Home Edition: Kitchen Handles

I have mentioned before that despite the fact that I have lived in my house for nearly two years, we still have a long way to go to furnish it.

One of the purchases that we have put off was handles for the kitchen drawers and cabinets. Mainly because I was bitter that the previous owners took them as well as the blinds from every window. Between blinds/curtains and kitchen handles, we opted for the luxury of privacy and bought the blinds first. Anyway, the time came for us to finally start looking for the handles a couple of weeks ago and now I don't know why we waited so long to buy them.

We ordered them online because it was too hard to find a matching set in the store. See, the upper cupboards had holes that were drilled six inches apart and the bottom cupboards had holes three inches apart. I wanted them to match and there were some slim pickings of matching handles in different sizes in the store. The employee at Lowe's suggested that we order it online because there is a much bigger selection. We did go online but ended up buying them from Knobs 4 Less (insert immature laughter here).

After looking at the available selection, I decided that I rather liked the darker handles with the brass finish. I also had the idea of using the "cup" pulls for the drawers and handles for the cupboards. I think it turned out rather well. What do you think?


The finished product!




3" cup pulls for the drawers.



6" handles on the upper cupboards

3" handles on the lower cabinets

There are so many things in life that I would love to splurge on: clothes, shoes, purses, jewelry, makeup - gosh, I could really go on and on. Sadly, I usually don’t have the funds to backup my outrageous shopping cravings and have to settle on less luxurious stuff. However, the one thing that I believe takes precedence over all other material things is my home. We moved into our house in June of 2009 and slowly but surely we are furnishing the house, however, a lot of work and big purchases are still needed:


- Formal dining room set.
Although this isn’t a priority since we have a big table in our informal dining area and I have thrown out the idea of putting up bookshelves and placing some chairs in there as a reading “nook”. At the moment this space is housing Bella’s trampoline and other toys.

- Blinds in the master bedroom and spare room.
Yes, the previous owners took the blinds with them. I didn’t really see a point in taking them. I mean, their new place probably doesn’t even have the same sized windows!

- Handles for the kitchen cabinets.
That’s right, the previous owners took all of the cabinet handles in the kitchen as well. Ok, I get that they aren’t the cheapest things in the world, but what if the place they move into already has handles? And what if they are now renting and can’t really put those handles on anyway.

- Coffee table and extra seating for the family room.
We splurged on a nice recliner for two, which I love, but I have found myself sitting on the floor on more than one occasion when we didn’t have enough seating.

- Other frivolous décor.
Our walls are pretty bare, so some artwork or shelving; something to really make a house a home.

As you can see, there is a lot of work to do in my home, so it is a good thing that John recently got his bonus from work (which is about the same amount I make in eight months as a receptionist!) and has allotted me a little bit of money for “house stuff”. I never have extra money for this kind of thing, so I was super excited to have a chance to get creative and, again, start turning my house into a home. For this post, I wanted to share some of the home décor that I found. The bigger ticket items will be for another time.

Let me preface the below décor ideas with telling you that all of the furniture in our house has pretty much been chosen by me. Of course I only picked things that were gender neutral so that John wouldn't feel like he was living in a cupcake; I am super girly and my ideal home would have pink and white everywhere, flowers, lace, ruffles, hearts, canopy beds, flowing curtains, overstuffed sofas and chairs, and – ok, you get the picture. Since the rest of the house is so contemporary and something I basically compromised my personal style on so that John would also be comfortable, I have been granted free reign on our as of yet empty spare room.

I am pretty set on a romantic, modern version of a Victorian era room and have found some wonderful knickknacks at www.shopplasticland.com, which I first heard of through Mimi at Irresistible Icing.

Black Baroque Oval Picture Frame $24.00

White Twisted Coral Tree Jewelry Holder $38.00

Cast Iron Key in Lock Hook Wall Hooks - Set of 3 $22.00

Set of 3 Antiqued Vintage Style Mirrors $52.00

Black Baroque Noir Candlestick Lighter $14.00











And how cute are these teacups?! I thought they would look really pretty on a decorative shelf.

Victorian Cameo Tea Cups & Saucers Set $34.00

Do you love?!

I have such visions for this room and hope it comes out just right! John's family is probably coming to stay with us for a visit (they live in DC) in June and I would love to not only have our spare room furnished, but completely decorated as well!