How To Install Cabinet Handles (Without Losing Your Mind!)
With this easy, step-by-step tutorial and video, you’ll learn how to install cabinet handles and knobs perfectly without losing your mind!
You’ve diligently, primed, painted, and rehung all the doors and there is one final step between you and the finish line – installing the hardware. (Check out my post on How to Paint Cabinets Like A Pro!)
You are watching: How To Install Cabinet Handles (Without Losing Your Mind!)
I don’t know about you but the thought of drilling holes into that gorgeous, clean finish is daunting enough but what if you make a mistake? Can you fill the hole and cover it? How much longer will it take to repaint those spots? And what if the hardware isn’t straight when you do finally get it installed?
This tutorial and video is your pain-free guide to drilling perfectly placed kitchen hardware holes the first time, every time. And with this method, you’ll never risk drilling through that pristine new paint job. I’ll show you my best secrets to filling old cabinet hardware holes so they are completely undetectable!
LET ME SHOW YOU:
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When I started painting furniture and cabinets, I remember searching through video tutorials of one of my favorite furniture painters. I just knew she would have an easy way to ensure precision holes in cabinet doors and furniture.
To my surprise, there were no videos on how to install cabinet handles and it didn’t take long to find out why. She said in one tutorial that she hired out hardware installation to professionals.
Because I didn’t want to go to the trouble and extra expense of hiring that out, I started experimenting with furniture projects and found the easiest way to drill cabinet hardware PERFECTLY. (And as a recovering perfectionist, I don’t throw around the “p” word lightly!)
With this tutorial, I’ll show you how to install cabinet handles without all the stress and in a fraction of the time.
This process is fast and easy using a cabinet hardware jig. I prefer this aluminum jig that doesn’t bend and helps you make perfectly placed holes every time: My Favorite Cabinet Hardware Jig
Painting your own kitchen cabinets is a huge undertaking but the work is so worthwhile once you experience the satisfaction of seeing the new look of your kitchen! No project can change the look of an entire room the way painting cabinets can transform a kitchen.
But whether you are painting old cabinets or installing new cabinets yourself, hardware installation can be difficult because if it’s not done precisely, you WILL be able to tell. Since all of your handles are lined up in a row, it will be obvious if one isn’t straight.
Say you drill a hole in the wrong location. You can drill a new one of course but filling and repainting the old hole is not only an additional step, but there’s a good chance you will be able to see where the old hole was patched.
But no worries! I am with you every step of the way to show you how to install cabinet knobs and pull handles perfectly the first time.
The most important tool when learning how to install cabinet handles is a cabinet hardware jig, which helps you drill perfect holes quickly and painlessly. I love the fact that it actually attaches to each door or drawer so it frees up my hands to drill the holes.
You won’t believe how much faster the process goes with this cabinet jig as it takes ALL the frustration out of installing cabinet hardware.
This hardware jig template is mostly aluminum which prevents bending when I’m trying to align the jig to mark holes on my cabinet doors. Also, its mounting holes are incredibly accurate in ensuring that each of your door holes is in the exact same location on all the other doors.
Unlike a plastic template or piece of cardboard, this hardware jig can adapt to any knob or handle. It can be adjusted to any hardware no matter if I’m drilling holes for cup pulls, extra-long drawer pulls, appliance pulls, or European hardware with little room for error. I can also use my jig on any furniture drawers or doors
New hardware is like the icing on the cake of any kitchen cabinet makeover. When you’ve spent so much time painting your cabinets, the last thing you want to do is put the old hardware on your newly painted cabinet doors.
To avoid the high cost of new cabinet hardware in kitchen design stores and even home improvement stores, be sure to check out the selection of knobs and handles on Amazon: Amazon’s Selection of Cabinet Hardware.
I was pleasantly surprised with the ones I ordered and you can find them here:
My New Cabinet Handles
My Cabinet Knobs
RELATED: How Much It Costs to Paint Kitchen Cabinets (DIY or Hire a Pro?)
As you can see in the video, I highly recommend that you drill your hardware holes before you prime and paint your cabinets! Mistakes happen! But if you make a mistake drilling a hole in the wrong place, it’s SO much easier to fill it BEFORE you paint.
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The alternative is to fill, sand and repaint an extra hole on your newly painted cabinets and there’s a good chance you won’t be able to completely disguise your patch job.
Another big advantage to drilling holes before you paint is to get the drawer fronts to line up perfectly with the holes in the front of the drawer. Since the hardware hole has to go through both pieces of wood, leaving the draw fronts on while drilling ensures a perfect hole all the way through.
