Quick and Easy Way to Add Door/Drawer Pulls To Your Cabinets

Adding draw and door pulls can really elevate your cabinets, no matter what space they're in. It can be a real headache with all the measuring, and re-measuring to get each pull lined up perfectly, but it doesn't have to be. All you really need is some painters tape, and you can make your own template that you can use over and over for your similar hardware.

You simply ripped off a piece of painters tape long enough to cover the underside of the pull. Make sure the tape covers both of the holes. Take a small nail, drill bit, pencil or whatever you have handy. Poke a hole through the painters tape where the tape covers the holes.

When you take the tape off, you have a perfect template of where your holes need to be drilled in your cupboard doors and draw faces. You can mark the center of the pull on the tape that you can line up with the center of the drawers. For the doors you don't need to have the center marked.

Line your tape up where you want your pull to be on the cabinet door. Don't forget to make sure your holes are plum (straight up and down) with each other using a level. No one wants a skeewampus handle.

Now you're ready to drill. I like to use 2 sizes of drill bits to reduce tear out on the back of the cabinet. I start with a very small bit. The second one I use is just big enough that the screw will slip through the door or drawer with ease. These screws aren't meant to anchor to the wood, just hold the pull tightly.

Once I've got my holes drilled and my screws pushed in, I attach the top of the pull first by spinning it onto the screw. This holds the pull in place while I grab my drill. I then alternate between the top and bottom screws, making sure to attache the top and bottom (or right and left sides) equally. This keeps everything alined.

And it's that simple! You can reuse the tape for each pull you need to install. Occasionally I will make a new template as the tape looses its stickiness. But for most small projects one piece will work.