How to choose which knob, pull or handle will work best on your furniture

If you’re restoring vintage furniture or building custom furniture to complete your space, one of your most important design decisions is which hardware to choose. There are a number of things to consider. You’ll want your hardware to complement the colour and style of your furniture. Ideally it should also coordinate well with the light fixtures and other surfaces in the room it will decorate.

We want to remind you that there are no hardware police, and we’re not aware of any laws dictating whether you should choose handles, pulls or knobs to complete your furniture pieces. We encourage you to let personal preference guide you when you make the decision about whether you want pulls, handles, knobs or a combination of these things.

It’s OK to mix and match if you want to have, for example, some handles and some knobs on the same piece. We do suggest keeping consistent finishes, or at least a consistent theme, throughout.

If you aren’t sure which type of hardware you like best, we suggest that you take a look at our most popular items to get a feel for what our other customers are currently buying. It might inspire you with some ideas for hardware you’d like to use in your furnishings too.[/vc_column_text][vc_separator color=”black”][vc_column_text]

Hardware Finishes to Pair With Light-Coloured Wood Furniture

If your furniture is constructed of light-coloured wood such as mountain ash, Victorian ash or Canadian maple, we suggest pairing it with hardware materials such as copper, bone, glass, horn or shell. We also offer a number of wooden knobs and ceramic knobs that will complement hardwoods of varying colours including many light-coloured woods.[/vc_column_text][vc_separator color=”black”][vc_column_text]

Hardware Finishes to Match Dark-Coloured Wood Furniture

If you’re choosing hardware to complement furniture made of dark-coloured wood such as teak, mahogany or blackwood, we suggest brass, iron, ceramic, horn and resin as appropriate hardware materials for your consideration. Some of our wooden knobs are also likely to be appropriate choices for finishing your dark-coloured hardwood furniture pieces.

Mixed media knobs can also be lovely choices for pairing with dark woods. These metal and ceramic dahlia knobs would complement dark woods handsomely, as would these checkered wood and resin knobs.[/vc_column_text][vc_separator color=”black”][vc_column_text]

Hardware Finishes to Match Painted Wood Furniture

Since paint gives you an easy way to camouflage damaged areas on vintage furniture pieces, painting is a popular technique to use for restoring wood furnishings. If you’re painting your furniture pieces, you have limitless choices on which hardware materials and styles will work well to finish the look. You’ll want to take cues from both the surrounding environment and the actual pieces of furniture when you decide which hardware to use.

You can use any colour of hardware on white painted furniture. If there’s a multicoloured knob style that catches your eye, a white painted furniture piece is an ideal place to use it. We suggest these striped knobs, these marbled square knobs and these antiqued gold and pearl knobs as outstanding choices for complementing white painted furniture. Black and white hardware can also make a strong statement if paired with white furniture. These meditative mandala knobs and these monochrome knobs are both interesting possibilities for finishing white furniture pieces. Dimensional white knobs complement white furniture pieces well; take a look at these antiqued iron paisley knobs and these floweret knobs for two more lovely options to consider, particularly if you’re aiming for a romantic look when you finish bedroom furniture or similar pieces.

These are just suggestions for starting points in the selection process, as you can successfully pair just about any material with wooden furniture if you are careful to achieve a harmonious level of contrast both in the piece itself and its surrounding environment.

We hope this information is helpful to you as you plan out your ideas for new or restored furniture pieces, and we wish you much success with your project.