IHeart Kitchen Reno: Getting a Handle on the Hardware

Happy Monday!  I am back home from a whirlwind of a trip to the NYC and I can't wait to share more details about that later this week.  Today, I am checking in with a little kitchen update.  Smiles all around!

Let me start out by saying that I am sure this feels like the most drawn out kitchen renovation in history.  Living through it daily is one thing, and then checking in from the outside for updates is another.  If you have personally lived through a renovation of this magnitude, I am sure you can understand that we want this to be moving at the fastest pace possible.  In fact, I was ready for it to be done about two months ago (I think I had dreams of it being done by the Superbowl, ha!).  It has completely changed the way we live as a family, and the daily dust and cleaning and living without a fully functional kitchen isn't always easy.  But we know we are fortunate to be doing something so incredible to our home, we are totally excited and positive and trying to remain patient as we take on our biggest project to date.  So thank you for hanging in there and checking in on the changes, even if things slow down here and there along the way.

Being that we are investing so much heart, time and money into this project, there are some things that seem to be taking longer than I initially expected, whether it be my inability to commit to something or waiting on one thing to fall into place to move on to the rest.  Designing and ordering the custom island for example, was multiple weeks of back and forth and then once it was ordered, it had to be built and finished by a cabinet maker.  We love ourselves a good DIY and have been doing as much as we can on our own, but we are leaving the cabinet making and counters to the pros.  Flooring, trim and backsplash can't be touched until that island is set.  We have been trying to find other projects to keep up busy in the meantime, however, it is also hard to think about switching gears at this point and starting anything in any other area of the home knowing we are on a roll in the kitchen area.  Fingers crossed island arrives next week, and then we will be room-a-zooming to the finish line.

In the meantime, I mentioned last week that I had finally decided on hardware and ordered everything.  Here was the initial plan once it all arrived.

I really wanted to do a mix and match of styles, all in the same finish, to create a little drama and variety throughout the kitchen.  With all white cabinets, I am relying on smaller details to spice things up a bit, yet my overall goal is to keep things classic given the investment.  For the pantry, I selected longer decorative bar pulls, small drawers were assigned the cup pulls and the dishwasher/garbage drawer would receive the medium and shorter bar pulls.  All cabinet doors would receive pretty knobs and for the glass doors I had big plans to use the beautiful locking pieces.  I have used polished nickel in the past for bathroom fixtures, and I just love how it shines.

Everything went well until we got to the matchbox catch hardware.  Our cabinet doors are beveled and the spacing doesn't work with the hardware.  I may have shed a tear, but sometimes you just have shake it off and move on.  My goal is to do something slightly more special and different on the glass doors, so I hopped onto an antique hardware site and found an alternative option.  We are still waiting on those, but I am feeling quite hopeful that they are going to work out.

For the installation of the standard cup pulls and the door knobs, we created really quick and simple jigs out of scrap wood.  This allowed us to be sure everything was installed in the same spot on each cabinet face, with a lot less measuring.  Creating the jig only took a couple of minutes, but definitely saved us a headache or two.

Bryan measured the drawer hardware placement on a scrap piece of wood, created a top and side lip to slide over the drawer, and then drilled into the drawer faces accordingly. 

Similar method for the door knobs, starting with an angle to find the center measurement....

And then using a smaller jig for all of the cabinet doors.  Best part is because we were using the center lower square of the cabinet, the jig worked in all directions.

Because our bar pulls were different sizes depending on the specific cabinet/drawer, we took the long route and measured each one specifically.  It was at this point that we were happy we had the jigs for all of the other cabinets.

Have I expressed how thrilled I am about a pull out trash can?  I had no idea I was so easily amused.  It is always those little things that get you!

In the last kitchen update, I shared how the ropes for the new pendants were bothering my eyes...

Well, a few weeks later and they hadn't straightened as much as I had hoped, so I decided it was time to cover them up with something more substantial.

I scoured the web for pendant extension rods, and was either coming up short in the aged brass department or looking to spend $60 minimum per light.  We are splurgers and savers, but $120 seemed like a bit much for two pendant rods.  Unless I was looking in all the wrong places.... which is quite possible.

So we did what we do and decided to find an alternative solution on our own.  I recalled using an aged brass spray paint on the base of the lamps in our master bedroom, so I held one up to the light fixture in the kitchen and it was an amazingly close match.  Now all we had to do was find something to paint!

Heading straight for the plumbing aisle at Home Depot, we picked up two 5' copper pipes at around $6 each as well as copper fittings for each end.

We measured the pipe based on the amount of pendant rope that was visible.

And then used a pipe cutter to shorten the copper to the exact length we needed.

I did a little reading on spraying copper, and knowing that it can change color with time based on the air, I wanted to prep the rods to prevent that as much as possible (although a little bit may be a cool effect).  Other piping may work just as well, but we went with copper due to weight, cost and size.   Prior to painting, I sanded down the tube with an ultra fine grit sanding block.

We set up a spray booth in the garage, and special thanks to a little spring weather, we were able to get these primed and painted during a warmer day.  We used twine with a nail at the end to suspend the rods from the ceiling.

I first gave the rods a few light coats of primer.

And followed with a few more light coats of the aged brass.  We installed the rods by running the black roping through, and they looked like they were always meant to be!

I really love that they are much more substantial and everything is nice, neat and straight.

In other news, we opened our new fridge and it was dented.  #majorsadface  So now we are waiting to swap it out with a replacement.  The older fridge really swallows the space, so I am excited to see the change a counter depth will make.

We still had our old sink sitting in the garage, so when the plumber came to hook up the dishwasher and water line for the fridge, he did us a solid and hooked up our old sink temporarily.  I do not have a singing voice, but my gosh, I sure did belt out a few gleeful notes of, "Don't know what you got til it's gone...."!  Running water is a kitchen game changer, especially when it also means we have a functioning dishwasher again!

Oh!  And we can't forget the fun addition of the wine rack!  LOVE.

We still have to add the decorative panel and moulding to this side now, but inch by inch, we are getting there!

I am starting to brainstorm ideas for the super deep pantry.  I figure I might as well start organizing that while we wait on more of the bigger pieces to fall into place.

And for fun, let's take a look back at where we were a few months ago when we began this whole process. It makes things like adding hardware and DIY'ing extension rods just that much sweeter.

You can follow all of the kitchen progress here.

P.S.  Thank you SO much for nominating iHeart Organizing for the Better Homes & Gardens DIY Blogger Award!  You can cast your vote here (you may have to click through a couple categories before spotting us).  Bryan and I are continuously grateful for all of your support!