Dress up your kitchen for CHEAP!

Installing new cabinet pulls is one of the best and easiest ways to dress up your kitchen or bathroom. Pulls also keep your cabinets cleaner and looking newer, becuase you don't touch the door with grimy fingers. Often you can find pulls priced less that $1 ea (look for multi packs), of course you can spend much more than that too.

Once you have chosen your pulls, installation is pretty easy. First you need to decide on the placement of the pulls. Typically the pulls should be placed on the corner of doors closest to your waist on the unhinged side. On drawers, the pulls should be centered in the top third of the drawer face. Laying out each hole individually takes a long time, and it is also really easy to make a mistake on the measurements. As little as a sixteenth of an inch off in placement will be a glaring, permanate mistake when all your pulls don't line up. There are a few ways to ensure that you pulls are placed perfectly, for small jobs (less than 15 pulls)you can make a paper template, for large jobs, i prefer to make a jig.

Making a paper template saves time (because you only lay the holes out once.) If you choose this option, use a crisp peice of paper and align the top and one side of the paper with the top and one side of the cabinet door or drawer front. Draw an X on the paper where you want the screws to be, then poke a hole through the X with a pencil. Place the template on the door or drawer face, using the paper edges as your guide. You can to tape the template on, or simply hold it in place long enough to mark the surface through the holes in the paper. I recommend that you mark ALL of your pull locations BEFORE you drill. That way you can step back and make sure you have the placement correct BEFORE you make a permanate change to your cabinets. When you are satisfied with the locations you have marked for your pulls, drill the holes and screw on your new cabinet pulls. Use a drill bit slightly larger than the screws (but no more than 1/16 of an inch larger.) **NOTE** Always drill from the outside of the cabinet, this will keep the wood from splitting on the visible side. Make it fun and be happy.

If you are installing a large number of pulls, building a jig will make you project go even faster than paper templates. Contact me at www.honeydohowto.com for instructions to build a jig for your project.