Kitchen hardware: where not to cut costs

What actually wears out

Count how many times a day the drawer under the sink is opened, then multiply by ten years. The rest of the kitchen just stands there.

Three questions for the maker

These questions take five minutes and show whether your kitchen was costed or merely drawn.

1. 1

   Who makes the hardware, and is it written in the specification

   If the answer is «European» or «good quality», that is not an answer. The manufacturer belongs in the document, because that name is what later lets you buy an identical replacement part.

2. 2

   How many hinges on each tall front

   Hinges are the easiest place to save money invisibly: the difference in the quote is small, while a door that hangs crooked after three years is visible every day.

3. 3

   What happens when a part breaks in three years

   This is not a question about the warranty but about availability: hardware from a known manufacturer is sold in any town, unbranded hardware only where somebody once bought it in bulk.

Where saving money makes sense

There are places where expensive hardware genuinely changes nothing. A cabinet housing built-in appliances is opened once a year, so a soft-close damper there is wasted. The same goes for a low drawer holding baking trays: it moves rarely and carries little weight.

Everything around the sink, the waste bin, cutlery and everyday crockery, however, is the working zone — and there a cheap runner will spoil how the kitchen feels faster than anything else.