One of the smallest things that can outdate a kitchen is the hardware.  It’s also one of the easiest/cheapest things to update!

As a reminder, my dad’s red-brown kitchen cabinets looked fine, but the dingy, brassy cabinet pulls made it look really dated.

When I mentioned changing out the pulls to my dad, he assumed we would have to get something with a back plate to cover any damage done by the current fixtures. 

I went over one day to check on the progress and saw a screwdriver nearby and decided to do my own investigation.  Turns out it’s not so bad underneath!

You can still see an outline of where the old backplate was, but I figured once we got a more substantial pull, it wouldn’t be so noticeable. 

I removed the backplate and took that so that I could have the measurements when I went looking for new hardware.  I put the handle back on since I didn’t “technically” tell my dad I was going to sneak over and steal one of his cabinet pulls.  Turns out he didn’t even notice I took it!

While it looked really small, it’s actually 3” which is a standard size at Home Depot so I didn’t have to worry about special ordering. 

I picked up one of these standard bar pulls to see how they looked.  They looked great, but I was a little shocked by the price.

At $5.97 a piece it was a little high.  Even getting a 4 pack at $18.98, bringing the price per piece down to $4.75, it was still high.  Especially considering we needed 27 of them!

I did some searching online and found the same style at Knobs4Less, for well…less!  They were priced $3.39/each.  I ordered all 27 of them, as well as 40 new brushed nickel hinges to replace the old antique brass ones.  Total $195.88 with shipping.  While not exactly as cheap as I thought, (when I did our tiny kitchen makeover, I only spent $33 on hinges), my dad has a lot of cabinets and therefore more hardware and hinges needed.     

This past weekend I dropped the pulls off, (the hinges had yet to be delivered), and my dad got to work. 

He’s also got the painting complete, but I’ll share that in a different post.

The hardware instantly makes the kitchen look updated.  And I spoke with my dad last night and he’s already talking about replacing the hardware in the bathrooms!  So, he recognizes what a difference such a small change can do!

The cleaner lines of the new hardware help to reduce the impact of the curved detail of the cabinets.  They also just generally look cleaner than the old brass!

They look a little off next to the old hinges, but I got those the other day in the mail, and dropped those off last night.  I’m sure it won’t be long until those are installed #retiredlife.

I’m really happy to help my dad with this project, and although it’s gotten a little more advanced than we initially expected, (tile backsplash anyone?), it’s nice that these small changes are just as impactful as the larger changes.

Next week I’ll share how the new paint looks!  While the kitchen didn’t have that much area to paint, the dining room looks so much better without the wallpaper and some new paint colors.