If you’ve never modified furniture before, installing new edge cabinet pulls on a small cabinet is a great place to start. Small cabinets like the one in the picture are versatile. They can be used in a bedroom as a vanity, in a hallway as a console, or outside of a washroom as a storage cabinet.

Where to find unfinished furniture to modify

If you want to create custom pieces for your home, you’ll need to start with a basic, unfinished piece of furniture. The two best places to find unfinished furniture for $100 or less are mass retailers and your local farmers market. At a mass retailer like Target or IKEA you can find furniture made from white particle board, while at a farmers market you may be able to find handmade items in unfinished wood.

If you choose a piece in white particle board, you’ll want to paint it. I hand painted the cabinet in the picture with a brush and leftover paint from an old door. If you choose a piece made from unfinished wood, you’ll want to protect the wood with a clear finish at the very minimum.

Updating edge cabinet pulls

When you buy a new build home, your contractor will probably give you several hardware choices on the cabinets in your home under construction. When you buy your own furniture, you should also replace the hardware. Edge cabinet pulls like the ones in the picture are one of the hardest pieces of hardware to fit. If you can learn how to replace these, you can replace the hardware on most things.

All of the furniture in my home has lacquered brass hardware. Using the same hardware material on furniture from different designers and manufacturers is one way in which you can give your interior a cohesive feel. For this cabinet, I replaced the cabinet’s original edge cabinet pulls with lacquered brass edge cabinet pulls.

In order to find the right edge cabinet pulls, you’ll need to measure every dimension of the original hardware. The most important dimension is called the “center-to-center” measurement, which is the distance between the holes for the screws. Any hardware store you purchase from should have specification sheets that allow them to tell you what hardware they have available that meets your measurements.

Installing edge cabinet pulls

Once I received the new edge cabinet pulls from the manufacturer, it took about an hour to replace the old edge cabinet pulls. This is because even though the center-to-center measurement and dimensions were identical, the holes in the cabinet doors still needed to be adjusted slightly to fit the new edge cabinet pulls. I was able to do this with a manual drill and screwdriver, no power tools required.

Customizing the furniture in your home is an easy way to create a beautiful interior that is personal to you and your family. Modification does not need to be synonymous with expensive and can be achieved with furniture purchased from mass retailers.

Find more resources for furniture modification here.