Get a Handle on it

If there's a lesson in home projects, it's that nothing is easy. Or at least nothing is as easy as you'd expect it to be (or should be). Even buying the hardware was not easy for me. During my research for cabinetry hardware I read countless suggestions for using a template. Even from professionals. Really.


We first tried sans template. And of course, made a mistake and had to hide the holes we drilled (no need to show you that). Then we went out and got one of these bad boys:


Somehow no matter how many times you measure and mark, you will make a mistake. And for each cabinet door, that meant 2 holes (unless you are doing knobs rather than pull handles). And the more cabinet door sizes and types you have, and the different sides they are placed on, the more your risk of error increases.


In our case we had all different sized cabinets with 8 left opening, 9 right opening, 1 vertically centered, and 1 horizontally centered. And in 2 different sizes (the drawer pull was larger). And we have a tiny kitchen (so you can imagine what non-tiny kitchens have). You get the point.

With the template, we were on a roll. The rest went so quickly and effortlessly. For that reason alone it's worth it. And at about $3 there's no reason not to use one.

So installing cabinetry hardware can be an 'as-easy-as-you-thought' project.