Home

Can you handle it

February 19, 2013

Seeing as how I posted about my handy man for Valentine’s Day – I thought I should post the next chapter in our DIY built in bookshelves.

When we bought our bottom cabinets I knew that I wanted a handle on the doors that matched the opposite side of the kitchen. I had originally seen the idea for horizontal hardware on cabinet doors one of my favourite home decor blogs, House Tweaking.  I loved the idea of doing the hardware so that it is streamline and not up and down – it’s also easier to open.

I was happy to see when we moved in that the hardware was already like that (above). One thing we really loved about our place when we first went to the show room was the finishings – they used really great hardware and everything was just what I had imagined I would want in a kitchen.

We thought maybe we would change the door handles on the other side of the kitchen, but I like everything to match, as usual, so we decided to use the same style handles.

We had looked at IKEA, however theirs were slightly longer than we needed – they come in a pack of two for $14.99

We found some at Home Depot – that were a little pricier at $8.00 each

We wanted them to fit in the middle of the doors at the top, so that the ends of the handles were between the shaker trim. The ones at IKEA were a little too big, bigger than the ones on our current cabinets, and overhung on either sides of the trim of the cabinet door.

We ended up buying 8 of the Home Depot ones – for $64 + tax. While they fit perfectly in between the trim of the door, it was a bit pricey for handles.

We didn’t really search much further, figuring RONA would be about the same price. However, when we went to pick up some lumber that Nash had ordered for us for the top of the cabinets from Windsor Plywood, I realized the lumber store sold cabinet hardware as well.

Well, it was the exact width we wanted, the 5 1/4″ handles that we ended up buying, and they were a fraction of the price – regularly priced at $3.99 each. D’oh. Next time we’ll look a little further – too bad they were already screwed onto the doors!

Oh well – now we know!

First we decided how low we wanted the handles – the first measurement was 1 inch down from the top of the cupboard, but it felt a little too close to the top for grasping it, taking into account the lip of the countertop as well. The second measurement we made was exactly halfway from the top, and it worked much better.

Mark along the cupboards with a pencil

Drill your holes with a 1/8” drill bit

Then screw the screws in the back into the handle

Thanks to handy Adam – we now have a handle on it. Excuse the pun.

Second part of our built in’s finished – and a word to the wise, don’t buy cabinet hardware from Home Desperate before looking around more first.

You Might Also Like

1 Comment

  • Reply Aunt Weez February 20, 2013 at 10:48 AM

    Nice craftmanship! I am looking forward to see what you will put on the counter! Pottery as well as books?? You need to go for a road trip to Nelson BC and see all the pottery artisans. There is a “art walk” brocure to follow in Nelson as well as lots of funky earthy restaurants,cafe’s. Like stepping back to the 60’s long hair,dredlocks,no bras,insense,etc! Luvs Aunt Weez

  • Leave a Reply