Drawer Handle Size Guide

Standard drawer handle sizes: the one-third rule

Australian joinery runs on standard module widths: 300, 450, 600, 900. The drawer front is normally the module width less 3–4mm for the gap, so a 600mm cabinet carries a front closer to 596mm. Measure the front, not the carcass.

Take a third of that width and order the nearest handle length to it. Handles are not made in every millimetre, so you will usually be rounding to whatever the range offers within 10–15mm. Close enough. Nobody notices 10mm on a finished kitchen.

Drawer handle size chart for Australian cabinet widths

Centre-to-centre is always shorter than the overall length, but by how much depends entirely on how the ends of the handle are formed. It can be as little as 9mm on a tight-return D-handle, or 80 to 90mm on a long tapered bar. It is not something you can estimate; read it off the specification. Every length in the table is in the drawer handles collection, listed with both figures in the Specification block.

On a very wide drawer you have a choice: one long handle, or two shorter ones set at the quarter points. Two handles on a 1200mm island bank look better than one 400mm bar, and a loaded drawer pulls square instead of racking.

Cupboard and pantry door handle sizes

Doors are looser than drawers. Aim for a quarter of the door width and you will be right most of the time. Tall doors are the exception, covered below.

Big cupboards want long handles. Under-scaling is the more common mistake. Put a 160mm handle on a full-height pantry door and it disappears.

On tall cupboards the handle usually runs vertically, so you are sizing against door height rather than width. On a pantry or a floor-to-ceiling run of 2.3m or above, a 500mm handle is not too big. In a big room it is about right. Only three ranges go to 500mm: Knurled, Belgravia and Stria. Check the finish is in stock before you settle on it.

Long handles as fridge and dishwasher pulls

We get asked this a lot. Because they are solid brass right through, the 370, 380 and 500mm handles are suitable as appliance pulls. Two things worth checking before you order. An integrated panel is usually thicker than a standard 18mm front once the appliance bracket is behind it, so ask us for the 40mm screws. And check the swing: a 500mm bar on a fridge door needs clearance from whatever is beside it.

Spacing matters as much here as anywhere else, since the panel gets drilled like any other front.370, Geo 380 and Knurled 380 are all 320mm centre-to-centre, as is the Stria 350 if you want that profile in a shorter length. At 500mm, Belgravia, Knurled and Stria are all 416mm.

Cabinet handle dimensions: overall length vs centre-to-centre

Every handle carries two measurements, and mixing them up is what puts the wrong handle in the box.

• Overall length is the physical size of the handle, tip to tip. It is what the one-third rule gives you and what you pick on the product page. New kitchen, or drilling fresh holes: this is your number.
• Centre-to-centre is the gap between the two bolt holes. If the holes are already drilled, nothing else matters.

The common centre-to-centre spacings (96, 128, 160, 192, 224 and 320mm) are all multiples of 32mm. That is the same module behind System 32, the European cabinetmaking standard built around a 32mm line-boring grid, which most machine-made Australian joinery is set out to. The shared module is why the same handful of numbers keeps turning up across unrelated ranges.

Sizes like 102, 152 and 203mm are conversions of imperial measurements: 4, 6 and 8 inches. They come from American and some British ranges and will not line up with a 32mm-family hole pattern. A few sizes in most ranges, including ours, sit off the grid for design reasons, so read the centre-to-centre off the specification rather than assuming it.

Replacing handles: how to measure the holes you already have

Most of the people who ask us about sizes are not building a kitchen. They are swapping handles on one they already have. Forget the drawer width. In that case the existing holes decide, and centre-to-centre is the only number that matters.

How to measure what you have

• Measure from the centre of one bolt hole to the centre of the other. That figure is your centre-to-centre.
• Do not measure edge to edge. Outside edge to outside edge reads about 5mm over the true figure, which is not a size at all, so nothing will match it.
• Take the old handle off first. Measuring around the bolts while they are still in is where most of the errors come from.
• Do not round. Your holes are your number and the new handle has to match it exactly. Land on 96 or 128mm and you are on the 32mm family with plenty of choice. Land on 102mm and a 96mm handle will not fit, however close it looks.

If you want to change size

Going from 96mm to 128mm moves both holes, so nothing is reusable. On a laminate or melamine front, Polytec or Laminex, colour-matched filler almost always shows, especially on gloss or light colours. A backplate handle that covers the old holes is the usual fix. Failing that, a new front. On painted MDF, filling and repainting the whole front is realistic.

Where to position handles on drawers and doors

• Drawer fronts up to about 600mm wide: centre the handle both ways.
• Deep pot drawers over 250mm tall are the exception. Dead-centre is correct, but plenty of cabinetmakers drop the handle 60–80mm down from the top edge instead, so it sits nearer hand height.
• On shaker doors, mount the handle on the stile, the vertical frame member on the opening side, not on the recessed panel. On shaker drawer fronts, centre it on the whole front unless the front is shallow, in which case the top rail is the better line.
• Doors take the handle 50–75mm in from the leading edge, the opening side away from the hinges, with the height kept consistent across the run.

Work to 1mm. Small errors compound across a run of four drawers, and misalignment is far more obvious than a handle that is 10mm off the ideal length.

What screw length do you need?

Door and drawer fronts in Australia are usually 18mm. Every handle ships with 25mm screws, which is right for an 18mm front. In our experience that covers nearly every kitchen.

