Cabinet handle placement

[Dave Lehnert]

Finishing up a tall cabinet and need help with handle placement.

Rough measurements are 15" wide and 6 feet tall.

It has two raised panel doors. Each about 3 feet tall.

I was thinking about placing the handles at the bottom of the top door and the top of the bottom door so each handle would be about waist high.
would this be normal in cabinet making?
Or should they be placed in the center of each door? The problem I see with this is one would have to bend over to reach the bottom handle.

Any thoughts would be welcomed.

[Rick Moyer]

Or should they be placed in the center of each door? The problem I see with this is one would have to bend over to reach the bottom handle.

Any thoughts would be welcomed.

I can't visualize it well enough to give an opinion, but wouldn't one have to bend over anyway to get into the lower area? seems like it wouldn't matter in that regard.

[bill mullin]

I would do it like you were thinking, handle at the top of lower door, bottom of upper door. I've seen them placed toward the center, but I don't like the look, myself.

I place the screw hole in line with a horizontal line of the raised panel(if that applies).

It's really personal preference, though.

[Lee Schierer]

There doesn't seem to be any rules for handle placement on cabinets. What I do is use bits of double sided tape and stick the handles on. If they look okay, I can remove them and drill the holes, if they don't look right it is easy enough to relocate tehm and try again.

[Joe Scharle]

I do what you suggest. Also, I almost always align door handles with a hinge. People seem to like the balance.

[Orion Henderson]

There are no hard and fast rules for handle or knob placement. I have done some research in the past and ultimately it boils down to this: Do what looks and works right. If you think about a set of upper doors and a set of lower doors as kitchen cabinetry-then it makes perfect sense to have the handles at the top of the bottom door and the bottom of the top door (boy, that's a mouthful). I have had some cabinetmakers tell me this: Divide the door into 4 even quarters with 3 horizontal lines-locate your handle on the top line for lower doors and the bottom line for upper doors. It will give you some symmetry and proportion. Bob, the former own of Whitechapel, has an excellent article about locating drawer pulls on furniture here:

http://www.whitechapel-ltd.com/tech/position_handles.shtml

Not directly relevant but maybe helpful in general. I believe he was a traditionally trained cabinetmaker through the English apprentice system.

I hope this helps.