A Tiny Update to Our Tiny Kitchen

This post contains Amazon affiliate links.

Once upon a time, I bought some hardware for the kitchen cabinets and drawers. I thought, “Gee, this would be a swell update to the kitchen, but I’m a little intimidated by drilling holes into the cabinet doors.”

And so I waited. And waited. And waited some more. Until three years had passed and a nice, thick layer of dust had coated the hardware sitting on a shelf in the laundry room. Then I thought, “Stop being such a pansy and replace the hardware that’s been needling you since you threw down the money for pretty oil rubbed bronze handles.”

Oil Rubbed Bronze Cabinet Hardware Euro Style Bar Handle Pull

Ahem... please don't mind the fingerprints. I'll clean them off -- honest!

Then I had an idea, a fool-proof way to get everything to line up properly. I made a three sided box out of leftover pieces of trim, measured where the holes were for the handle, drilled them, and screwed a handle to the box to make sure everything was just right. Bolstered by my creation, I drilled a hole and fastened the handle to the door.

And it was 1/16” off. 1/16th! I turned into a puddle of goo and despaired. My fool-proof creation was more fool than proof, and now I had a hole I couldn’t use in the door!

My Charles helped scrape me off the floor and mold me back into a human shape. He told me to putty the hole, wait for it to dry, and then measure again. “I can’t!” I wailed. “I suck too much!” But after moping a bit, I realized that I could put a bit of tape on the cabinet, measure it, and get the hole in the proper spot. I ended up using my sewing tape to measure since it laid flat against the wood and was easy to hold in place, and because it was only 1/16th off, the handle still covered the puttied hole.

Oil Rubbed Bronze Cabinet Hardware Round Mushroom Knob

With a few deep breaths, I tried again, and now I have beautiful, new(ish) hardware making my 70s cabinets a bit more modern. The drawer knobs – well, there wasn’t any angst involved with those guys. It was one screw in, screw knob in place, voila. I love how hefty they feel. Opening drawers feels so opulent now.

And so endeth the adventure of the cabinet hardware. We all lived happily ever after – at least until my next attempt at should-be-simple DIY.  

---