Information about the idea board:

1. Lighting: Elegant Lighting Sophia Collection. Oval chandelier over tabletop and flushmount fixtures (2) over prep island.
2. Crystal Cabinets: Benton door, Island cabinets in espresso stained cherry, Perimeter cabinets in stone bluff (light taupe)
3. Pental Sign in Greige: Large format backsplash tile (porcelain). Grain will be installed vertically.
4. Pental Quartz in Akoya: White quartz with brown, grey, and sparkles.
5. Walnut edge grain tabletop
6. Appliance: Viking 36" Induction, Bosch French door ovens, Bosch drawer microwave, Bosch paneled dishwasher, Bosch paneled 36" French door refrigerator
7. Gingko Big Sur Walnut Stools: Counter height.
8. Cleanup Sink: Kohler Prolific 33" Sink; Franke Little Butler Hot/Filtered; Hansgrohe Talis S
9. Prep Sink: Blanco Performa Silgranit; Kohler Karbon

I'll go put my hands around the handles that appear more flat than rounded. Thank you for that suggestion.

Carrie B gave good advise. That's how I picked mine. The one I really wanted was too fat and not big enough for my hands to get a good grab, so I knew my DHs hands would never fit. I did however break my own rule and got ends that protrude (our old knobs used to catch our clothes). So far it hasn't been a problem. I liked the look and feel of them tho so I got them anyway.

From a gut perspective, I am looking at your inspiration board and your kitchen plan feels very clean, minimal, and modern. As I am looking at your choices I feel like 3 and 5 are too fussy. I can't help but think your pulls should follow that clean, minimal look.

By the way, love the pop of wow the chandelier gives. It just makes the plan seem happy and less serious (if that makes sense). It could have gone very masculine without that girly bling.

Are your appliance handles bow or bar shaped? I would let that guide you towards bow or bar shaped pulls. (Not the best examples below of the shapes.)

agree with above, feel them first. some of your choices look uncomfortable. also agree with above, i feel your choices, most not all, are not cohesive with your mood board. i don't feel u have to match your hardware to your appliance handles. i think your hardware should match the style of your kitchen overall.

also, just a thought, how about ORB hardware for your espresso stained island? then u don't have all the "visual clutter" of the hardware?

out of the choices, i would probably do #1 or 4. as long as they were comfortable.

highland ridge

mullholland

ambrosia,

revitalize

Love the color choices for your cabs and the walnut top!!! Fab !!!

looking back at your board, i would do all the hardware in ORB. i have cherry cabs stained espresso and we did all our hardware in ORB, love the look and its "quieter" than polished chrome....JMHO...

best of luck!!!

Jeffrey Alexander Delgado ties all the elements together giving a sense of beauty without catching your eye.

Little Palm Leaf/Deval knob if you want more eye-catching bling. But I would leave that to the chandelier

Definitely NOT Nouveau Bamboo or Ring. Both are the wrong kind of fussy and the wrong look for your kitchen. They're both kind of 90's for me compared to the look that you seem to be going for on your board.

Speaking of look - I like your choices except for the faucet for your prep sink seems to be a real outlier. It is a very unique faucet and that is what people will see, comment on and play with and I'm not sure that your other choices are modern enough for it to be ignored.

Lily Spider and Carrie B - Thank you for the input. I think our hands are relatively small, so it will be interesting to feel some of these. I'm going to stop by the builders supply store tomorrow to get my hands on these and other suggested options.

Erin Robbins - Thank you for the comments on the chandelier. I hadn't thought about how the kitchen may appear masculine - but you are correct. I selected the chandeliers because I really wanted something people noticed in the room as everything else was a really trying to keep a unified approach. The KD noticed that I had a need for symmetry and for things to tie together - but I also fight the boring accountant in me and need something creative. I'm glad for the chandeliers and the quartz is also an eye popper. The sample and the online image of the quartz just don't give it justice. It really is pretty. I would never had selected it, but I saw it installed at the appliance store and fell in love. Also, a much softer finish that the prior quartz I had selected which was darker and as you pointed out - more masculine.

