The handle trick that makes a plain wardrobe look built in

House & Garden once put it plainly: there is no wardrobe or cupboard that a new set of hardware cannot make beautiful. Wardrobe doors are also some of the largest fronts in a house, and a handle that looks generous on a kitchen drawer can look lost halfway up a door over two metres tall.

Below is the handle trick designers use on a plain wardrobe, then how long the handle should be, where it goes, and what changes on PAX, panelled and sliding doors.

The trick: leave the wardrobe plain and spend on the handles

What designers do to a plain wardrobe is simple: they leave the carcass alone, often an IKEA one, and put the money and the attention into proper handles. The interior designer Sophie Ashby’s former bedroom in Spitalfields is one of House & Garden’s examples. Her wardrobes were IKEA carcasses, spray-lacquered and given horn handles, and as Ashby told the magazine, the handles are the part you touch, so they are worth spending on while you save on the carcasses.

The New York designer Steven Gambrel, quoted by House & Garden, says hardware is what brings detail and dimension to otherwise conventional joinery, and the wardrobes in that magazine’s pages bear him out. The interior designer Laura Stephens had a joiner make new doors for an IKEA wardrobe to match her client’s wallpaper and finished them with solid knobs. Rachel Bottomley used bow handles to lift the wall of wardrobes in the main bedroom of her Surrey cottage. The designer Hayley Stuart’s advice in Livingetc is simply to add proper handles to PAX doors for a more high-end look.

The handle can also tie the wardrobe to the rest of the room. Gemma Tucker, an interior designer, told Livingetc that for a dark basement bedroom she chose mirrored PAX doors for light and brass handles that picked up the brass in the wall lights. In our view, two things make the trick work: a handle long enough for a full-height door, and the same handle repeated on every door, so the run reads as joinery made for the room.

How long wardrobe handles should be

Judge a wardrobe handle against the height of the door, since that’s what the eye measures it against. The interior designer Ariel Bleich told Livingetc that long, linear pulls look and work best on oversized doors, and are more practical to hold. John McDonald, founder of a company making fronts for flat-pack furniture, says the same of a tall pantry or broom cupboard door. The industrial designer Will Zhang, who designs hardware, told Remodelista that handle sizes should follow the scale of the fronts rather than staying the same everywhere.

IKEA’s PAX doors come in two heights, 195 cm and 229 cm. On doors like these, we think a handle on 320 mm centres or longer holds its own, while the 96 and 128 mm handles that suit kitchen doors start to look like an afterthought. One PAX conversion featured in Livingetc, in a Victorian house, went further, with 18-inch brass pulls, about 460 mm. In our range, the VELA handle and the GREPP handle both go up to 320 mm centres, and the RIVO pull handle, a D-shaped bow, goes up to 416 mm.

Keep the family small. The interior designer Elle Cantrell told Homes & Gardens she works out the smallest and largest fronts first and keeps to two or three handle lengths, which in a bedroom might mean one for the tall doors and a shorter one for drawers and top boxes. Our article on handle sizes and centres explains how centres relate to overall length.

What height to fit wardrobe handles

Will Zhang’s advice is not to centre a pull on a tall closet or pantry door but to set it slightly lower, which he finds “more ergonomic and easier to open”. On a 229 cm PAX door the middle is about 115 cm from the bottom edge, so his advice puts the centre of the handle a little below that.

A long handle makes the choice easier, because it can be gripped anywhere along its length. We’d put a knob or a short handle at the height your hand falls to naturally when you stand at the door, and fit a long handle so that it spans that point. Hold the handle against the door before you drill and try it with everyone who uses the wardrobe, since the right height for a tall adult and a child is rarely the same.

Long bar handles and door pulls on wardrobes

A long bar handle or a door pull, fitted upright on the opening edge, suits a full-height door because it reads at the door’s scale and can be gripped at any height. Our MORRA pull door handle comes in 300, 450 and 600 mm lengths.

