The Junk House: Installing Kitchen Cabinet Hardware

This kitchen makeover is actually happening! I already have my first big project done – installing knobs and pulls on the doors and drawers! First let’s look at the kitchen before I started the project:

The cabinets are in great shape, but they have always been missing hardware. So after work on Friday I went to Home Depot and bought a handful of different knobs and pulls to try out on the cabinets. I knew I wanted a brushed nickel finish, but I wasn’t sure about anything else besides that. I ended up choosing this knob for the doors and this cup pull for the drawers:

Of course I had to pick the most expensive pull out of the ones I bought...good thing I only have 5 drawers! The knobs were only $2.97 each, but I had to buy 22 of them! Luckily Home Depot sells that style in “value packs” of 10, so I ended up saving about $13 by buying 2 value packs instead of individually. I also bought an installation template, which is a must for installing cabinet hardware. I’ll talk more about it later, but it was $7 well spent. After all was said and done, this project ended up costing me $91.76.

But before I could start installing the new hardware I had to fix some of the cabinet doors. All of the upper cabinets looked like this:

Wonky!

Luckily I was able to even up all of the doors by simply loosening the screws on the hinges and pushing the door up/down until they matched up. That didn’t work on one door, so I had to actually take it off and drill a new set of holes. I was scared I was going to screw it up, but I wasn’t going to live with wonky doors anymore, so I just went for it. It was easier than I thought it would be and now all the cabinets look like this:

Now the really scary part - drilling into the cabinets for the first time! I was really nervous, but installation template made me feel a little more comfortable.

These are the steps I followed while installing my cabinet door pulls:

Line the template up with the edges of the door and mark your hole with a pencil – make sure you use the same hole every time!

Using a smaller drill bit, drill through the cabinet door. The smaller drill bit is easier to control and there’s less of a chance of the wood splitting or cracking. You can leave the door closed, but make sure there’s nothing on the other side that you could puncture/break.

Once through, go through again with the larger drill bit.

You now have even holes and can add your knobs!

I installed all of my knobs first because I knew they would be easier than the pulls. Once all 22 knobs were installed, I moved on to the pulls.

First measure the length of your drawer and mark the center with a pencil. Say the drawer is 25” long – I marked the drawer at 12.5” and then measured from that line to the edge to make sure it really was the same distance on both sides. Yeah, I’m a little obsessive about measuring.

Line up the holes on the pull with the holes on the template. The template gives you 3 different options for width, so make sure you pick the right one.

Hang the template from the top of the drawer and line up the center line with your pencil mark. Mark your holes with a pencil – make sure you use the same set every time.

Use a smaller drill bit and then a larger one like the steps above. Then add your pull and celebrate.

After all of the pulls were installed I couldn’t stop talking about how much I loved the new hardware. Seriously, I said “It looks so good!” to myself, my boyfriend, and the dogs about 20 times. And now here are the after shots, which include a sleepy Abby:

OK, here’s where I need your opinions: do you think I should add a pull to the “drawer” below the sink? It does tilt out and there’s a plastic tray attached, but I don’t use it. I think a lot of kitchens don’t have a pull on that “drawer”, but I’ve seen ones that do. I wasn’t planning on adding one, but after seeing the pulls line up across all the drawers I’m wondering if it would look better to put one there too. For now I’m going to live without adding one and see how it goes, but tell me what you think.