kiko - Thank you for the suggestion to consider the appliance handles. The only visible appliance handles will be the ovens. Just so happens the ovens were installed today. The oven handles are square and pretty beefy to the hand. Option 4 in the OP (JA-Delgado) gives the feeling of square, but softer. I'll post pictures of the oven handles. (Fridge and dishwasher are paneled; microwave is a electronic open drawer). Although, I just decided I cannot tell if the paneled refrigerator from Bosch I purchased comes with the handles. If it does that would be sweet; appliance handles are crazy expensive in comparison to all other cabinet hardware.

sprtphntc - Thanks for your suggestion to also help narrow down the choices. Do you think it would make sense to have the island with a darker finish, but the same style/different finish on the perimeter. I'll look through your posts to see if I can find pictures of your kitchen. For finish, I was planning on satin nickel (I never mentioned that), but was also eyeing the J.Alexander brushed pewter finish. I'll get some samples in the various finishes and bring them into the kitchen to get a better feel. I wouldn't have thought about ORB - so I'll give that a try. In addition to the revitalize collection you suggested, I just found the Candler collection which has potential.

blfenton - That prep sink faucet is very unique. I chose it because I'm hoping the folded up version of that means the faucet is less noticeable - but you may actually be right that people can't help be curious to play with the interesting faucet. Thanks for the vote on Delgado. It's been growing on me over the last 24 hours.

Delgado is the only one that I like and I like it a lot.

@jennbo I hear you on fighting your nature. I work in the real estate industry, I am trained to look at everything in regards to resale value. With this house, it is our "until we die or the kid puts us in the old fart home" house. After 20 years of military moves, we are done. But, letting go of resale value decisions is difficult. I can't wait until we do a full remodel on our kitchen

here's a thread that might be helpful & my kitchen pics are in it. i see that u are favoring a pull with a "hump" in it vs. a "straight" pull. eg., revitalize and candler., that's good, u seen to be narrowing it down. just make sure they are comfortable and don't stick out too much. i myself like a straight pull, for purely visual reasons. we also did ORB on cream cabs in our FR and i really like it but then again i am not a fan of polished chrome/satin e.g....

here's a pic of my kitchen, i know it not a close up but it gives u an idea of hardware blending instead of standing out. we chose "highland ridge". the ORB has little shimmers of copper, which we love.

what helped me, i picked it out - DH- not that involved in the details, was when the cabinet maker held it up against our cabs. if u can, bring your cab door or your hardware to the cabs and hold up against each other, if that makes sense.

here's the name of good thread to help u out: "oil rubbed bronze hardware on darker cabinets" by ncdel on July 29, 2012, sorry i couldn't figure out how to link it to this thread......Good Luck!!

Just tying the loop up on this one. I narrowed the choices down to a couple options.

Thank you all for your comments and suggestions.

sprtphntc I really appreciated your suggestion and photos of ORB because it prompted to me look away from the typical brushed nickel.

I am not selecting an ORB color, but rather something that appears to be
popping up a bit - a dark grey brushed nickel (basically ORB but minus
the "bronze").

I couldn't find anything in the top knobs collection that had this look - everything in top knobs that got close to the color also had distressed marks.

Jeffrey Alexander / Elements from Hardware resources call it "Brushed Pewter" and Berenson Hardware calls this color "Vintage Nickel."

You've all seen my tendency for a tailored / maybe a bit masculine look, so it's probably no surprise I'm leaning to the Bersenson handle below. But also, I think it looked the absolute best with my cabinets - both the grey and the espresso cherry. What gives me pause is the Berenson Vested Interest collection does not have a true appliance pull, which I think means the pull is designed to handle repeated pulling of a heavy door. Also - the longest is 12" and I was hoping for an 18" pull on the refrigerator.

Both felt really good in the hand. I'm not really using any knobs - so that wasn't a deciding factor (I liked the Delgado knob better).

I think the Berenson is a little more contemporary. It is one I would choose over the Delgado ( and I do like it!) except that I don't care for the way the sides turn into the center on the Berenson. I know it's following the lines of the embossed top but it just irritates the lines for me. So. for me I would choose the Delgado.

i like the "delgado"

your welcome jennbo

Delgado. Beautiful.