Pick the drawer or door and measure its front. You get the pull size, one or two, and exactly where to drill, measured from the edges and drawn to scale.
Your hardware
One 6⁵⁄₁₆″ (160 mm) pull, centeredholes 5⁷⁄₈″ in from each end, 3¹⁄₂″ down from the top · a third of the 18″ front is 6″
Quick answer: size a drawer pull at about a third of the drawer’s width, measured center to center: an 18″ drawer takes a 6⁵⁄₁₆″ (160 mm) pull, centered. On a door the knob or pull goes on the side away from the hinges, in the top corner of a base door and the bottom corner of an upper: 2–3″ in from the edges of a slab door, or where the middle of the stile meets the middle of the rail on a Shaker door.
How to use the cabinet hardware calculator
- Pick the front: a drawer, a base cabinet door (below the counter) or an upper cabinet door, and a knob or a pull.
- Measure the front: its width and height. On a Shaker front, measure the frame too: the width of one stile or rail.
- Choose the look: classic (the middle of the panel or frame) or modern (lined up with the frame’s edge, or 2–3″ from the top of every drawer).
- Already bought your pulls? Enter their hole spacing, center to center, and the calculator places that size instead.
- You get the pull size, one pull or two, and each hole measured from the nearest edges, drawn to scale. Mark them with a template, then drill.
The rules behind the numbers
Pull size: the 1:3 rule
KraftMaid: “choose a pull that’s about one-third as wide as the cabinet drawer face. In other words, a 4-inch pull is ideal on a 12-inch drawer.” Liberty Hardware calls it the Rule of Thirds, and adds: “If your drawers are wider than 30 inches, the single-pull rule no longer applies; you should use two centered pulls.” Top Knobs says a pull “should not exceed 1/3 of the length of a cabinet door or width of a drawer”, and gives ranges: 3–7″ on doors under 24″ tall, 7–12″ on doors 24–36″, longer than 12″ above that; on drawers, one 3–5″ pull under 16″ wide, two 5–7″ pulls or one 9–12″ at 16–32″, and one longer than 12″ beyond 32″.
Where knobs and pulls go
On framed (Shaker) doors, KraftMaid’s traditional look marks “the middle of the door’s” stile and rail and installs “the knob or end of the pull where those two lines intersect”; its modern look centers the hardware “on the vertical stile but position[s] it even with the edge of the frame rail”. Drawers take their hardware “in the middle of the center panel”, or, for the modern look, “centered on the top rail of the drawer”. On slab fronts, the knob or the end of a pull goes “two to three inches from both edges”; drawers are centered both ways, or centered across and “consistently two to three inches from the top”. Top Knobs puts upper-door knobs “between 2 ½ – 3 inches from the lower corner”, and lowers in the upper corner; Liberty says 2 to 4 inches from the edge, on the stile opposite the hinges.
Knobs
Knobs are 1–2″ across (Top Knobs), and “make sure your knob isn’t wider than the frame of the cabinet door” (KraftMaid). On a drawer, one knob goes in the middle; a wide drawer gets two, each in the middle of an outer third. Top Knobs’ placement guide starts two knobs at 24″; its sizing guide at 16″.
Pull sizes sold
Pulls are sold by the distance between their screw holes, center to center. In Liberty Hardware’s own catalogue (read 2026-10-02, 28 bar pulls) the commonest are 3″ (21 of them), 3¾″ or 96 mm (21), 5¹⁄₁₆″ or 128 mm (20) and 6⁵⁄₁₆″ or 160 mm (15), then 12″, 4″, 8¹³⁄₁₆″ (224 mm), 11⁵⁄₁₆″ (288 mm) and 7⁹⁄₁₆″ (192 mm). The odd fractions are the metric sizes.