Check the door thickness before choosing a door pull. The single MORRA is listed for timber doors 13 to 42 mm thick, while the single GOTHAM pull door handle is listed for timber doors 38 to 55 mm thick, which suits a solid fitted wardrobe door more than a flat-pack one. On a pair of wardrobe doors, each leaf needs its own single pull. Our guide to door pull handles and fixing centres explains singles and back-to-back pairs.

Panelled and fitted wardrobe doors

On panelled doors, the hardware follows the joinery. The designer Katie Glaister told Livingetc that for a dressing room in a Notting Hill townhouse, one set of wardrobe doors was given bolection mouldings and solid antique brass handles. The interior designer Kristen Harrison’s advice for kitchen doors applies here too: on a panelled front, the handle sits a little higher than on a flat one, which in our reading keeps it on the frame.

In practice that means the stile, the upright part of the frame, on the opening side, with the recessed panel left clear, exactly as on a shaker kitchen door. On period or panelled doors, a knob or handle on a backplate can look more at home, and our guide to backplates for knobs and handles covers when that works. If the doors are thick enough, this is also where a door pull comes into its own.

Projection and clearance in a bedroom

A wardrobe often sits beside a bed or opposite a walkway, so check how far the handle stands off the door. The interior designer Laura Williams told Livingetc that the best pull has no protruding ends to snag on clothing, and the Oakland designers Ian Read and Gretchen Krebs made the same case to Remodelista for cutout pulls, which leave nothing to catch a sleeve and suit tight spaces. The MORRA door pull projects 53 mm and the VELA pull 52 mm, while the cabinet bar handles mentioned above stand 30 to 33 mm off the front. In a tight room we’d choose the lower profile, or a D-shaped handle whose ends return to the door.

Check the doors fully open as well. IKEA’s advice for two PAX doors meeting in a corner is that only one should have a handle, since otherwise they can block each other when opening, and Will Zhang points out that an inset pull lets a swing door open fully with nothing in the way.

Knobs on top boxes and small cupboards

The small cupboards above a wardrobe are reached from below, so put their hardware near the bottom edge on the opening side, as on a kitchen wall unit. Our article on where to put handles on kitchen cabinets explains the reasoning. The interior designer Irene Gunter told Homes & Gardens that knobs work well on small, light doors, and the kitchen designer Jayne Everett added in the same magazine that a cup handle works horizontally but not vertically, so a small knob is the safer choice here. Our VELA knob comes in 25.5, 29.5 and 32.5 mm diameters, and repeating the same family as the main doors keeps the whole wardrobe consistent.

Handles for IKEA PAX doors

PAX hinged doors aren’t drilled for handles, so that you can choose the position yourself, and IKEA suggests checking each door’s assembly instructions in case they say where a handle can go.

That check matters, because PAX doors aren’t all made the same way. IKEA describes the FORSAND door as board on frame, with particleboard and fibreboard around a honeycomb paper filling, 1.8 cm thick. Its assembly instructions mark the area you can drill as a strip no more than 4.5 cm in from the edge of the door, with the centre of the door crossed out, so knobs and handles on FORSAND have to sit close to the edge. The BERGSBO door, a four-panel design, is fibreboard and 1.9 cm thick, and we’d fix its handle on the frame rather than a panel.

Both thicknesses suit our standard fixings. Our knobs and handles come with M4 x 25 mm screws, and longer screws are available for doors more than 20 mm thick. IKEA recommends its drill template for marking the holes, and holding a piece of wood behind the door as you drill stops the hole splintering. Our IKEA compatible collection gathers the handles that suit PAX.

Sliding wardrobe doors

Sliding wardrobe doors often need no handle at all, and IKEA lists its sliding doors among the PAX doors that don’t need one. The doors pass each other, so anything fixed to the face of the door that slides behind will usually strike the one in front, and we’d only fit a surface handle on the outer face of the front door. Ian Read and Gretchen Krebs have used circular cutouts on sliding cabinet doors, which avoids the problem entirely. For a handleless look on hinged doors, edge pulls such as VYRA, which wrap over the edge so almost nothing shows from the front, are the closest option in our range.

