Turner Hastings Fanetta Cabinet Handle

Turner Hastings Fanetta Cabinet Handles Buying Guide

The Fanetta is a slim iron handle range from Turner Hastings, with pull handles in four sizes and a T-bar. The range is manufactured in Italy and comes in Brushed Brass, Brushed Nickel, English Bronze, Matte Black and Chrome. It has a streamlined profile and carefully considered proportions. The page covers what each piece measures, what an iron handle with a plated finish is, and what each finish looks like. The page also shows how to size, fit and clean the range. For all of the maker's handles, start at Turner Hastings cabinet handles.

The pieces, measured

The Fanetta pull handles come in 128mm, 160mm, 224mm and 320mm centres, with a T-bar at 75mm. All handle measurements are centre to centre. Each centre pairs with an overall length: 164mm for the 128mm pull, 196mm for the 160mm, 260mm for the 224mm and 340mm for the 320mm. Each pull is 18mm wide and projects 23mm. The T-bar is 75mm.

The centre is the gap between the two screw holes, measured from centre to centre, so the 128mm, 160mm and 224mm pulls run 36mm longer than their holes and the 320mm pull runs 20mm longer. The 160mm brushed brass handle is 196mm long, 35mm deep and 18mm high, which matches the overall length and width above. Fixing screws are included, so the pull comes ready to fit.

When you replace a handle, measure the distance between the screw holes and match it to the fixing distance, not to the length of the old handle. A 128mm handle will not fit 160mm holes without new holes, so each Fanetta size only drops into holes spaced the same.

Iron as a handle body

The body is iron for both the pulls and the T-bar. Iron is dense, and the Fanetta feels solid in the hand for its slim size, so a sample is the best way to judge the weight against the handles you have now.

The finish is electroplated, and the plating metal and thickness are not named. The plating is the layer you see and touch, so the care advice below follows the finish and not the iron beneath it. See cabinet pull handles for the full group of pulls.

The five finishes

• Brushed Brass is a soft, even gold. Bare brass develops a patina while a lacquered finish holds the colour as made, and the Fanetta body is iron, so the brass colour is a plated finish. Brushed brass is matte and subtle and suits minimalist or Scandinavian kitchens. See brushed brass cabinet handles.
• Brushed Nickel is a soft, cool grey: a metallic silver with a slight warm grey undertone and a low satin sheen that disguises fingerprints. See brushed nickel cabinet handles.
• English Bronze is a brown gold, darker than the brasses. See bronze cabinet handles.
• Matte Black is non-reflective, and it hides fingerprints better than a polished finish. See black cabinet handles.
• Chrome is the bright one. Decorative chrome is usually 5 to 10 microinches thick (0.13 to 0.25 micrometres) and applied over bright nickel plating, and it shows fingerprints, smudges and water spots more easily than brushed nickel. See chrome cabinet handles.

Treat every Fanetta finish as coated, and avoid brass polish and abrasive cleaners. The rule for mixing is to keep a room to two metals and repeat each at least twice so it reads as a decision. Gold, brass and bronze tones pair with navy, charcoal, blue or green cabinetry, and matt black works against light cabinetry as a contrast.

Choosing a pull size

A sizing table helps. A standard drawer 450mm to 600mm wide takes a 128mm to 160mm centre, and a wide drawer of 600mm to 900mm takes 256mm to 320mm, or two 128mm pulls. A standard door takes a 96mm to 128mm pull or a knob, and a tall pantry door of 600mm and above takes two 256mm pulls. The most common centre in Australian kitchens is 128mm, and vanity drawers and doors usually take 96mm and 128mm centres.

The one-third rule says a pull is about a third as long as the drawer front is wide, so near 200mm for a drawer 600mm across. The 196mm Fanetta on a 160mm centre is the nearly exact size for that drawer, and the 260mm on a 224mm centre suits a drawer of about 750mm. The 340mm pull on a 320mm centre suits a wide drawer of 900mm to 1000mm, and the 164mm pull on a 128mm centre suits a drawer of about 450mm or a vanity door. The rule is a guide and not a strict rule.

