DIY: Cabinet Pull

There are times I get it in my head "I can make that!" and the thought just won't let go. Such was the case with my cabinet/drawer pulls/knobs. Thus, with a little help from Pinterest and Google I was able to pull together a plan for bypassing pricey Anthro Pulls. (Although, I do love Anthropologie pulls! And, in truth, they are much better... but I needed 10 of them...)

You see we have a wall of built-ins in the basement play area that the kids can never get into because they close with a magnet type hook thing/release. You push on the door and the magnet/hook was supposed to release and the door would pop open. That never, ever, ever happened. Which meant the toys were never, ever, ever put away. So I thought removing the magnet thing and attaching cabinet pulls would be a fine solution. But since I need 10 of them and they were for the basement I decided to go my own route. I do love the fancy other pulls I just couldn't bring myself to spend over $100 on this little piece of our basement.

Mainly I used this tutorial and then I just winged it from there (typical).

To start, I bought 10 wooden knobs from Ace. It is a little more $ to buy from our little Ace up the street but the convenience makes it so worth it. I think I paid $5 total.

I didn't really have a design plan and thus when I saw Lizzie outside painting with teal paint I tossed her the pulls. (Ahem, yes I smoothed out the paint before they dried.)

And here they are drying in the sun. Did I mention this project was from August? I just sort of forgot to tell you about it.

Down in my basement I came across this sheet of scrap booking paper (left over from the tile coaster project) and thought the medallion might look cool centered on the pull. I trimmed it out and applied it with Mod Podge. There was a little learning curve here. The paper is thick and the knobs are convex, meaning it curves out. (I wanted to say concave there but caught myself...science was never my friend.) In order to get it to lay the correct way I had to snip small slits in the paper. Then I used a paint brush and softened the paper with water. I applied a lot of Mod Podge to the knob, centered my paper, and then, using the palm of my hand, I pressed the knob in so that the paper would wrap around the knob. Are you following this?

Once they were dried it was time for the Super Glaze Ultra Gloss Epoxy. Oh this stuff is so cool. I followed the instructions. (I really, really, really did.)

But instead of pouring, I used a paint brush to paint on the epoxy to the knobs. Here they are sunning themselves after I applied the epoxy (oh summer sunning I miss you!). The epoxy is supposed to make them all shiny and glass like looking. It did, but I wanted a bit more of a glass look. I should have done another coat but I have no patience.

So to the basement they went...

Tah-Dah!

And no, the toys still never get cleaned up and put back into the built-ins. This system just means they can get the toys out faster...


I'm sharing over at House of Hepworths and Not Just a Housewife.