Fake drawer fronts may sound like a joke to anyone unfamiliar with them.
They are more of impressions than real drawers and are often used to keep the visual line of the rest of the cabinet’s front or other drawers.
It is almost standard to add fake drawers in places the regular drawer wouldn’t be appropriate, like directly under your kitchen sinks.
If you are looking for more cabinet space minus drawers, fake drawers are the best fillers as they make an impression of real drawers.
But, Do You Put Cabinet Hardware On Fake Drawers?
The answer is YES, but it can depend. Fake drawers without hardware look drab and unattractive. Without the hardware, they are simple slabs of plain wood ruining the beautiful face of your cabinets. However, the biggest downside of adding cabinet hardware on your fake drawers is their tendency to inhibit your movements. If your kitchen is small and often packed, you are going to have a hard time moving past the protruding handles and knobs without poking yourself in the belly and thighs.
Four Reasons For Adding Cabinet Hardware On Fake Kitchen Drawers
Here are the REASONS FOR adding cabinet hardware on your fake drawers:
1. It adds the “finishing touch” to your cabinet
The hardware adds that essential “finishing touch” to your cabinets.
All parts of the cabinet must conform to the design and appearance of the rest of the unit. That’s why cabinets with fake drawers that lack the hardware tend to look incomplete.
You don’t want your visitors – who may actually press into your kitchen to assist with cooking – to think you ran out of renovation or remodeling supplies and decided to leave the false drawers plain.
You definitely should include hardware there.
2. Maintains the evenness
You are all about keeping your things even, so yes to the cabinet hardware on your faux drawers.
To not have them there would definitely drive your organized brain crazy, and this would make hitting them while doing your dishes worth it!
3. Hardware is standard
Most people love to see knobs and handle on the cabinet – that’s just what they are used to. If you are one of them, then it would be perfectly okay to add them to your faux drawers.
You don’t even need to buy new knobs and handles if you have spare items from your previous kitchen remodeling project.
If their paint and finish have been scratched off with time, go ahead and paint them yourself before repurposing them on drawers.
It would actually be very expensive to buy new hardware for all your drawers (also consider the fact that the drawers are fake!).
To save some real money, spray paint your silver or gold handles or knobs with Nuvo Titanium paint.
This paint looks great on tarnished gold or silver finish and it is the best money saver of its kind.
4. Hardware makes fake drawers look real
Faux drawers may be fake, yes, but this may be too obvious when they are installed without handles or knobs.
If you don’t like the plain and boring tell-all look, you can add beautifully finished hardware and make them resemble the real thing.
This is especially necessary if you have several real drawers and you want to conceal them by creating other look-alike drawers all over the kitchen or bathroom.
If kids come by looking for stuff to destroy, they are going to be lost up in the maze of fake and real drawers because they all look the same.
Clever, isn’t it?
Four Reasons NOT TO ADD Cabinet Hardware On Fake Kitchen Drawers
These are the REASONS AGAINST adding cabinet hardware on your faux drawers:
1. You dislike the modern look
Choosing to go hardware-less can be a great way to give your kitchen a “modern” vibe.
If you dislike the modern kitchen look, then you probably shouldn’t add that hardware on your faux drawers.
Modern-styled kitchen furniture often doesn’t feature any hardware.
We mean handle-less and knob-less drawers or cabinets, just plain slabs opening or rolling in and out of the cabinet.
It looks fancy and modern, but it’s not a darling of everyone.
2. You don’t have money for it
To add hardware or not to: this is a common dilemma in most homes with faux drawers.
One person may want the hardware and the other partner may not. But most drawer designs look fine without hardware.
You actually can save more than $30 if you choose not to add the hardware.
Depending on the number of fake drawers in your kitchen, you stand to save a lot of money on unnecessary items.
3. You want to move around uninhibited
Perhaps the biggest problem with handled/knobbed fake drawers is their tendency to tear your cloth as you move around the kitchen.
You may ruin your expensive blouse or shirt if gets caught by the protruding handle.
If such an accident occurs while you are holding a hot pot or some delicate food such as eggs in your hands, everything may end up on the floor, even burning your feet in the process!
As such, it would be much safer to leave the fake drawers plain.
4. You think it’s unnecessarily laborious
It may take a full day’s worth of work just to add your favorite handles or knobs on your faux drawers, ever longer.
That’s something you might want to give long thought to.
It’s not a matter of gluing and sticking things together. Most glues won’t even stick perfectly to your favorite finish.
There is also no easy way to get your fake drawers off without marring the finish or the drawer itself.
Also, it won’t be easy to really glue your drawer front to its frame when the front has some corner bumpers all over it (therefore, there’s no contact between the plywood mounting blocks or between the face frame and the drawer front’s back.
But, what if you want to add the hardware so bad? What would be the approach?
Well, you’d need to first find some angled screwdrivers.
You will also need to ensure that all the involved spaces are minimal at best.
Let’s say you chose to go with handles or knobs, you will need some luck to put the lock washer beneath the head of the screw and hold that with a finger; just turn your knob on until it gets sufficiently tight.
If you choose to go with handles (there will be 2 points of contact), things may get a bit trickier because you won’t be able to easily turn the handle, so you will have to turn your screws.
Theoretically speaking, you could also decide to screw your screws deep down into the handle – do so until they get TIGHT lest they unscrew back.
Thereafter, proceed to cut the heads off the screws.
Conclude by passing the screw shafts via the holes in your drawer front before attaching with buts from the rear side.
Now, honestly, the main reason companies don’t put hardware on their false fronts is to prevent unknowing users from trying to yank the drawers open yet they are fixed. This may not be too serious during the first few times, but in the long run, someone may actually yank the fake front off the cabinet. Therefore, bear in mind this reality before deciding to add hardware on there!
In a nutshell
So, do you put cabinet hardware on fake drawers? Certainly yes, but it depends.
- The hardware adds that essential “finishing touch” to your cabinets
- Most people love to see knobs and handle – that’s just what they are used to. If you are one of them, then it would be perfectly okay to add them to your faux drawers
- Also, faux drawers may be fake, yes, but this may be too obvious when they are installed without handles or knobs
- If you don’t like the plain and boring tell-all look, you can add beautifully finished hardware and make them resemble the real thing
However, there are convincing REASONS AGAINST adding cabinet hardware on your faux drawers
- For example, choosing to go hardware-less can be a great way to give your kitchen a “modern” vibe
- If you dislike the modern kitchen look, then you probably shouldn’t add that hardware on your faux drawers
- You actually can save more than $30 if you choose not to add the hardware.
- Depending on the number of fake drawers in your kitchen, you stand to save a lot of money on unnecessary items
- Perhaps the biggest problem with handled/knobbed fake drawers is their tendency to tear your cloth as you move around the kitchen
- You may ruin your expensive blouse or shirt if gets caught by the protruding handle.
- If such an accident occurs while you are holding a hot pot or some delicate food such as eggs in your hands, everything may end up on the floor, even burning your feet in the process!
- It may take a full day’s worth of work just to add your favorite handles or knobs on your faux drawers, ever longer, so the whole project is mostly laborious
The main reason companies don’t put hardware on their false fronts is to prevent unknowing users from trying to yank the drawers open yet they are fixed.