The T-bar

A T-bar fixes at one point, like a knob, and gives a longer grip than a round knob. Most cabinet knobs run roughly 25mm to 38mm across, so the 75mm Fanetta T-bar is about twice that. Knobs take the fingers and a single screw and suit small doors and drawers, and drawers up to about 400mm take a knob, a short pull or a compact T-bar. The T-bar is therefore the Fanetta piece for a small door or a narrow drawer. Because it fixes at one point it has no centre-to-centre figure, so you only need to mark one hole position on the door, and a swap from a pull leaves a second old hole to fill. See cabinet knobs.

Placement

A pull or knob sits 40mm to 60mm in from the edge that opens, near the bottom corner of an upper door and the top corner of a lower door. Pulls run horizontally on drawers and vertically on doors. Tall pantry doors suit long vertical pulls, which improve grip and weight balance. To test a size before you buy, tape a strip cut to the handle's length onto the cabinet and live with it for a day. Use the same length throughout a kitchen, and put handles only on base cabinets and drawers for a less busy look.

What cast iron is

The body is cast iron, so the general facts about cast iron are worth knowing. Cast iron is an iron alloy with a carbon content of more than 2 per cent, with silicon typically around 1 to 3 per cent. Typical grey cast iron is 2.5 to 4.0 per cent carbon, 1 to 3 per cent silicon, and the remainder iron. Its low melting point, fluidity, castability, machinability and wear resistance are the reasons it is cast into shapes. Cast iron tends to be brittle, except for malleable types, and is strong under compression but not under tension.

Those facts cover the metal and not its coating, so they do not tell you how a plated iron handle behaves near water. For that, the care advice below applies: keep the plated surface intact, dry the handle after cleaning, and avoid abrasive pads that could break through the plating. A coating that is scratched through is the likely weak point on any plated body, and the plating thickness is not given.

The brittleness point is a reason to fit the handle carefully. Two screws pull the handle against the door, and over-tightening can load a cast body. Fixing screws are included, so use them, turn the last turns by hand, and stop when the handle sits flat against the door.

Why the Italian origin matters, and what it does not

The Fanetta is manufactured in Italy to established European production standards. No standard is named, so that is a statement of origin and not a measured property. What the origin does tell you is where the range is made. It does not tell you how the plating will last or how the handle will feel, so judge those from a sample.

Matching with Turner Hastings tapware

The Fanetta can be matched to Turner Hastings sink mixers for a cohesive kitchen. Aim for one dominant finish for the handles through a kitchen, with a second metal as an accent, and coordinate finishes across cabinet hardware, appliance pulls and fixtures such as taps and lighting without making every piece identical. Check the finish names on both products, since a finish called brushed brass or chrome can differ between suppliers.

Replacing handles

When you swap handles, match the fixing distance. A new pull with the same distance drops into the old holes without drilling. Measure from the centre of one screw hole to the centre of the other. Common centres such as 96, 128, 160, 192, 224 and 320mm are multiples of 32mm, and that handles made to imperial sizes will not match holes drilled on that grid. All four Fanetta centres sit on the grid. If the old holes are on another centre, you will need to fill them or drill new ones, and a filled hole shows unless the door is repainted.

In a bathroom

Bathroom fittings need wiping and drying more often than those elsewhere, because steam and moisture leave marks. Bathrooms are more humid than kitchens, and solid brass, stainless steel and quality PVD are sound choices. The Fanetta is a plated iron body, so keep it away from the shower and wipe it dry. The cabinets these handles fit are at bathroom vanities and furniture.

Caring for plated handles

Put the cleaner on the cloth and not on the hardware, and dry the handle straight away so water marks do not form. For coated finishes, use a soft microfibre cloth with mild soap and warm water if needed, dried promptly, and avoid abrasive pads, powdered cleansers, ammonia, bleach and alcohol-based disinfectants. A coating wears first where the hand lands, so wipe the grip area more often than the rest of the handle.

Related pages

For the maker's other handles, see Turner Hastings cabinet handles. For other types and materials, see cabinet handles, cabinet pull handles and cabinet knobs.