Getting a Handle of the Situation

Sorry for the cheesy title.  I feel like I'm working at The Mirror or The Sun and it's my job to try to find terrible titles that work off puns and plays on words.  That drives me nuts about those papers (well, just one of several things) but it's actually a lot harder to make up the ridiculous titles than it looks.  I know a lot of very witty people: if you come up w/ a catchy title, I will change this title just for you.

So this post is about HANDLES. heh heh heh

Remember how all over the place I was about floors.  Well, I didn't fare any better with kitchen handles and knobs.  Such a small part of the kitchen but seriously, it really makes a big difference to the look of the whole kitchen, no?  Now, I'm very lucky in that Stephen doesn't really care what I choose.  He'll be honest and say, 'No, I really don't like those' or 'Those are kinda old-fashioned' but as long as the doors open and close, the rest is up to me.

So my idea of kitchen love is a painted wood look, country style but classic too.  Not too country bumpkin like.  You've seen some of my favourite kitchens when I've talked about floors.  But here's a re-visit to my favourite kitchen:

Actually, I have another absolute favourite but I can't actually find a copy on-line that allows me to reproduce it (and I will be super respectful of that copyright and NOT scan the picture) but if you somehow have access to The Best of Irish Kitchens magazine, Issue 24, Oct/Nov 2011 -- It's on the cover!  Solid wood tops.  Light grey painted wood.  Cup and knob handles.  Belfast sink.  Really simple clean lines.  DROOL!

So getting back to handles, I really like the brushed nickel type of finish and a cup-handle style fitting for drawers, simple knobs for cupboards.  Like this:

These are the kind of handles that Stephen doesn't like.  But hey, we've already gotten over that.  So thinking that this should be a fairly easy decision, I went to my kitchen guy only to find that he doesn't have any cup handles in stock.  To stay open minded, I bring 3 different handle options home just to mull them over and they still don't really take my fancy and I figure I'll look around.  Stephen's comment, 'How can you go to a kitchen place and not find a single handle that you like the look of'.  If you can hear his tone, this is not a judgement on the kitchen place but rather yours truly of course.

Let me tell you.  Ireland is not a big fan of cup handles.  Woodies has one option, that looks a little small as it doesn't have the pretend screws incorporated into the face.  Homebase had another option that looked ... alright.  So I was holding out for Ikea ... which fell flat and seriously disappointed as the Fagleboda cup handle only came in a flat black or shiny chrome and had a much more semi-circular shape than crescent moon.  (ok, yes I see I am starting to sound a little crazy).  They also had a Fintorp handle, that looked really lovely on a kitchen in last month's House and Home magazine ... but those were much larger than I expected and I came home last weekend with still no solution to my handle search.  And in frustration I went back to the handle options that are in the same catalogue as our kitchen doors and do you want to see the only cup handle they offer?

Ugh!  It's a little too medieval and reminds me of a knight's armour or something.

So feeling 'ok' about the DIY store options, I picked up a sample from Woodies and Homebase and went out to the kitchen place to have a look at how the handles would actually look like on the model kitchen.  And after about 20 minutes of humming and hawing, and Colin (kitchen guy) looking through 4 different catalogue for similar cup handles, we made a decision on a lovely satin nickel cup handle, with a slim edge that doesn't have pretend screw features.  Very similar to the Woodies one.

Job done .... you'd think.

Guess what presented an even bigger problem?  Finding a simple oval or round knob, with just the right nubbiness (or is that knubbiness) in the same finish!!!!!!  I'm serious.  NONE of the cup handle options in ANY of the catalogues had a corresponding simple round or oval knob in the same finish.  Finally, there was a compromise of a knob in silver nickel finish from the same catalogue.  It was a bit too flat for my tastes, as opposed to 'knubby', but atleast it was a match (though it didn't look exactly like the same finish in the catalogue, it was described as the same ... and apparently we're not meant to trust picture reproductions.  So job done .... you'd think.

Colin had a sample of the flat knob in stock so I put it up to a door painted in the same colour 'Stone' as our kitchen will be.  And after all of the decision making, would you believe that it looked absolutely terrible!  Seriously.  The colours were just  too similar so it did nothing to 'lift the door' or make the handle or knob stand out as a feature.  I was gutted.  And perplexed.  And confused.  It worked on my dream Best of Irish Kitchens kitchen.  It works on the cream and beige kitchens on the pictures in this post.  Does the search for the handle continue or ....

Should I change the kitchen colour?

It did cross my mind.  I put the handle up to some more sample colours.  I put it on the model kitchen 'Country White' doors.  I ignored the 'What are you doing?' look that Colin was giving me.  And I internally was VERY grateful that Stephen was not there.  But then I realized I had to choose ... do I want my grey kitchen or do I want my brushed nickel cup handles?

I could tell you.  But wouldn't it be more fun to wait until everything is in place?