Also in the Kitchen...

[BrokenolMarine]

When we bought the place... Miss T noticed that the kitchen cabinets had neither handles nor knobs on the cabinets or drawers. Some are designed that way and have a routed notch on the underside or edge to aide in opening to give a cleaner appearance. OUR cabinets and drawers had none of the above and could sometimes be annoying. When she would find this extremely frustrating for one reason or another, I would tell her to count the drawers and cabinets and order knobs/pulls she liked and I'd install them. (I had already counted, by the way...) and when she counted and quoted a number I made that buzzer sound. (UnnnnnK, wrong, try again.)

"I counted them twice."
"Then you counted them WRONG twice."

She kept forgetting the small cabinets over the stove and over the fridge and a tiny drawer beside the stove. There are 38 drawers and doors. With the two additional, I am making, 40. Last week she was bemoaning the lack of pulls again and I had purchased two nice pulls from HD for my custom additions. I told her to order 38 more. In spite of the cost, she did.

This morning, I set about the task of mounting them. My first though was to make a template... but then I realized it would be easier to use Blue Tape when she explained where she wanted them mounted. Let's take a tour. First, Here is a long view of the kitchen... As you can see, LOTS of cabinets and drawers, and not a knob or pull in sight.

01 long view.jpg (359.09 KiB) Viewed 1637 times

The upper cabinets

03 upper cabinets.jpg (383.62 KiB) Viewed 1637 times

The lower cabinets and drawers

02 lower cabinets and drawers.jpg (372.85 KiB) Viewed 1637 times

[BrokenolMarine]

Getting started, we marked the first few and installed a few knobs. It was a little more complicated that expected for just one reason. In installing the first few knobs, I discovered I had to countersink the back of the cabinet doors, as the screws were too short. Eh, no matter, just an extra step. The marking with the blue tape and then center punching with a spring loaded punch worked well.

04 mark and center punch.jpg (319.05 KiB) Viewed 1636 times

I installed the first knob on a single door.

05 one installed.jpg (628.93 KiB) Viewed 1636 times

Marking a pair of doors, we noted that the doors didn't line up exactly, and decided to line up the pairs of knobs. I was NOT going to move the doors on every cabinet to try and align them. My back and knees wouldn't take the strain. We marked the centers and adjusted one, none were that far off.

06 pair installed.jpg (808.13 KiB) Viewed 1636 times

[BrokenolMarine]

The cabinet doors, upper and lower, were marked first. Then all were drilled and countersunk.

07 cabinet doors marked.jpg (352.35 KiB) Viewed 1636 times

Next I put a piece of tape across the top edge of each drawer, then Miss T measured to the center of each and marked that on the bottom edge of the tape. That was the location for the knob.

08 drawrers marked.jpg (364.96 KiB) Viewed 1636 times

Luckily the knobs came with a long and short screw as the long screw was the perfect length to go thru the double thickness of the drawer body and drawer front and not require countersinking. We got the knobs mounted on them all by the early afternoon after a break for lunch.

09 we have knobs.jpg (349.78 KiB) Viewed 1636 times

A second long view of the kitchen shows the difference the knobs make in the appearance, but the big difference is in the function in the kitchen. The boss is pleased. I have the two matching handles for my doors which I will install when the stain is done and hinges are mounted. Nearly done with that "Range Cabinets" project.

[BrokenolMarine]

The knobs we chose are in Satin Nickel, which matches well with the stainless appliances. In addition, we avoided those designs which we have encountered in the past which, if you get in a hurry, will grab and pinch or twist your fingers. For example, you rush across the kitchen to grab a potholder as a pot is about to boil over and pull the drawer open swiftly. The narrow loop style drawer pull can trap your fingers and bend them back and the mushroom style pulls can do the same. Those with arthritic fingers know the pain.

These football shaped knobs avoid that issue, and look pretty nice in the bargain.

[daytime dave]

Great post Marine. A lot of work too. I'll bet Miss Tina likes the kitchen just that much better.

I recently found the first set of pictures on the internet when my home was sold for the first time. The kitchen cabinets and drawers didn't have pulls either. I'm glad I didn't have to do what you did as the second owner installed pulls. I'm the third owner. I put in a new stove and range hood

[Hatchdog]

Looks great BOM. Yes your kitchen had a nice clean look but in my opinion the knobs adding the highlight offsets the “clean” look. Our cabinets and drawers have the routed access you spoke of but we didn’t like it. When the crew was here installing the cabinets we talked them into installing pulls similar to yours on all cabinets, kitchen, laundry and baths. Of course we supplied the pulls and yep, it took us several times counting to get it right.

I bought extra’s for “just in case”.

[BrokenolMarine]

We would have been FINE with the clean look, if the cabinets and drawers had been routed for it. It often sounded like a Navy Chief Petty Officer was in my kitchen when Miss T was in the kitchen cooking and trying to open the drawers against the soft close resistance and her fingers would slip off a couple times and she "Really" needed whatever was in the drawer NOW or something would burn or boil over...

Funny, half asleep this morning, I walked in and opened the cabinet for my coffee mug, still fingered the bottom of the overhead cabinet door. Palm slap.

[Hatchdog]

Looks great BOM. Yes your kitchen had a nice clean look but in my opinion the knobs adding the highlight offsets the “clean” look. Our cabinets and drawers have the routed access you spoke of but we didn’t like it. When the crew was here installing the cabinets we talked them into installing pulls similar to yours on all cabinets, kitchen, laundry and baths. Of course we supplied the pulls and yep, it took us several times counting to get it right.

I bought extra’s for “just in case”.

I double checked and none of our cabinets or drawers are routed as you mentioned. I think we would have hated them like Tina did. We used knobs for all the doors and a handle for the drawers. Looks great.