How to Install Cabinet Handles and Pulls: Placement, Templates and Drilling

Here is how to install cabinet handles in one sentence: hang and adjust the doors first, mark each hole from a fixed edge with a template or jig, drill straight through the front with a 3/16-inch bit and a scrap block behind it, then bolt the pull on from the back with 8-32 machine screws that are 1/4 inch longer than the front is thick. The drilling is the easy part. The hard part is deciding exactly where the holes go on every kind of door and drawer, so most of this page is a placement guide with real offsets, plus screw, template and repair charts.

We sell cabinets, and hardware day is when small mistakes become permanent. One hole 1/8 inch off shows every time you look down the run, and the 1-inch screws in the hardware box won't reach through a drawer whose front is mounted on a separate box front.

Table of Contents

• Before You Drill: Bit, Screws and What to Measure
• Cabinet Pull and Knob Placement for Every Door and Drawer
• How to Install Cabinet Handles, Step by Step
• Using a Cabinet Handle Template or Drilling Jig
• Screw Length and Thread: A Chart by Front Thickness
• Inch vs Metric Hole Spacing
• Drilling Painted, Thermofoil, Slab and Inset Doors
• Replacing Hardware and Fixing Mistakes
• Frequently Asked Questions

Before You Drill: Bit, Screws and What to Measure

Almost every knob and pull sold in the US mounts the same way: a machine screw passes through a hole drilled clean through the front and threads into the back of the hardware. So hole size and screw length matter more than anything else.

Drill bit size

Use a 3/16-inch bit. Amerock's installation guide recommends a 3/16-inch hole for most styles, and Rejuvenation, IKEA and Kreg all call for the same size (Kreg lists it as 3/16 inch or 5 mm). It clears both the US 8-32 screw and the metric M4. The one common exception is a pull with threaded "studs" sticking out of its back instead of tapped holes; Amerock calls for a 1/4-inch hole for those.

Screw thread

Most US knobs and pulls take 8-32 screws (a #8 diameter, about 4.17 mm, with 32 threads per inch). European pieces and some premium brands use M4 (4.0 mm, 0.7 mm thread pitch). The two look nearly identical and are not interchangeable. If a new screw won't start by hand after a turn or two, you probably have the wrong thread; forcing it strips the soft threads inside the pull.

Measure your fronts and your pulls

Measure a door and a drawer separately, at the exact spot where the hole will go. A door is usually one piece. A drawer is often a decorative front screwed onto the front of the drawer box, so the screw has to pass through both. Buy the right screws now from the screw-length chart, not on install day.

Then measure the pull's center-to-center spacing (C-C), hole middle to hole middle, on the piece itself rather than the label (see inch vs metric spacing). For choosing pull sizes in the first place, our cabinet hardware guide covers the one-third sizing rule and knobs vs pulls.

Cabinet Pull and Knob Placement for Every Door and Drawer

There is no code or industry standard for where hardware goes; Amerock says there are "no hard, fast rules." Makers agree on the conventions and differ by an inch or so, so below we give each and who says what.

How every offset on this page is measured: from the edge of the door or drawer front to the center of the hole. For a knob that is its single screw hole. For a vertical pull on a door, it's the screw hole nearest the corner you're measuring from.

The one rule nobody disputes: door hardware goes on the side opposite the hinges, so you pull where the door swings open.

Base cabinet doors

Put the knob, or the top hole of a vertical pull, near the top corner opposite the hinges, 2 to 3 inches down and 2 to 3 inches in. Amerock says most cabinetmakers use about 3 to 4 inches from that corner; Kreg puts pulls 1 to 2 inches from the edge, which suits narrow-stile and slab doors. The pull runs downward from that top hole. Use one top offset on every base door; the eye reads the line more than the number.

Wall (upper) cabinet doors

Mirror the base rule: the knob, or the bottom hole of a vertical pull, goes near the bottom corner opposite the hinges, 2 to 3 inches up and 2 to 3 inches in. Kitchen Cabinet Kings uses 2 to 2-1/2 inches up from the bottom. Glass-front uppers follow the same rule, with the hardware on the frame. Our guide to wall and tall cabinet sizes shows the door heights you'll be working with.

Tall and pantry doors

On a tall pantry or oven cabinet door, set a long vertical pull opposite the hinges with its center around 36 inches from the floor, roughly countertop height. That's designer practice rather than a standard, but it sits well inside the 15-to-48-inch reach range in the ADA Standards. A tall cabinet with two stacked doors is simpler: treat the lower door like a base door and the upper door like a wall door, so the two pulls end up close together in the middle.

