Drawer Pull Opinion- 1 or 2?

[John Young]

I am closing in on completing a large dresser for our bedroom. The image below (hopefully) shows the drawer configuration. The six outside drawers are around 13" wide and the three center drawers are around 30" wide. I would like to hear your opinions on whether you think it would be acceptable for me to install one drawer pull on the three center drawer fronts versus two? Every dresser that I have seen with wider drawers always has two pulls. I have Blum Tandem slides installed. My past experience with the Blum Tandem slides is that I mechanically do not need two handles. I could understand the need for two handles if I had a not-so-smooth slide motion. My question really comes down to aesthetics.

[glenn bradley]

Ah, the infinite question. I am unfortunately one of those folks that really likes something that he sees done right in the area of design but has very little capacity to do it in the first place.

I'm a single-pull kinda guy unless the drawer width or carrige (slides, glides, whatever) will do better with two. In the end you're right; its a matter of taste.

[Jim Dunn]

Well for balance I think 2 pulls on the larger drawers and one on the smaller ones. I probably am not right in my thinking but I think it works.

[Mike Null]

Put 'em on the drawing and see what the boss likes.

[Rick de Roque]

I think it calls for two per drawer. Just my $.02

Rick

[Jamie Buxton]

Build the furniture. Buy enough pulls for 2 per drawer. Hold the real pulls up to the real furniture. Heck, use little bits of double-stick tape to stick pulls to the furniture so you can stand back and look. Drawings are great, but don't tell you as much as the real thing. Install what looks best.

[Kirk (KC) Constable]

No debate to my eye...two on the wide drawers, one on the others. I might even consider 'fancy' pulls on the big ones, and a simple knob on the smaller.

If there's a wife involved, you probably oughta just ask her now and be done with it.

KC

[Phil Winn]

My thoughts....two pulls on the larger center drawers; and
one pull or one knob on the smaller side drawers. Then,
use double sided tape to try each way out before drilling holes.
Have fun and be safe!
Phil

[Mike Cutler]

I'd do as Jamie suggested, but I'm fairly certain that you will end up with two per drawer. There would be too much field area between hardware pieces.

One might look OK, but I'd bet that in actual use you would close the drawers with one hand on either side. 30"s is fairly wide.

My .02 fwiw.

[Tom Jones III]

No question about it, if you are using normal looking pulls then it has to be two pulls for the middle drawers.

[David Giles]

Okay, I'll go against the grain. Aesthetically, you might like the look of two pulls. It is certainly traditional. But that's because, traditionally, most dresser drawers racked and stuck (not any of the ones made by SMC WW, just the imports). It took two hands to guide the drawer open.

Any good mechanical slide, installed so that it doesn't bind, can be opened with one hand. The advantage of a single drawer pull is convenience. The only reason to open or close a drawer is to take something in or out. Which means at least one hand is occupied with the object leaving only one other hand to operate the drawer. Or a knee or hip. A single centered pull prevents racking with one handed operation.

Just tried this theory on four kitchen drawers, 36" wide x 22" deep x 12" high made of 3/4" BB and 1/2" floors. One pull in the center works like a charm even with the drawer fully loaded.

[John Young]

First, thanks for all of your replies. After reading through these posts I had a new thought. I am going to look for a pull that comes in two sizes; a standard size 3" pull on the smaller drawers and a larger size 4 to 6" pull on the larger drawers. I only ever use one hand to open drawers. My wife has already weighed in with her preference on the style of pull. I insisted that the color be black to compliment the marble top. All I have to do is find some in different sizes. I was looking through a hardware catalog the other night and they had quite a few styles that came in 96mm and a size larger.

[Jamie Buxton]

John, if you're thinking about pulls in different sizes, you might consider making your own wooden ones. If you make your own, you get complete freedom to have a whole family of pulls which are related but different sizes. There's a short article in SMC's Articles section which may give you some ideas.

[Wes Bischel]

Put 'em on the drawing and see what the boss likes.

Ah, a very wise man indeed.

Draw up the style you like in the different sizes, add them to your drawing and see what rises to the top - if that doesn't do it for you, mock it up with foamcore, and butcher paper - or similar. If they are easy to come by (and not too expensive), I would buy the pulls in the sizes you think might work and use them on the mock-up. That's what the pros do!

FWIW,
Wes