Hardware + A Fun Cabinet Upgrade

There's lots of new hardware in the storage room (still thinking I need to come up with a much more charming name...ideas?).  Some, like these double hooks*, have been hanging out for awhile, waiting for a fresh coat of paint on the wall to make them shine.

We started with nails in the wall last year to see if we liked the idea of having hooks here for the kids and the idea stuck good.  (We also thought we were in for the four-kid-haul when we placed them and look at us now.  Think we can squeeze in another?)  Supposedly the hooks are "bronze" but in real life, they're closer to an antique brass.  We did use different screws to hang them than the ones that come with them though.  The included screws stripped really easily when going into the wood.

(Psst, remember when I bought and painted these outlet covers in the dining room?  I bought the switch plate version for this room and...I'm not a fan.  We still have to swap out the actual switch for one that's not old beige so maybe that's why it's not my favorite but I think it's more because it's a bulky shape.  I'll live with it a little longer but just wanted to point that out to anyone going around swapping out electrical plates to paintable ones.  It's a great idea but the shape has to be right.) 

The cabinets we just installed are great, but the doors needed pulls to be easily opened.  I settled on these cabinet pulls* and installed them along the top edges.  The awesome part about these is that they're adjustable!  So, it doesn't matter how far apart your screw holes are, these pulls will work!

I bought this Kreg jig last year when we were installing hardware on the kitchen cabinets and used it to install these as well.  It takes two people to use it (one to hold the jig while the other clamps it down), but it helps make sure your drilled holes are in the right spot and straight.

The other thing that got new hardware is our big storage cabinet.  I've never focused in on this cabinet before because, I mean, look at this "before":  

It's nothing special; big and boring.  When we got it several years ago (for free!), it was an orange wood tone.  I put on a couple of coats of white, stocked it with stuff needing to be stored, and never gave it another thought.

Until last week, that is.  I figured that since I was taking the storage room (drop zone? tool pantry?) up a notch, I'd do the same to this cabinet.  The problem?  I had to remove the old latch and, peekaboo came the old orange finish.  Fine but we don't have the white paint I used to paint it anymore.  I could color-match and buy more but I think an overlay of some sort might be in this cabinet's future and, why paint both doors again when you could just use what you've got and step it up a level?

I happen to have a little Martha Stewart gold paint leftover (I think I've had this one pint for ten plus years - this looks similar in Champagne Gold) and it just happens to match the 12" pulls (here they are online) I found awhile back at Dirt Cheap so, I used a ruler and level to tape off a perfect rectangle, then painted inside that tape with my trusty gold paint.  

Five coats, dry time, and tape removal and it was a quick upgrade.  I love how it turned out.  I also love little projects like this you can do in between granting kids' wishes.

I'm not loving how many colors of cabinets you can spot in that picture but we're getting there.  This is a Phase I project and Phase II, down the road, will color-match all of those and even add in a few more.

I'll be back soon with a reveal of the whole room (stuff repository?  in-home warehouse?) but until then, I'll be working on the popcorn ceilings in the kids' bathroom.  More on that later too.  It feels really good to be getting back to progressing on making our house a home again. 

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