If you're looking for a quick and cheap way to update the look of your kitchen, installing cabinet hardware is the way to go! This tutorial walks you through the step by step process of how to install cabinet hardware the easy way. We also chat about cabinet handle placement and give you some great ideas for modern farmhouse cabinet hardware.
This cabinet hardware tutorial post is brought to you by Liberty Hardware. I received compensated product for review purposes. All opinions are entirely my own. This post contains affiliate links, but nothing that I wouldn’t wholeheartedly recommend anyway! Read my full disclosure here.
I’m a fully convinced that the EASIEST thing you can do in your kitchen that will make the BIGGEST difference is to install cabinet hardware! Kitchen renovations can be expensive, so you may be tempted to avoid tackling big renovation projects in the kitchen entirely.
In the back of your head you’re thinking….”I can’t afford to update my kitchen”…or “I don’t have the time to update my kitchen, it’s such a big project”…am I right?
But here’s the thing about installing cabinet hardware. It doesn’t cost a lot and it doesn’t take much time at all!
With minimal investment of your time and money, you can completely change the look and feel of your kitchen by adding hardware to the kitchen cabinets.
Before Picture
Here’s a quick before photo of our kitchen so you can see what our kitchen looked like before we added the hardware to the cabinets.
What about cabinet handle placement?
Before we jump into the steps on how to install cabinet hardware, let’s take a quick minute and just chat about cabinet handle placement.
We went back and forth on this before making our decision. We knew exactly where we wanted to the pulls positioned on the doors (in the corners). But we were mostly debating on how to position the pulls on the drawers.
The options were:
- at the top of the drawers
- in the center of the drawers
- each at the same distance from the top, regardless of the drawer size
We ultimately went with the last option (at the same distance from the top of the drawer).
Before making the decision about our cabinet hardware placement, we looked at a lot of different pictures online to see how the various placements looked.
We also held up the pulls to our cabinets to see what they would look like. There is no “right way” to position your cabinet hardware.
Your cabinet handle placement really comes down to your personal preference.
How To Install Cabinet Hardware on Doors
Step 1: Hold template in corner of door.
This cabinet hardware installation template is sooooo handy! All you do is hold it flush on the corner of the door.
You can see that we added some spacers and taped them on. That is because our doors were not exactly a “standard size” and none of the holes on the template worked.
They were just off by a hair, about a 1/8 of an inch off. We taped on some ripped-up pieces of paper and it was just perfect.
The marks were exactly centered on the frame of the door.
Step 2: Make your marks.
Using a small pen, make your marks through the template on the holes that line up with the center of the frame on your door.
Step 3: Drill holes.
That handy cabinet hardware installation template even comes with a 3/16” drill bit so you’re ready to go! Drill the holes directly where your marks are on the cabinet door.
Step 4: Add screws.
Using the screws provided with the hardware, push them through the drilled holes from the inside of the cabinet.
Step 5: Add pull.
Place the pull onto the screws and tight from the back with the screw driver.
How To Install Cabinet Hardware on Drawers
The process is pretty much the same for installing cabinet hardware on drawers, but just a tad different.
The Align Right cabinet installation template only works for pulls up to 5 1/16” center to center.
The pulls for our drawers were longer (6 5/16” and 8 13/16” to be exact).
Instead of measuring each drawer individually, we decided to whip a quick template using scrap wood. I’m so glad that we did!
If you’re making your own cabinet hardware installation template from scrap wood, it’s really simple!
We used a 2×4 and a small piece of trim screwed into the top. You want to create some sort of lip on the top of the front piece of the installation template.
The lip will hang on the top of your drawer. Then just mark where the holes should be drilled as they match up to your hardware.
Make sure the holes are centered on the piece of wood and level.
Ta da!!! It really makes the cabinet hardware installation process go so much faster when you have templates like this!!
Step 1: Set the template on top of the drawer.
When you’re setting the template into place, be sure that you measure the drawer and center the template.
Step 2: Drill holes.
Keep your wood installation template on hand and drill through the holes using that same 3/16” drill bit.
Depending on how thick your DIY template is, your drill bit may not reach all way through the drawer front, but it will at least make a mark so you can then remove the template and continue drilling through the drawer front and all the way into the drawer.
Step 3: Add screws.
The screws provided with the hardware weren’t long enough to get through both the drawer front and the drawer, so we purchased longer screws that were 1 3/4”. Push the screws through the drilled holes from the inside of the drawer.
Step 4: Add pull.
Place the pull onto the screws and tight from the back with the screwdriver.
I absolutely LOVE the cabinet hardware that we chose.
One of the main reasons we chose this specific hardware was the optionality in size. These pulls come in various sizes ranging from 3” to 21 3/7”.
Since we have a few different widths of drawers, we wanted longer pulls. The other option would be to add two pulls for the wider drawers.
I couldn’t be happier with how our new cabinet hardware looks in our kitchen. It makes a huge difference and makes our kitchen feel so much more “complete”.
We literally only spent about an hour or two installing the cabinet hardware! Can’t believe how easy it is to make a huge transformation.
If you’re wanting to refresh the look of your kitchen, but don’t have the time or money for a major renovation project….you should take a couple of hours this weekend and install kitchen cabinet hardware!
You’ll be shocked at the dramatic difference it makes in your kitchen.
If you’re curious how these pulls would look on white cabinets, here’s a quick look at how they look on our kitchen island, which is white.
Source list
- 5-1/16 in. (128mm) Venetian Bronze with Copper Highlights Bar Pull – used on doors (buy it here!)
- 6-5/16 in. (160mm) Venetian Bronze with Copper Highlights Bar Pull – used on drawers by fridge (buy it here!)
- 8-13/16 in. (224mm) Venetian Bronze with Copper Highlights Bar Pull – used on drawers by oven (buy it here!)
- Liberty Align Right Cabinet Hardware Installation Template Set (buy it here!)
- Drill
- Pen
Have you ever installed your own cabinet hardware? How did it go?
Let us know in the comments below!!
How To Install Cabinet Hardware
Materials
- Cabinet Hardware
Instructions
- Hold template in place
- Make your marks through the template.
- Drill holes.
- Add screws.
- Add pull.