Drawers and drawer stacks

Always center drawer hardware left to right. Top to bottom there are two accepted choices: centered on the front (Kreg and KraftMaid both show this), or 2 to 3 inches below the top edge (KraftMaid; Kitchen Cabinet Kings uses about 2 inches). On a shaker drawer front, center on the top rail or on the recessed panel, never on the joint between them.

In a stack of drawers with different heights, either keep every pull the same distance below its own top edge, so the pulls form one straight line, or center each pull on its own front. Both look intentional; mixing them doesn't.

The "1/3 rule" usually means a pull about one-third the drawer's width (KraftMaid's meaning). Kreg uses the name for placing pulls one-third of the way up, so check which a source means.

Wide drawers: one pull or two

There is no standard. Kitchen Cabinet Kings suggests two pulls (or one long one) on drawers wider than 24 inches; KraftMaid suggests two when your largest pull is about 5 inches and the drawer is 30 or 36 inches wide, each centered on one of the drawer's one-third lines. The alternative is one long pull about a third of the drawer's width. See drawer base cabinet sizes for the widths you'll be fitting.

Shaker vs slab vs inset doors

On a shaker or other five-piece door, hardware goes on the stile (the vertical frame piece), never on the recessed center panel, which is thinner and floats in its groove. KraftMaid gives two shaker positions: the traditional spot where the centerlines of the stile and rail cross, or a more updated one centered on the stile and level with the inner edge of the rail. On a slab door there's no frame to follow, so KraftMaid uses 2 to 3 inches from both edges.

Stile width sets the shaker number. Fabuwood's Value series uses a 2-1/4-inch-wide frame, so a knob centered on its stile sits about 1-1/8 inches from the door edge; Quest rails are 2 inches wide. Measure your own. Still choosing a style? Compare shaker and slab cabinets, or see the slab cabinet buying guide for edge pulls and long bar pulls.

Inset doors sit inside the face frame and follow the same corner rules; just check the hardware clears the frame as the door swings (more in our inset cabinet guide).

Sink false fronts and appliance panels

The fixed panel or tip-out tray above a sink base gets the same pull as the drawers beside it, centered left to right and on the same line as the neighboring top-drawer pulls. Look behind it before drilling: false fronts hang on clips or blocks, and a tip-out has hinges to miss.

A panel-ready dishwasher or refrigerator gets its pull near the top of the panel, level with the drawer pulls on either side; follow the appliance maker's panel instructions.

Caution: on an appliance panel, a screw that is too long can reach into the appliance door behind it. Use the panel thickness at the hole plus 1/4 inch, nothing longer.

Placement chart

Our guide to cabinet parts labels the stile, rail and panel if any of those terms are new.

Tip: on frameless full-overlay cabinets the gap between neighboring doors is small, so pulls set too close to the edge can collide as both doors open. Stay at least 1 inch from the edge (the low end of Kreg's range) and open each pair once before drilling the rest. Our overlay comparison explains why the gaps differ.

How to Install Cabinet Handles, Step by Step

These seven steps work for knobs and pulls, doors and drawers, new cabinets or old. Steps 2 and 4 are where most mistakes happen.

Step 1: Hang and adjust every door and drawer first

Install all doors and drawers and set their gaps and alignment before you mark a single hole. Adjusting a hinge afterward moves the door, and the hardware with it. Concealed hinges like the Blum soft-close hinges adjust side to side, up and down and in and out with a screwdriver.

Step 2: Decide placement and write one rule for each type of front

Pick the offset for base doors, wall doors, drawers and any tall or appliance panels from the placement chart above, and write each rule on a card. A good card reads: "Base doors: top hole 2-1/2 in down, centered on stile. Wall doors: bottom hole 2-1/2 in up, centered on stile. Drawers: centered both ways."

Tip: live with one before you drill thirty. Install one knob, one door pull and one drawer pull, use them for a day, then commit.

Step 3: Tape the fronts and mark the reference lines

Put painter's tape over each hole area and draw the lines your rule needs on it. For a drawer, measure its width, halve it and mark the center; for a shaker door, mark the middle of the stile. On any door that's off the cabinet, write "hinge side" on the tape.

Step 4: Set the template or jig and dimple each hole center

Register the template or jig against the same edges for every front that shares a rule, then press an awl or center punch into each hole center so the bit has a dimple to start in and can't skate.

Before touching a finished front, drill the setup into a scrap of the same thickness, bolt the pull on and hold it against a real door. That catches the costly errors: a stop on the wrong edge, spacing set from the label, a screw that bottoms out.

Caution: left-hand and right-hand doors need the template or jig flipped. Mark all of one hand, then the other.

Step 5: Drill straight through from the face with a backer block

Clamp a scrap block tight behind the hole, hold the drill square to the face, and drill through from the front with the 3/16-inch bit at moderate speed.

