulls (handles) as for knobs? They have a broader/longer surface to tug on, more of your hand is used. So, I'm thinking, that's less stress on the drawer. But, as in most everything else with a house, what do I know?

Aesthetically, I think the 30" or over, use 2 rule makes sense - for knobs or pulls. We have a bank of drawers in our kitchen flanked by pullouts. The big drawers are all 30" or 36" wide and by looking at the finished kitchen site and kitchen pics we knew that for us, it would look barren with just one per drawer.

Here's a pic of our drawer bank:

Pinktoes,

My widest drawer is 30" wide on the drawer beneath the combo wall oven, it only has a single pull centered according to the rules above. Although at the end of the kitchen I have a 44" wide recycling drawer with six bins inside. For that since it is faced with two separate doors, it got two pulls. But to tell the truth I still only pull on one of them to open it.

{{!gwi}}

I think it is purely an aesthetics issue. I think that if you need to have two pulls on a drawer and need to pull evenly on both of them to avoid racking the drawer or bending the drawer slides, especially on newly constructed cabinets, then you need to find a less crappy cabinet maker.

With that said, I agree that the handle layout shown above by gardenergwen is the right decision for that bank of cabinets.

My contractor convinced me that I was wrong and put my knobs almost to the bottom edge of the cabinet. It looks ridiculous! Why do contractors think they are so superior? He is a bully and now I have let him ruin $50K cabinets. I am so disgusted with myself and so many things about this remodel. I have no recourse, I know, but word to the wise - Contractors are not all that. My contractor costs a fortune and defends every move he makes, even when he knows he's wrong. Do not let that happen to you!

Mhcoupe can't you change the placement? You could use wood filler in the original holes.

Mhcoupe can't you change the placement? You could use wood filler in the original holes.