DIY Leather Cabinet Pulls
We posted a recent tutorial for a herringbone accent wall that would go perfectly with these darling cabinet pulls. I’ll link it right here!
Why We Chose Leather Cabinet Pulls
As most projects do, this one was born of children painting cabinets with fingernail polish. I was already tired of our VERY 90’s cabinets with no pulls, so once the nail polish hit, there was no turning back. I went ahead and painted the cabinets white but I knew I wanted to add some sort of pull to them, but once I saw how much even basic ones cost, I was sent back to the drawing board. After perusing Pinterest, I discovered leather pulls and knew in an instant that was the direction I wanted to go.
Not only is this project incredibly simple and straight forward, but it is so dang cost effective it’s ridiculous! When all was said and done, I spent less than $30 and made 11 pulls! You also get to create a look that is unique to you and your style because of the many color and width options you have when it comes to leather straps. Here’s what you’ll need to create your own:
Supplies to Create Leather Pulls
- Leather Strap (I bought mine on Amazon for $17.99)
- Screws (size depends on the width of your strap, I purchased mine from Home Depot for $3.90)
- Spray Paint (This is to give the screws your desired finish, I used oil-rubbed bronze from Home Depot for $6)
- Leather punch (You can use a drill, but I tried both and the punch is significantly easier)
- Straight edge blade
How To Make DIY Leather Pulls
On my instagram page I have a video showing the entire project from start to finish. For any questions, head over there to check out the video!
- First, to create either handles or pulls (I did both), you will need to decide on the length you want the pulls to be. I held the leather strap against the drawers and found a length that felt comfortable and looked balanced against my cabinets. I then proceeded to use the straight edge razor blade to cut all of the pulls. On the cabinet doors, I decided to make small loops instead of horizontal pulls to add some visual interest to the cabinets while also making them more functional overall.
- Once the pulls were all cut-to-size, I used the leather punch to put holes in them that would accommodate the screws that would hold them in place. I initially tried this with a power drill, but the leather would shift just a little bit as the drill would spin and didn’t give me the clean results I got with the leather punch, so if that’s something available to you, I would absolutely recommend going that route.
- Next, I. spray painted all of the screws so that they looked more decorative, rather than industrial. The fastest/easiest way to do this is find yourself a nice box (head to the porch for an Amazon treasure and use that:)) and push the screws halfway into the box. This way, you are able to do a 360 paint job, without having to roll them around or make a huge mess.
- Once you have done at least a couple of coats and are pleased with how they look, you can move on to the next step.
- I used a power drill to create holes for where the handles would go, again, this is where you want to decide how much slack you want the leather pull to have and then simply measure the first set and re-create it exactly with all of the other cabinet drawers.
- Finally, place the leather strap so that the holes are in line with the drawer holes and then screw them into place. I preferred using a manual screwdriver for this step so that the screws weren’t accidentally ripped in too far which would distort the look of the pulls themselves.
Dun-du-nu-nuuuuuuuuhhhhhhh!!! You’ve got yourself a modern farmhouse cabinet pull that would make ol’ Joanna herself proud as punch.
Before:
After with DIY Leather Cabinet Pulls:
For more amazing tutorials from Our Faux Farmhouse contributors like this accent wall from Savannah Kay Designs, check out the Our Faux Farmhouse blog here.