Personally, I felt it was easier drilling holes for the doors as well while they were hanging. That way you can get an idea if the holes are lining up to the doors next to it.
For those reasons, recommend drilling your holes before you actually paint your cabinets.
But if you are coming to this post AFTER painting your cabinets, NO WORRIES! You are in the right place and the cabinet hardware jig is just what you need to install all your hardware! The good news is that everything in this post still applies.
Yes, when pre-drilling holes before painting, the paint will partly cover the new hardware holes. Fortunately, the paint comes out easily when you put the screw through the hole for installation.
Cabinet hardware comes in a variety of different styles and finishes. Take some time to look through Pinterest or Google to see and compare different sizes of hardware as well. Once you get your hardware in, hold up the handles to the cabinet doors to see what you prefer in terms of placement.
A big trend with cabinet hardware is to use longer handles on drawers (especially) and doors. With long handles, you will definitely be able to tell if they aren’t straight, so using this jig is so important to make this project go smoothly.
IMPORTANT TIP: Be sure to leave a thick enough layer of wood filler on the surface of the wood. If you are looking at the hole from the side you’d see that a coat of wood filler is covering the surface of the wood not just over the hole but around it. This is important because if you scrape off too much of the excess, the wood filler will shrink too much when it dries, leaving a little divet where the hole used to be. So, apply a think amount of wood filler on and around the hole.
Let the wood filler dry for at least a few hours or even better, overnight.
Use your sander with a 120 or 180 sanding pad and very lightly go over the surface of the dried wood filler. As you sand, check with my other hand to see how smooth the surface is. You are doing this to make sure you haven’t sanded too much. (Related Posts: The Best Sander for DIY Projects | How to Sand Quickly and Easily )
Sanding too much leaves a little divot in the hole and it will show through the paint after it’s painted. So be careful to sand just to the point that you can feel it’s smooth and no further.
Be sure to check out these posts in my Cabinet Painting Series of Tutorials:
The Absolute Best Paint for Cabinets, Blind-Tested and Reviewed
How to Fill The Grain in Cabinets with Aquacoat Grain Filler
A Step By Step Guide to Getting a Smooth Finish When Painting Cabinets
How to Choose the Best White Paint Color for Kitchen Cabinets
The 33 Top Paint Colors for Kitchen Cabinets (The Best Dark Grays, Neutrals and Bright Colors!)
Once you have primed, painted and reinstalled your cabinet doors and drawer fronts, the last step is to reinstall the hardware. This will go SO much faster since you already drilled your holes in the beginning.
If the paint has partially filled the holes, simply push it back through the hole with the screw.
Many professionals will spray cabinets with a pneumatic paint sprayer but there’s definitely a learning curve. The paint has to be adjusted to the proper thickness and the nozzles have to be adjusted correctly as well to the flow of the spray right.
However, you can get an incredibly smooth finish with a brush or a roller. I like to use a combination of the two which you can see by checking out my full tutorial on how to get a smooth finish painting kitchen cabinets that comes out in a couple of weeks.
I prefer using a high-grade angular brush on cabinets. After a lot of experimenting with cabinets and furniture projects, I found time and time again that Zibra brushes (pronounced like the animal) give me a superior finish on wood surfaces.
Zibra brushes allow the paint to go on with good coverage but also very smoothly giving me a sprayed-on finish without brush marks.
Painting with these brushes is fun because the brush glides the paint onto the surface. It sounds cheesy but it’s something you have to experience for yourself. You can see the full line of Zibra brushes here: Zibra Brush on Amazon
You can also see my full results after doing a side-by-side comparison of all the top cabinet painting brushes in this blind comparison. To see other top picks including a lower budget option, be sure to check out my post: The Best Paint Brushes For Kitchen Cabinets (COMING SOON)
The are several good rollers on the market, and also several that perform poorly. You definitely don’t want a roller that leaves roller marks or particles of the cover on the painted surface. Also, you want to look for consistency in paint rollers. Some rollers will give you a completely smooth finish with one paint but lots of roller marks with another paint with a different thickness.
Read more : Bright White vs Daylight Lighting – What’s the Difference?
After doing a blind comparison with several rollers and 3 different paints, my personal favorite is the Whizz Black Foam Roller (See the Current Price Here.)
To see how other rollers compared, the best nap roller and a low budget option you can see the full results here: The Best Paint Rollers for Painting Cabinets (COMING SOON)
The other most important factor in addition to using the right tool is selecting the best paint for cabinets. There are so many different categories of paint including water-based, oil-based, hybrids, and chalk paints.
