How do I fit kitchen cabinet handles so they all line up?

Handles are the one part of a kitchen the eye reads as a horizontal line across a whole wall. A single handle 3mm low is invisible on its own and glaring in a run of six, which is why this job is about repeatability rather than accuracy — every hole has to be wrong in exactly the same way, or right.

What you'll need

• Cabinet handle drilling template, bought or made from scrap
• Drill and a sharp bit, usually 5mm
• Scrap block of timber to clamp behind
• Clamps
• Tape measure and a square
• Masking tape (optional)

Step by step

1. Take the doors off and work flat.Every hole is easier, squarer and safer with the door face down on a bench. Label each door as it comes off.
2. Measure the handle's centre distance before anything else.Centre of one screw to centre of the other. Common values are 96, 128, 160, 192 and 224mm, with 32 and 64mm on small knobs and cup handles. Measure the handle you actually bought — the box figure is sometimes the overall length.
3. Decide the setting-out, and write it down.Edge distance — how far in from the door's side edge the near hole sits — and height from the top or bottom edge. Neither is a rule; both are choices. Write the two numbers on a piece of tape and use them for every door.
4. Put handles high on base units and low on wall units.It is the convention because it puts every handle within reach in the middle band of the kitchen, and it makes the kitchen read as one thing rather than two.
5. Make or buy a template that registers off two edges.An L-shaped jig that hooks over the corner of the door. Registering against the door's own edges is what makes it repeat; registering against pencil marks reintroduces the error you were trying to remove.
6. Drill a test hole in scrap first.Confirm the bit size against the actual screw, confirm the template is the right way up, and confirm the hole spacing by offering the handle to the scrap. Two minutes here saves a ruined door.
7. Clamp a scrap block hard against the back of the door.Breakout happens on the exit face. Without a block behind, a foil-wrapped or veneered door tears out a crescent of material on its back face — and on a wall unit door with an open back, that face is visible.
8. Drill from the face side, square, at moderate speed.Let the bit cut. Forcing it through MDF or chipboard tears rather than cuts, and a wandering bit at the start leaves a crater around the hole that the handle rose may not cover.
9. Check drawer fronts for what is behind them.The screws pass through the front and into open air — or into the drawer box front, or into a runner bracket. Hold the front against the box and check before drilling, and use screws that do not foul anything.
10. Fit handles finger tight, then check the run, then tighten.Rehang the doors, stand a few metres back, look along the run, and only then tighten everything. Small errors that are invisible up close are obvious from across the room.

Tips

• Handle screws come in a length that suits an average door, and yours may be thicker or thinner. M4 machine screws are available in every length in the shops — buying the right length is easier than shortening the ones in the box.
• If a screw is fractionally too short, a thin washer under the handle rose is not the answer; buy longer screws. If it is too long, cut it with a mini hacksaw and clean the thread with a file before it goes in.
• For cup handles and knobs with a single fixing, drill a small pilot and then the clearance hole. A single-hole handle can rotate, so a rotation stop or a slight bed of clear sealant behind it is worth having.
• Bar handles fitted vertically on tall doors are conventionally aligned with each other rather than centred on each door — the vertical line matters more than the individual door.

Common mistakes

• Measuring each door individually rather than using a jig — Every measurement carries a small error, and six doors gives six different errors. A jig repeats the same position exactly, which is what the eye is actually reading.
• Drilling without a block behind the door — Breakout on the back face is permanent, and it is visible on any wall unit door or any door you ever look at from behind.
• Drilling all the doors before fitting one handle — If the bit size, the spacing or the template orientation is wrong, you find out on the whole kitchen at once.

Questions people ask