Why Timber for Cabinet Hardware

Most cabinet hardware is metal. There are good reasons for that, and there are good reasons to do something else.

What timber does that metal does not

Timber is warm to touch. That sounds like a small thing until you open the same drawer four times a day for ten years. Metal takes the temperature of the room, so on a cold morning a steel pull is genuinely cold. Timber never is.

It also ages rather than wears. A powder coated handle looks new until the coating chips, and then it looks damaged. Timber darkens slowly and evenly with handling, and most people find it looks better at year five than it did on day one.

And every piece is different. Grain runs where it runs. Two handles cut from the same board will not match exactly, which is either the point or a problem depending on what you are after.

Where timber is the wrong answer

We would rather say this than have you find out later. Timber is not the right choice for a wet area with standing water, for outdoor cabinetry exposed to weather, or anywhere that will be cleaned with harsh solvents. It does not like sustained moisture and it does not like bleach.

It is also not structural in the way metal is. Our handles are solid and they last, but a timber pull is not a grab rail.

Finish matters more than species

We finish in hard wax rather than lacquer. Lacquer forms a film over the timber, which looks flawless until it chips and then cannot be repaired invisibly. Hard wax penetrates the grain instead, so the surface keeps its texture and can be refreshed.

The trade off is that hard wax needs a little care. No solvents, no abrasives, no water left sitting on it. In return you get a handle that feels like timber rather than like plastic over timber.

Oak or walnut

Oak is lighter and more open grained. It sits comfortably with pale joinery, white stone and painted cabinetry, and it tends to disappear into a scheme rather than announce itself.

Walnut is darker and closer grained, with more depth. It reads as deliberate. Against pale fronts it becomes a feature, and against dark joinery it holds its own where oak would be lost.

Our guide on choosing between oak and walnut goes into it further.

Specifying across a project

The practical argument for timber hardware is consistency. Our range runs from a 28mm knob to a 452mm pull in the same material and finish, which means one decision can carry through a kitchen, a laundry, a bathroom and a wardrobe without the hardware changing character room to room.

See the full Timber Handles range, or order the sample roll if you would rather handle the timbers before deciding.