How to Install Cabinet Pulls on Drawers – Complete Guide.
After purchasing a cabinet, you might have planned to work on pull or knob installation on it. As usual, these come with predrilled holes for pull or handles. However, sometimes the cabinet comes with no drilling at all. So that you can upgrade or chose the hardware according to your preference.
And to be fair, it’s actually better this way. Unless you don’t really go well with DIYing and stuff like that. Now one of the easiest hardware that goes well with everyday functioning is cabinet pulls. You can install them on the drawer of your cabinets using some straightforward and easy steps. Let’s talk about how to install cabinet pulls on drawers today specifically.
Here’s How to Install Cabinet Pulls on Drawers Based on The Situation.
Things can be easy and then again pretty complicated. Installing cabinet pulls on drawers can call upon three types of probabilities. Let’s talk about the installation for all three of them.
Installation of Single Hole Pulls.
If you have a single hole pull then know that these are very easy to get loose with passing time. Rotations are very noticeable with the pulls that are not round. These are pretty favorite of many. And main reason has to be the fact that these are super easy to adjust. So, when there’s any sort of imperfection or pivoting, you can simply make some quick fix to bring these back to normal.
To install these, you don’t have to spend a lot of time or effort. The tools you’ll need are a drill, drill bit, yardstick or any straight edge included gear and a screwdriver. The bits you use here needs to be slightly huger than knob included bolt. You also want to bring one more that is a bit larger than the bolt’s head.
Installation:
Bring your drawer face to lay down while it’s on the workbench. It’s okay if the face is installed on drawer, keep on going. You want the yardstick to lay alongside from one corner to another. Take notes on the halfway of this measurement, and its center point. You need to make a tiny mark here.
Now to make the yardstick run from opposite two corners, simply rotate it. Create a tiny line intersecting with first one that you made. Now you have the actual center point. Bring the bit that is larger than drawer’s knob bolt’s diameter. Use this for making a hole right at this center mark.
You want to carefully push the bolt into hole from backside. In the end, you will notice around 1/8 inch or more of bolt is sticking out. If not, then the bit needs to be larger. You should start drilling from the drawer face’s back into a similar hole. This way you’ll create a counterbore that will hold the bolt once you push it further.
Use painter’s tape on the drill bit at half or 1/8 inch from the tip. So that the hole cannot go all way through. The bolts need to poke all way through hole. And so, the distance will depend on required depth for this hole.
Keep on drilling until the tape touches the wooden surface. Push the bolt through once again. Having some exposed threads at this point can help. Thread on the drawer pull until it’s all snug. Using the screwdriver, you want to tighten bolt a bit more. Done!
Installation of 2 Hole Pulls.
Drawer pulls with a 2-hole configuration are a bit of a hassle to install. At this time, you need to create two holes in the accurate spot without making a mistake. Or else the whole installation process will be in trouble. You can later expand the holes to make it bigger, but first, ensure placement is right. For this type of pull, you’ll need a pencil, ruler, painters tape, bits, and drill.
Installation:
Start by finding the horizontal center. Suppose your drawer is 5 inches in height. Then horizontal center should be at 2.5 inches from the top or bottom edge of the drawer. You need to place painters tape right in this centerline. It should be centering vertically on the drawer face. Also, make sure it’s wider than the pull.
Now on both ends of painter’s tape, you want to make two marks that are 2.5 inches far from the drawer face’s top part. Create a line between both of these marks using a ruler. And now you have the horizontal centerline for where hole should go. It should be easy to identify the drawer face’s center point now.
Get the measurements of the distance between one hole to another of drawer pull. This is your first measurement. Now divide them by 2 and there you have your second measurement. You may need to convert the fractions into decimals.
Start from the horizontal line’s center point and go up to distance you found as your 2nd measurement. Leave a mark here. You want to do the same thing for both sides of center point. These are where you’ll be drilling the holes.
Go ahead and install the pulls in these holes. You can expand the holes in case bolts are not going all way through.
Installation for Double Drawer Pulls.
If the drawers are pretty wide then double pulls are great to go for. Lining up both pulls can be a bit tricky, but that’s the only downside to this.
Installation:
Here also you need to find the horizontal center using same method as above. Then you need to run a painter’s tape’s piece along face of the drawer. Make a rough assumption on where the pulls should go and take measurements from one end to another.
You want to put marks on the horizontal centerline. You want to measure the distance from edge to this line. Now go the exact same distance you just got from the opposite side and mark onto centerline where this end. Each drawer pulls center points are now found. You can drill holes comfortably here and finish with the pulls mounting onto its decided spots.
Wrap Up
Finding how to install cabinet pulls on drawers is not a very difficult thing. Still, people chose to go with their instinct without knowing a thing and later on, regret by making mistakes. You see, by going through whole process, you’ll be able to prepare better as any obstacle coming across during the installation will be easy to handle.
Hopefully, the guide will help you get your cabinet’s pull installed properly onto the drawers. Take one step at a time, have enough patience, and install those pulls perfectly.