Quick answers

What size handles for wardrobe doors?

On full-height doors, a long bar handle on 320 mm centres or more, or a door pull, sized to the door.

What height should wardrobe handles be?

A little below the middle of the door, which the designer Will Zhang says is easier to open. A long handle should span the point where your hand falls.

Are IKEA PAX doors pre-drilled for handles?

No. IKEA leaves them undrilled so you can choose the position. Check the assembly instructions, because some doors, such as FORSAND, may only be drilled close to the edge.

What screws do I need for PAX door handles?

Our handles and knobs come with M4 x 25 mm screws, which suit PAX doors of 1.8 to 1.9 cm. Longer screws are available for doors over 20 mm thick.

Can you put door pull handles on wardrobes?

Yes, as singles with bolt-through fixings. Check the door thickness each pull is listed for, since some suit thin flat-pack doors and others need 38 mm or more.

Do sliding wardrobe doors need handles?

Often not. If you add one, only the outer face of the front door can take a surface handle, because the doors pass each other.

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Sources

1. House & Garden: Why handles and knobs are an interior designer’s secret weapon for making things look more expensive. Steven Gambrel on hardware and joinery; wardrobes by Sophie Ashby, Laura Stephens and Rachel Bottomley.
2. House & Garden: The IKEA pieces interior designers come back to again and again. Sophie Ashby’s lacquered PAX wardrobes and spending on the handles.
3. Livingetc: Ikea wardrobe hacks. Gemma Tucker on brass handles that pick up the brass in the wall lights.
4. Livingetc: How to customize IKEA PAX. Hayley Stuart on adding handles for a high-end look.
5. Livingetc: 42 IKEA hacks that prove even inexpensive flatpack can still create a designer-look home. A PAX conversion with 18-inch brass pulls.
6. Livingetc: Closet door ideas. Katie Glaister on bolection-panelled wardrobe doors with antique brass handles.
7. Livingetc: I asked designers about the best shape for a kitchen drawer handle. Ariel Bleich on long pulls for oversized doors; Laura Williams on handles that don’t snag clothing.
8. Livingetc: When should you use knobs vs pulls in a kitchen?. John McDonald on long pulls for tall pantry and broom cupboard doors.
9. Livingetc: What’s the best kitchen cabinet handle placement?. Kristen Harrison on placing handles higher on panelled doors.
10. Homes & Gardens: 5 kitchen hardware mistakes interior designers say homeowners always make. Elle Cantrell on two or three handle lengths; Jayne Everett on cup handles.
11. Homes & Gardens: Should I use handles or knobs on kitchen cabinets?. Irene Gunter on knobs for small, light doors.
12. Remodelista: Expert Advice: Hardware Shouldn’t Be an Afterthought, With Will Zhang. Pulls set slightly below centre on tall closet doors, sizes scaled to the fronts, inset pulls on swing doors.
13. Remodelista: Cutout Cabinet Pulls, Remodeling 101. Ian Read and Gretchen Krebs on cutouts in tight spaces and on sliding doors.
14. IKEA: How do I add knobs or handles to PAX doors?. Doors not pre-drilled, sliding doors without handles, one handle where doors meet in a corner.
15. IKEA: Why PAX doors don’t have pre-drilled holes for handles. Check each door’s assembly instructions for handle position.
16. IKEA: FORSAND door, white, 50×229 cm (UK product page). Board on frame construction with honeycomb filling, 1.8 cm thick.
17. IKEA: FORSAND door assembly instructions (AA-1875122-2). Drilling area no more than 4.5 cm from the door edge.
18. IKEA: BERGSBO door, white, 50×229 cm (UK product page). Fibreboard, 1.9 cm thick, four-panel design.
19. IKEA: PAX and KOMPLEMENT buying guide (UK). Hinged doors 195 and 229 cm tall.
20. IKEA: ENHET kitchen installation guide. Drill template and a backing piece to stop splintering.

Images: Product photographs and diagrams are our own.