How To Choose Hardware For Your Kitchen Unit Doors

Whether you’re planning some sympathetic updates to your period property or you want to give your modern home a more characterful kitchen, choosing the right hardware for your cabinets and kitchen unit doors is key to creating a space that feels cohesive, authentic and stylish.

Hardware for a Georgian inspired kitchen 

Featuring high ceilings, generous proportions and beautiful symmetry, Georgian design is renowned for its elegance and sense of tradition. Kitchens in Georgian properties tend to be spacious enough to comfortably house lots of cabinetry, as displaying tea services and fine crockery was very popular in this era. 

To avoid distracting from beautiful collections of china and other decorative items, door and drawer handles tended to be unobtrusive yet sophisticated, with bronze and brass tones being particularly popular.

Pro Tip: In terms of style, simple round knobs and drop handles with a sophisticated silhouette were both commonly used in Georgian kitchens, so we’d recommend something like the Windsor knob if you’re looking for an authentic finishing flourish in your kitchen.

Hardware for a Victorian inspired kitchen 

During the Victorian era, the kitchen started to be viewed as the heart of the home, particularly as the middle classes started to thrive. The industrial revolution brought many advances, including the ability to mass produce far more intricate furniture and hardware, which added more personality and detail to interiors.

Decorative hardware became extremely popular during this era, and it had never been easier for even more modest households to acquire flourishes that were on trend. More households were choosing to decorate with rich tones, including navy blue and forest green, which meant that a wider variety of hardware options emerged, including dark iron, pewter and gleaming nickel plated door handles.

Pro Tip: Cup and shell style handles were consistently popular throughout the Victorian era, and if you’re looking for this style to complete your kitchen makeover, we recommend our Windsor Shell handles in a beautiful pewter tone.

Hardware for an Edwardian inspired kitchen 

A desire for simpler interiors emerged during the Edwardian era between 1901 and 1910. Kitchens at this time were spacious, bright, and fitted with plenty of storage options. In many ways, modern kitchen design has evolved from the classic Edwardian kitchen, particularly with regard to fitted cabinetry, which is streamlined, functional and beautiful to look at.

Many Edwardian kitchens featured very simple black or white porcelain knobs, however it was during this era that sleek chrome hardware increased in popularity as it was seen as a very modern and hygienic option.

Successful Edwardian inspired kitchens achieve the right balance between character, simplicity and modernity, so something like the slimline handle in stainless steel could be an ideal option for your kitchen unit doors.

Can I mix traditional hardware with contemporary kitchen unit doors? 

When designing a new kitchen for your home, it’s really important to remember that there are no hard and fast rules that you need to stick to in order to achieve a beautiful and functional outcome. So, it’s perfectly possible to mix and match more traditional hardware with very modern kitchen unit doors, just as you could also add contemporary hardware onto more traditional doors.

For example, if you were to choose the Bella Euroline kitchen unit doors which are seek and minimal, both the Camden bar handle in satin chrome and the more traditional Windsor shell handle in chrome could be chosen depending on the overall look you want to achieve.

Balance is key when choosing kitchen unit hardware

For a cohesive and balanced outcome, choose one or two finishes to use throughout your kitchen. We also recommend paying attention to the scale of your kitchen cabinets and choosing hardware that is neither too large or too small, so as to ensure your handles are functional and provide a welcome finishing touch to your kitchen.

Browse our range of kitchen door accessories today 

Alongside our range of traditional and contemporary kitchen unit doors, we offer a full range of matching accessories to help you finish your project in style. Got any questions? Then please do get in touch for more information!