The Finishing Touch

Two completed drawer pulls

 The cabinets for the kitchen were installed recently and the final touch was my handmade knobs.  The cabinets themselves were a small chunk of money (if you've purchased cabinets, you will sympathize) and I wanted to save a few pennies here and there.  When I went to look at hardware, I was shocked at how expensive knobs and pulls are.  The designs that were interesting to me were in the $25 range (each!) and I couldn't bring myself to spend $500 on knobs (I have a lot of drawers).

So, a-searching on the internet I went.  Either the attractive items were expensive, or they were mass marketed - which means everyone would have the same hardware in their new kitchen.  I didn't want someone to look at the cabinets in 15 years and know they were installed in 2010.  Also, I wanted something that looked natural & elegant, and had some meaning relative to the place itself.

After more searching, I went to Etsy and found an artist who makes lovely drawer pulls with vintage images decoupaged onto knob hardware.  I examined carefully, read the descriptions, and thought I could give it a try - I already had many of the materials.  I copied some beautiful line drawings of local plants onto ivory paper, tinted them with colored pencils, and proceeded to decoupage onto button covers and epoxy onto pulls.

In the end, each knob cost about $3, definitely a cost savings but it did take a lot of time to make the set.  I used quick-set epoxy, which probably wasn't the best choice (frustrating to use), and the knobs aren't perfect (a small wrinkle here and there, some uneven placements), but they are beautiful.  Each is different, but they look similar enough that you can tell it's a set.  The color of the paper makes them look like scrimshaw on ivory and they work very well with the simplicity of the cabinets. 

The entire set of kitchen drawer pulls

close-up view