The backer block stops the bit from blowing a chip out of the back as it exits, which matters most on painted and thermofoil fronts. If the door is still hanging, prop it open so you don't drill into the face frame or the cabinet side behind it.

Step 6: Attach the hardware with the right-length screw

Push 8-32 screws 1/4 inch longer than the front's thickness through from the back, thread them into the knob or pull, and tighten by hand with a screwdriver.

On a two-hole pull, start both screws before tightening either, then snug them alternately so the pull seats square. Snug is enough; a drill driver on the last turn can strip the threads or crush the finish under the screw head.

Step 7: Check the line and square each piece

Sight down the run: knobs in a level line, pulls plumb on doors and level on drawers. The 3/16-inch hole leaves a little play, so loosen, square a crooked pull and retighten. Peel the tape only after the hardware is on.

Using a Cabinet Handle Template or Drilling Jig

A template or jig turns your placement rule into identical holes on every front by registering against a side edge and an end edge. A tape measure works for three vanity drawers; on thirty kitchen fronts it gives thirty slightly different positions.

Our free printable template

We made a free printable cabinet handle template (PDF), with no email sign-up. It is one landscape US Letter page with three parts:

• Scale check: a 1-inch square and a 50 mm bar. Print at 100% ("actual size", not "fit to page") and measure both before you use the sheet.
• Block A, door corners: crosshairs at 1-1/2, 2, 2-1/2 and 3 inches from the top and side edges, for knobs or the first hole of a door pull. Cut it out, line its edges up with the top of a base door and the edge opposite the hinges, and flip it to the bottom edge for wall doors.
• Block B, pull spacing: centered rows of hole pairs for 3-inch (76 mm), 96 mm, 128 mm, 160 mm and 192 mm pulls. Line its center line up with a drawer's center mark, or put one end on the hole you marked with block A to get the second hole of a door pull.

Press an awl through each crosshair you use, remove the sheet, then drill 3/16-inch holes from the marks with a scrap block behind.

Caution: Amerock warns against drilling from a printed template because printers can distort the scale. That's why ours has a scale check and you mark through it rather than drill through it. Check the spacing against the pull itself, or glue the sheet to hardboard for a shop-made template.

How to use a drilling jig

Set the hole spacing from the pull in your hand, set the edge offset and end stop to your placement rule and lock them, clamp the jig so both fences sit tight to the edges, and drill through its steel guides with a backer block behind.

Jig and template comparison

To make a DIY template, glue a straight strip along one edge of a piece of hardboard as a fence, add a stop block at one end, and drill the pull's holes once on a drill press so they're square. Label which edge registers and which way up it goes for base and wall doors.

Screw Length and Thread: A Chart by Front Thickness

Amerock's rule: the screw should be 1/4 inch longer than the door or drawer front is thick. Too short and the pull works loose; too long and the screw bottoms out in the pull before it clamps tight.

Most knobs and pulls come with 8-32 × 1-inch screws because, as Amerock puts it, the typical door or drawer front is 3/4 inch thick. Some makers include two lengths: Rejuvenation's drawer pulls ship with 1-inch and 1-1/2-inch screws and cover fronts from 1/2 to 1-1/4 inch. Hardware stores sell 8-32 knob screws in 1-1/4, 1-3/4, 2 and 2-1/2 inch lengths, and breakaway screws snap off at 1/4-inch steps, so one box covers every front.

On our lines, Fabuwood Allure, Quest and Value doors, J&K's solid-wood doors and US Cabinet Depot's stained birch doors and drawer fronts are 3/4 inch thick, and Fabuwood Illume's slab fronts are 18 mm (about 0.71 inch). The spec books don't say whether each drawer front is applied over a separate box front, so measure one drawer before you buy screws.

Tip: on a raised-panel door or a front with applied molding, measure at the hole, not at the edge. The frame and the molding can be different thicknesses.

Inch vs Metric Hole Spacing

Pulls are sold in inch and metric spacings, and some are close enough to fool you. Amerock calls the 3-inch pull the most common size, and its list of common spacings includes 96 mm and 128 mm alongside the inch sizes.

The practical rule: set your jig from the pull, never from the label, and when replacing pulls, measure the old holes in millimeters as well as inches. A 128 mm pull won't reliably drop into 5-inch holes.

Drilling Painted, Thermofoil, Slab and Inset Doors

The steps are the same on every door, but the material changes where things go wrong.

• Painted wood and MDF: paint chips where the bit exits more than where it enters, so tape both faces and clamp the backer block tight. Our matte finish guide covers touching up a painted surface if a chip happens.
• Thermofoil and other wrapped fronts: the vinyl skin can lift or tear around a hole. Use a sharp split-point bit, moderate speed and firm backing.
• Inset doors: drill with the door off or fully open, since the face frame sits right behind the door edge when it's closed.

