Adding Hardware

Anyone need a baby fix?

While that dear one slept, and the nursery paint dried, I found another little project to keep me busy.

Our upstairs powder room recently got a little love. You see, it used to be called the "Chowder Room" by husb, because it used to be light blue on top and dark blue on the bottom, very much resembling an Ivar's brand clam chowder bowl. It was the first room I painted while we were remodeling our house before moving in, and I have no idea what I was thinking.

The other day, my mom bought some cabinet hardware and had extras, so I snagged two to give the upstairs powder room a little more love. Here are the before and after:

I think I like it, even though the cabinet already has convenient cut-outs so the doors don't really need handles. It still adds some character.

It was a super easy upgrade. I'm a little nervous about posting how-to's because I think I tend to do things in unconventional ways, but I like to think it's because I am a woman, and it's the way we think. Hopefully that is true and this is helpful and makes sense to you and I'm not just a freak. So, here's how I did it.

I used these tools: husb's big heavy drill (I really want a cute little girlier one), drill bit, phillips bit, tape measure, hardware with screws, paper, mechanical pencil, and I planned on using the level but didn't.

I held the handles up to the cabinet to figure out where I wanted them, then measured the spacing of the screw holes on the handles, and the placement from the edges of the doors and made a template.

I used a mechanical pencil to poke through the template at the x's and make a mark on the right hand side door. Then I flipped the template horizontally, lined it up in the corner of the left hand side door, and made marks through the same poked holes. I forgot to take a picture, so I hope that makes sense.

Then I drilled the holes. A little tip for selecting the right drill bit. If you have calipers you could use them, but I don't know where ours are, so I just butt-up the ends of the screw and drill bit, so it's easy to compare their sizes. In this case, you don't want the screw to "thread" through the hole; instead, it should freely slide through and just needs to attach to the handle on the other side.

I actually ended up having to use a larger drill bit than the first one I tried.

After the holes are drilled, it is just a matter of using the screws to attach the handles.

And there you have it! Pretty easy right?