Contemporary-Style Knobs

Modern knobs and pulls can be as curvy as amoebas or as rigid as bars. “We’re seeing more interesting shapes,” says Scott Baxter, owner of SA Baxter Architectural Hardware, in New York City. “There’s a huge push for more detail.”

A delicate blossom design can look utterly contemporary when wrought in, say, aluminum or glass. Other modern materials include nickel, chrome, Corian, and even rubber. The coral-motif pulls shown are slightly oversize, bumping up their profile and injecting the room with a fresh sensibility.
To Buy: Coral knobs in brass with black nickel finish, $6 each (2 1/2 inches in diameter), www.anthropologie.com.

Tip: Avoid angular knobs in a child’s room and dainty pulls on drawers that are heavy or yanked open five times a day. For tight spaces, try pulls that lie flush when not in use.

More contemporary choices are shown on the next three pages.