Replacing Hardware and Fixing Mistakes

New hardware is simplest when it fits the old holes, so take one pull off and measure its C-C in inches and millimeters before you shop. For a knob, Amerock's advice is to unscrew the old one, leave the screw in place, and thread the new knob on. It's the quickest part of updating honey oak cabinets.

Changing to a different pull size

If the new pulls have a different C-C, you can often reuse one hole. Amerock's method: on wall doors, keep the bottom hole and drill a new top hole; on base doors, keep the top hole and drill a new bottom one. On drawers, drill two new holes so the pull stays centered, and cover or fill the old ones.

Hiding old holes

• Backplate: a decorative plate behind the knob or pull covers the old holes. Amerock suggests one when switching pull sizes or going between knobs and pulls. It's the fastest fix and suits traditional kitchens.
• Fill and refinish: on a painted door, filler sanded flush and repainted can disappear. On a stained door it rarely does; plan on a backplate or a pull that covers the hole.

Fixing a misdrilled hole

Glue in a hardwood dowel (or a golf tee or toothpicks for a small hole), trim it flush, fill and refinish. When the correct hole is close to the bad one, the new bit tends to drift into the soft plug; WOODWEB's contributors suggest a Forstner bit or a guide block clamped over the face to keep it on line. Body filler doesn't shrink, but it may not stand up to the side load of a pull being tugged, so a wood plug is the better base.

Loose or spinning knobs

Tighten the screw from the inside first. If it keeps backing off, a drop of blue (medium-strength) threadlocker such as Loctite 242 on the threads holds it and stays removable with hand tools; full cure takes up to a day. A pull that won't tighten at all usually has stripped threads from a wrong screw being forced in; replace the screw, or the pull if its threads are gone.

If you'd rather skip drilling entirely, push-to-open touch latches let doors and drawers open with no hardware on the face.

Accessibility

For someone with limited grip, pulls are easier than knobs. The 2010 ADA Standards ask for operable parts usable with one hand without tight grasping, pinching or twisting of the wrist, at no more than 5 pounds of force (section 309.4), within a 15-to-48-inch reach range (sections 308.2.1 and 308.3.1). Those rules cover public and commercial spaces, not private homes, but they're a good guide for placement and pull choice.

Frequently Asked Questions

What size drill bit do I use for cabinet handles?

A 3/16-inch bit (or 5 mm) for nearly all knobs and pulls; it clears both 8-32 and M4 screws. Pulls with threaded studs on the back need a 1/4-inch hole.

Should I drill from the front or the back of the door?

From the front, with a scrap block clamped behind the hole. Your marks are on the face, and drilling from the back risks a blowout on the side everyone sees.

How do I install a pull with two holes?

Mark both holes in one setup, with a template or jig set to the pull's actual C-C. Marking one hole and then measuring to the second is how pulls end up crooked. Drill both through at 3/16 inch and fasten from the back.

How do I put handles on cabinets without a template?

Cut a scrap of hardboard or thick card, drill or punch the pull's holes in it once at your chosen offsets, and butt it against the same edges on every door. Or print our free template.

Can I add knobs or pulls without drilling?

Adhesive-mounted handles exist, but we wouldn't trust them on a drawer that carries weight; a through-bolted screw is what holds. For a hardware-free look that works, use push-to-open latches instead.

Are new cabinet doors pre-drilled for handles?

Usually not, which lets you choose the hardware and placement yourself. The fronts on our cabinets typically arrive without hardware holes, so check yours before planning the layout. Hinges and drawer slides come with our cabinets; ask your designer about hardware for your order.

Plan the Hardware Before the Cabinets Arrive

Hardware is easiest to get right on paper. Our free 3D design service draws your kitchen and returns renderings and an itemized quote within 24–48 hours, so you can see door styles, drawer stacks and wide drawers before you choose pull sizes. Browse Galaxy base cabinets, wall cabinets and pantry cabinets to see the fronts you'll be drilling, and read our hardware ideas by cabinet color for finish choices.

Questions about a specific door or drawer? Reach us through the contact page or call 609-900-3358.

Sources: Amerock knob and pull installation guide (via Lowe's); Rejuvenation drawer pull instructions; IKEA HACKÅS product page; Kreg KHI-PULL and KHI-XLPULL product pages and Kreg cabinet knob placement guide; Rockler JIG IT Knob & Pull Pro; True Position TP-1934; KraftMaid and Kitchen Cabinet Kings placement guides; WOODWEB knowledge base, fixes for a misdrilled knob hole; Loctite 242 product data; 2010 ADA Standards for Accessible Design, sections 308 and 309; Fabuwood, J&K and US Cabinet Depot spec books.