I’m a firm believer that cabinets should have hardware.  For some reason, it really irks me when I see beautiful, naked cabinets – why miss out on an opportunity to add a little bling?  Also, I just think it’s odd to claw at a cabinet or drawer to open it when you could just grab a knob or pull instead.  But maybe that’s just me.

Anyway, yesterday was awesome because we finally got to pick out the hardware for the cabinets at the flip!!  I was shocked when we counted up all of the hardware that we would need – 33 pulls and 50 knobs.  Doesn’t that seem like a ton?  I guess it’s not when you really think about it, because we needed hardware for the kitchen (and pantry), jack ‘n jill bath, laundry room bi-fold doors, bi-fold closet doors in the second bedroom, and a built-in desk in the fourth bedroom.

We were afraid that we would have a tough time finding hardware that we liked, but we were definitely wrong!!  Our first trip to Home Depot yielded these beauties for the jack ‘n jill bath and the built-in desk:

[I know my pictures can't do them justice, so I added in their glamour shots from the Home Depot website]

Aren’t they pretty?  I think they are going to look fab in those two secondary areas – they have some personality while still remaining affordable.  Excellent!

Restoration Hardware was the next stop on our quest for hardware.  We fell in love with their hardware when we were buying pulls and knobs for our own master bath – they have some really beautiful, classic designs.  On the downside, they are pretty darn expensive, so we promised ourselves that we would only buy hardware for the master bath.  Here’s what we chose:

I love them!!!  Want to hear something funny?  We actually had a bag of leftover hardware to return to Restoration Hardware that I hadn’t peeked into in about 6 months – when we got to the register to buy the new stuff and return the old stuff, it turns out that we had picked the very same knobs again!!  I guess we must have really liked them, right?

And you probably noticed that we got two sizes of pulls for the master bath – that’s because the drawer fronts in front of the sinks are pretty big, and the drawers in between the two sinks are much smaller.  Using two different sizes of pulls will add a little visual interest to the vanity, and keep everything in scale.

By the way, if you’re thinking about buying hardware from Restoration Hardware, I would advise planning ahead – most of their hardware is special-order only these days, which is kind of a bummer.  They still have a little stock left over in the back so we were able to score all of our hardware in the same day by driving around to two different stores, but otherwise we would have had to wait for a week.

Next we were off to Lowe’s – we were hoping that they had a few different styles of hardware that Home Depot didn’t have.  Turns out, Lowe’s has a much better selection of hardware – I was totally impressed!!  Take a gander at all of this playground o’ hardware:

Four whole sections of hardware!!!  And most of it was in-stock (as opposed to special order), so I was a happy girl.  I absolutely love this collection of hardware:

This collection is chunky and very heavy to the touch, which is a great quality for hardware to have.  I love how sturdy it looks, and I think it’s going to look great in the new kitchen.

We were pretty consistent with the hardware throughout the flip – almost all of it is satin nickel, except for the polished nickel in the master bath (for a little extra swank).  We think that will make the house feel even more cohesive, and hopefully it will all look great with the other finishes we picked out.  I can’t wait to show you guys the house when it’s all finished!!

So now I’ve spilled the beans on the hardware in the flip – what sorts of goodies adorn your cabinets?

Images courtesy of Restoration Hardware, Lowe’s and Home Depot.