Thicker fronts need more: a shaker profile with an applied moulding, or a custom panel. We supply 40mm screws as well. Place your order, then email us and we will include them.

The wrong length shows up straight away. Too long and the handle stays loose and spins no matter how hard you tighten it. Too short and it will not hold. If you are not sure which you need, email us with the handle you have ordered and the thickness of your front, and we will send the right screws with it.

Six common drawer handle sizing mistakes

1. Overall length used where centre-to-centre was needed.A 160mm handle and a 160mm centre-to-centre are different things. If the holes are already there, the length is irrelevant.
2. Assuming 102mm will replace 96mm.It is a 4-inch imperial size. Neither hole will line up.
3. Estimating centre-to-centre from the overall length.The gap between the two figures runs anywhere from 9mm to 90mm depending on the shape of the ends. Read it off the spec.
4. Drilling from the back of the front.The bit chips the melamine or laminate face as it exits. Drill from the face into a backing block, or tape the exit point.
5. No clearance check.On a 900mm return, a long bar handle can foul the oven door or the adjacent bin drawer. Check the swing before you buy.
6. Two hole standards in the one kitchen.Nothing lines up across the run, and replacements later become guesswork.

Handle sizes by kitchen style

Hamptons

Cup pulls on the drawers, knobs on the doors. The Vintage Arch Pull gives you the cup shape in solid brass, and the Florencia Cup Pull is a true cup at 64mm centre-to-centre, in antique brass or black. Pair the Vintage Arch with 32mm knobs in brushed nickel or antique brass, and the Florencia with antique brass or black knobs to match. Cup pulls are measured centre-to-centre the same way as a bar handle, but they sit tight to the front, so keep the standard screws.

French Provincial

We do a lot of these on Sydney's Upper North Shore, and the hardware choice usually comes down to two ranges. For a clean, simple kitchen the Belgravia is the safe call. Where the joinery is more detailed, most of these houses end up on the Stratford in antique brass or brushed nickel, which is the pairing that sits best against profiled doors and the pale paint colours these kitchens are usually built around.

Size them on the same one-third rule. Stratford runs 128, 160, 192, 223, 255 and 350mm overall, which covers a 450mm drawer through to a 1200mm island. Belgravia adds a 95mm at the bottom of the range and a 500mm for full-height pantry doors, so one range can carry an entire kitchen. Both do a matching T-knob for narrow drawers, and the Belgravia 32mm knob picks up the doors in the same finish.

One caution on T-knobs. They are a light-duty fitting. The design intent is a cupboard door that opens to the side. A narrow cutlery drawer is fine too, but that is about where it stops. There is a single fixing holding one on and nothing bracing it either side, so put real force on one and it might rotate from its base. We do not generally recommend them for anything heavy-duty.

Federation and Queenslander

Smaller pulls and decorative knobs suit these houses. The Vintage Arch and the marble-top knobs sit comfortably on period fronts. A 320mm bar on a 1920s front will look wrong no matter how good the handle is.

Flat-panel and modern

Long bar handles from about 350mm overall length up, run horizontally across wide drawers. In a galley narrower than 1200mm, check the projection figure on the product page before you commit. Most of the range sits at 30–35mm, and the slimmer profiles are the safer choice where two people have to pass: Contemporary at 24.5mm, Clement D at 27mm, Lip Pull at 15mm.

Drawer handle sizes: questions we get asked

What size handle do I need for a 600mm drawer?

200mm overall on a 596mm front. On most of our ranges that comes out at 160mm centre-to-centre. Four sit at 192 instead, being the Contemporary, Elegant D, Signature and Stellar, and two are off the grid altogether: the Century at 128 and the Lip Pull at 170. Which is the reason to read the centre-to-centre off the specification rather than working it back from the length. Anything from about 195 to 220mm overall will look right, so take the nearest length the range you like offers. Both figures are on every size in the drawer handles collection.

What is the standard drawer handle hole spacing in Australia?

128mm and 160mm cover most Australian kitchens, and both sit in the 32mm family that machine-made joinery is set out to. Older kitchens and imported fronts can be off that grid entirely, and so can anything built one-off. Measure your own holes rather than assuming which size you have.

Are draw handles and drawer handles the same thing?

Yes. Draw handle is how a lot of people write drawer handle, including plenty of the people who email us. The sizing is identical: a 160mm centre-to-centre draw handle is the same part as a 160mm centre-to-centre drawer handle.

Will a 96mm handle fit 102mm holes?

No. 102mm is a 4-inch imperial spacing, so nothing in the 32mm family lines up with it, 96mm included. If that is what you have, a backplate handle that covers the old holes is the usual fix.

What screws come with the handles?

25mm screws, in the box with every handle we sell, and they are the right length for the 18mm fronts most Australian kitchens are built from. Thicker fronts want the 40mm: a shaker door with an applied moulding, or an integrated appliance panel. We keep those and send them on request. Place the order, then email us, and they go in before it ships.

How many handles should go on a 1200mm island bank?

Two, set at the quarter points of the front. A single 400mm bar is the alternative and some people prefer it, but two handles look better on a front that wide, and a loaded drawer pulls square instead of racking. Size each against half the front: 1196 halved is 598, and a third of that is 200mm. Both the 200s and the 400s are in the drawer handles collection.