(Finally) Putting Handles in the Kitchen

We’ve been clawing open the cabinets since we moved in. I didn’t really like any of the cabinet knobs Schumacher offered, so we got a credit instead. I found some on Amazon that I like, but when we got in the house I was pretty sure they were just wrong. It’s all one big open room, so everything really needs to flow. And once the holes are drilled, there they are.

I used the knobs I bought for the kitchen in the laundry room and I love them there. I found three that matched and used them in the guest bath. And I started looking for knobs for the kitchen.

We found an Arts & Crafts style table on Facebook Marketplace. The table has hairy paw feet. It is only 44” wide, which fits the space perfectly. And it expands to nine feet long! The china cabinet is actually supposed to be a bookcase. It is in two pieces and we talked about mounting the top to the wall and adding a surface on top of the bottom piece. But it is very heavy and very old and I would hate to damage it.

So I want hardware for the kitchen that is going to coordinate. Or at least not going to compete. I looked at a lot of antique pieces. Much Arts & Crafts style furniture that is ornate like this uses carved wood handles. I have some antique cobalt glass knobs, but they look too small to me.

The new knobs for the kitchen and one of the little cobalt blue knobs

Then I found these and I was done looking. Cosmas 6393ORB-C, 6381ORB-C and 5268ORB-C. They come in Flat Black, Brushed Brass, Oil Rubbed Bronze or Satin Nickel. We picked Oil Rubbed Bronze to be lower contrast against our darkish wood. The knobs and cup pulls are available with clear, red, green, cobalt blue, pink, black or amber glass. The crystal pulls come with clear or amber glass. I love the clear.

I really love the 3” crystal handles, but I decided that they would be just too much on everything. I only used them on the pantry doors. I used the 5268ORB-C faceted cup pulls for all the drawers and the 6381ORB-C knobs on all of the doors.

I hate it when knobs catch your pockets. The cup drawer pulls won’t do that and the knobs on the bottom cabinets are lower than pocket height and only project 1.12”. (They might catch Cliff’s cargo pants. We’ll risk it.)

We used the guide that we bought to put the knobs up in the laundry room. None of the holes on it are in the right place, so we put a new hole where I think the knobs belong.

Notice he put a trash can to catch the sawdust as he drills.

The drill bit has a pointy tip so he can position it exactly where I marked. It’s called a pilot point or brad point drill bit.

Cliff’s Ryobi drill has a level on it, so he knows the hole will be straight.

He made a bit of a countersink for the inside of the cabinets. He’s a bit overkill.

How to Shorten a Cabinet Knob Screw

The drawers were too thick for the screws that shipped with the handles, so Cliff attached the handles to just the front of the drawer, then attached the front of the drawer to the drawer box.

But now the screws are too long. He trimmed them using the screw cutter on his wire strippers. You just tighten the screw until it is the right length and squeeze the handles. When you unscrew the threads aren’t smashed and it’s ready to use.

Drilled out dents where the front of the drawer goes on

He cut out space for the head of the screw to fit.

Clamping on the drawer front to mark the dents for the screw heads

To make sure the grooves would be in the right place, he put marker on the heads of the screws and then clamped the drawer in place. It marked where to put the groove/dents so the two pieces of the drawers will fit back together.