Piercings in the kitchen

When it comes to piercings one should be very sure what one wants before actually having the work done. What final look will be achieved? Where will the piercings be placed? Will bars look better than posts? Where will the hardware come from? What size will it be? What finish will work the best? Who will do the work?

Georgia did a lot of research online in search of just the right hardware for our piercings. She originally was leaning toward appliance pulls for the double-wide drawers. That style of pull could also be coordinated for the standard width drawers. However, the cost of piercing all of the drawers and doors would add up quickly. She couldn’t even bring herself to tell Randy how much it would be.

So, we went back to the drawing board. What style of piercings, oh, excuse me, pulls and knobs, would be just right for our kitchen? We finally decided that two pulls for the double-wide drawers would be acceptable. We knew that we did not want them to be plain metal; they had to have some decoration. Georgia found some knobs and pulls that would coordinate (links to knobs and pulls). Then she located some back-plates for the knobs as well (link to back-plate).

The knobs and pulls could be purchased at our local home improvement center, but the back-plates needed to be special ordered. Remembering how previous special ordering went (link to ordering issue), Georgia decided to have the items delivered right to our house, especially since there was no extra charge.

The last time that we put hardware in a kitchen Randy made Georgia a “jig” to help with the hardware placement. This time Georgia found a jig at a local home improvement store (link to hardware jig).

When all of the items arrived, Georgia set to work. First she put blue painters tape on the corners of the cabinet doors. Then she carefully marked the location where the holes should be. When all of the doors were marked she used her drill to pierce the doors.

Georgia had already discovered that the 1inch and 1½ inch screws that came with the knobs did not fit our application. We needed 1¼ inch. Fortunately she had purchased a small box of the proper screws. It didn’t take long for all of the knobs and back-plates to be installed.

We knew that we wanted to have two pulls on each of the wide drawers, but we had no clue about the actual location on the drawers. Georgia decided to make a mock-up. She covered the drawer fronts with blue painter’s tape. Then she used some heavy brown paper to create the substitute pulls. Over a couple of weeks she tried three different placements.

Once we finally decided on placement, Georgia marked the drawer fronts where the holes should be. There was an additional wrinkle, however. If we wanted the flange on the pulls to lay flush on the drawer, the screw hole would require a “counter-bore” (Randy supplied the terminology.)

Georgia put the drill bit for the screw in one drill, and put her largest drill bit for the counter-bore in a second drill. She started on a drawer that was comparatively isolated and hidden in case she “screwed up”. The counter-bore proved difficult with the drill bit she had. A quick phone call to Randy ensued. He helped her find a drill bit in his extensive collection that would work better.

Work resumed with a much happier Georgia. The larger drill bit was just the ticket. A few hours later, and all of the drawers had pulls. The kitchen cabinets look good with their piercings, not to mention work well too.