Fortunately, I’ve tested several from each paint category (over 20 brands) to see which yielded the best results based on smoothness, coverage, price, durability and scrubbability. You can read more about my favorite paint for cabinets here: The Best Paints for Cabinets, Blind-Tested and Reviewed
For more spiritual encouragement, click here for the rest of my project posts that also include Renovate Your Faith devotionals.
Learning how to install cabinet handles without a jig or a cabinet hardware template is doable but it’s not easy. Installing cabinet handles, pulls or knobs without some sort of a hardware template is nearly impossible in terms of accuracy. The edge molding on most cabinets will make it difficult to precisely measure where the new hardware should be installed. Also, it will take you considerably longer not to mention the extra step of refilling and painting any accidental holes you drilled.
Use a 3/16” drill bit or something slightly larger to get the right size hole. I like to drill my hole with a slightly bigger bit so I have some wiggle room to play with later to make them perfectly straight and level. Don’t go too large if you are using Euro pulls because not much of the metal covers the edges of the hole.
There are several different types of hardware including bin pulls, edge pulls, finger pulls, and using large handles is a popular trend. When installing your new handles, make sure to give some allowance for how far your hardware’s screw holes will be off from the center of the drawer fronts. For example, if you are using a bin pull where the holes are off center a half-inch, you’ll want to make sure to add that half of an inch to the distance from the top of the drawer front. Mark your screw holes with a pencil mark and double-check before you drill holes for the new cabinet hardware.
If you want to replace old cabinet handles with a different style, try to find the style of handles in the same length as the old hardware so you don’t have to drill any new holes.
Drawer handles should be horizontal and all door handles should be vertical. Knobs are more commonly used on doors but the latest trend is to use them on doors as well.
This is completely a matter of personal preference depending on your kitchen’s style and what you feel more comfortable with on a day-to-day basis. See the above section on how to install drawer pulls.
Always drill front the front to the back of the cabinet door so any minor splintering of wood will be on the back instead of the cabinet fronts.
If you don’t want to purchase a cabinet door jig, you can measure and drill your first set of holes without a jig. Make sure they are perfectly placed and then make a jig out of a piece of scrap wood, cardboard or foam board with holes that correspond exactly to the hole placement of your cabinets.
The tricky part about using cardboard is that you want to make sure you line it up precisely with the edges of the cabinet doors every single time. Even a hairline off will the whole handle to be crooked. Also, consider taping the template in place with painter’s tape so your hands are free when you mark or drill the hole.
Cup handle installation is the same as with traditional handles. The holes are just hidden underneath on either side. Follow the same procedure above for cup pulls on drawers.
Handles can be placed on drawers or doors as long as they are vertical. To see the guideline for cabinet hardware placement, check the section towards the beginning of the tutorial.
Reusing your own cabinet hardware is a great way to save money on your cabinet painting project while getting the look of completely new kitchen cabinets. An inexpensive way to update the look of your old handles is by spray painting them. The important thing to remember when spray painting cabinet hardware is to use the right spray primer. You can use the same process I use in this post: How to Spray Paint Door Hardware So It Lasts
There are SO many furniture paints on the market and the most expensive is usually not the best. Check out my results here to find out what I’ll be using on every furniture project from now on: The Best Paint for Furniture, 2022
The Best Paint for Cabinets (24 Brands Blind-Tested & Reviewed)
The Best Faux Brick for A Backsplash (PVC Panels for Walls!)
A Fool-Proof Guide to Fixing Damage on Furniture
How To Spray Paint Door Knobs That Last
The Best White Paint Shades for Kitchen Cabinets (Sherwin Williams Colors)
From Antique Family Heirloom to New Vanity
A Sneak Peek At My Kitchen Cabinet Reveal
With this easy step-by-step tutorial, what seems like a daunting task can actually be a simple process that makes a huge difference in the finished product. You can have all your cabinet hardware holes pre-drilled perfectly before you even paint them. Also, using the cabinet hardware jig makes what could be a very frustrating process, quick and painless. When you finish the hard work of refinishing your cabinets you can be confident that the final step of your kitchen cabinet makeover will be simple! With this tutorial on how to install hardware on cabinets, you can save a ton of money while getting the same results you would get from a professional. Don’t forget to check out my full tutorial on The Right Way To Paint Oak Cabinets and download your free checklist!
I love to hear your thoughts and questions! Scroll down to leave a comment and I WILL reply! ❤️
Source: https://gardencourte.com
Categories: Kitchens
This post was last modified on 13/10/2023 13:25
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