Pull size by drawer width
A third of the drawer’s width, the nearest size sold; two pulls over 30″:
| Drawer width | A third | Pull | Top Knobs |
|---|---|---|---|
| 9″ | 3″ | 3″ (76 mm) | one 3–5″ |
| 12″ | 4″ | 4″ (102 mm) | one 3–5″ |
| 15″ | 5″ | 5¹⁄₁₆″ (128 mm) | one 3–5″ |
| 18″ | 6″ | 6⁵⁄₁₆″ (160 mm) | two 5–7″ or one 9–12″ |
| 21″ | 7″ | 7⁹⁄₁₆″ (192 mm) | two 5–7″ or one 9–12″ |
| 24″ | 8″ | 7⁹⁄₁₆″ (192 mm) | two 5–7″ or one 9–12″ |
| 27″ | 9″ | 8¹³⁄₁₆″ (224 mm) | two 5–7″ or one 9–12″ |
| 30″ | 10″ | 10¹⁄₁₆″ (256 mm) | two 5–7″ or one 9–12″ |
| 33″ | 11″ | two 5¹⁄₁₆″ (128 mm) | one longer than 12″ |
| 36″ | 12″ | two 6⁵⁄₁₆″ (160 mm) | one longer than 12″ |
Pull size by door height
| Door height | A third | Pull | Top Knobs |
|---|---|---|---|
| 12″ (over a fridge) | 4″ | 4″ (102 mm) | 3–7″ |
| 15″ | 5″ | 5¹⁄₁₆″ (128 mm) | 3–7″ |
| 24″ | 8″ | 7⁹⁄₁₆″ (192 mm) | 7–12″ |
| 30″ (a base door) | 10″ | 10¹⁄₁₆″ (256 mm) | 7–12″ |
| 36″ | 12″ | 12″ (305 mm) | 7–12″ |
| 42″ (a tall upper) | 14″ | 15¹⁄₈″ (384 mm) | longer than 12″ |
Four worked examples
An 18″ Shaker drawer, 7″ tall. A third of 18″ is 6″, so a 6⁵⁄₁₆″ (160 mm) pull, in the middle of the center panel: holes 5⁷⁄₈″ in from each end, 3¹⁄₂″ down from the top.
A 15″ Shaker base door with a knob. The knob goes where the middle of the stile meets the middle of the top rail: 1¹⁄₈″ from the edge away from the hinges, 1¹⁄₈″ down from the top. Keep it no wider than the 2¹⁄₄″ frame.
A 36″ slab drawer, modern. Over 30″ it takes two 6⁵⁄₁₆″ (160 mm) pulls, centered on the lines that split it in thirds and 2¹⁄₂″ down from the top: holes 8⁷⁄₈″ and 15³⁄₁₆″ in from each end.
Your own 3¾″ pulls on a 30″ slab upper door. Upright, 2¹⁄₂″ in from the hinge-free edge: holes 2¹⁄₂″ and 6¹⁄₄″ up from the bottom. By the 1:3 rule the door would take a 10¹⁄₁₆″ (256 mm) pull; Top Knobs’ range for it is 7–12″.
Common cabinet hardware mistakes
- Measuring a pull’s overall length. Pulls are sold by their hole spacing, center to center. Replacing pulls, measure the old holes and buy that size.
- Base-door hardware at the bottom. Base doors take it in the top corner and uppers in the bottom corner (Top Knobs, Liberty).
- Drawers at mixed heights. Center every drawer, or keep every pull the same distance from the top: mixing the two looks like a mistake.
- One small pull on a wide drawer. A 3″ pull on a 30″ drawer looks lost; use a third of the width, or two pulls.
- A knob wider than the frame. It hangs over the panel and can hit the next door.
- Drilling without a template. Mark one front, test-fit, then use the same template for every front in the run.
Set the cabinets themselves with the kitchen cabinet height calculator, lay the room out with the kitchen layout planner, and draw it to scale in the free 2D planner.
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Cabinet hardware placement questions
Where do you put cabinet pulls?
On drawers, centered across the front: in the middle, or 2–3″ from the top on every drawer. On doors, upright on the side away from the hinges, in the top corner of a base door and the bottom corner of an upper door, 2–3″ in from the edges (KraftMaid).
Where should knobs go on cabinet doors?
In the corner away from the hinges: the bottom corner of an upper door, the top corner of a base door. Top Knobs puts them 2½–3″ from the corner; on a Shaker door, where the middle of the stile meets the middle of the rail.
What size cabinet pulls should I use?
About a third of the drawer’s width, center to center (KraftMaid, Liberty): a 4″ pull on a 12″ drawer, 6⁵⁄₁₆″ (160 mm) on 18″, 10¹⁄₁₆″ (256 mm) on 30″. Over 30″, two pulls.
What size pull for a 30 inch drawer?
A third of 30″ is 10″: a 10¹⁄₁₆″ (256 mm) pull, centered. Top Knobs gives one 9–12″ pull or two 5–7″ pulls at that width.
What size pull for a 24 inch drawer?
A third of 24″ is 8″: the nearest size sold is 7⁹⁄₁₆″ (192 mm). Top Knobs’ range is one 9–12″ pull or two 5–7″.
How do you measure for cabinet pulls?
Measure center to center: from the middle of one screw hole to the middle of the other. That is the size a pull is sold by; its overall length is longer.
What is the standard drawer pull size?
The commonest sizes are 3″, 3¾″ (96 mm) and 5¹⁄₁₆″ (128 mm) center to center: in Liberty Hardware’s catalogue 21, 21 and 20 of its 28 bar pulls come in them.
Where do you place hardware on Shaker cabinets?
Classic: on doors, the knob or the end of the pull where the middle of the stile meets the middle of the rail; on drawers, the middle of the center panel. Modern: centered on the stile, level with the rail’s edge, and on drawers centered on the top rail (KraftMaid).