Category: DIY

It’s been quite a while since I talked about kitchen knobs… so let’s do a little refresher. Way back in 2012, I shared a post showing our bright gold kitchen hardware (Kitchen Changes, Part 1). I’m not a fan of gold, so I got all DIY up in here and spray painted them with Rustolium’s oil rubbed bronze paint. It was a whopping $6 and I was pretty happy with it. Then, four years later I did a little refresher because some of the gold was showing through (Redoing a DIY).

Well, it’s been 5 years… and it was time to deal with the knobs again.

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This time, I decided to just buy new knobs so I wouldn’t have to fix them again in the future. I was never a huge fan of the old egg-shaped knobs and the weird bendy pulls. So, I did some online shopping on Home Depot’s website, as well as Amazon. I ended up ordering some options of Amazon… returning one. Then picking up two more options at Home Depot… and returning one more.

Here is what I ended up with:

• Probrico Black Cabinet Knobs from Amazon, 25 pack for $39.99
• Liberty Classic Matte Black Drawer Pulls from Home Depot, $4.98 each, $54.78 total for 11

While the cabinet knobs were a pretty easy choice, the drawer pulls were a pain the butt. I wanted ones that would fit into our existing drilled holes so I wouldn’t have to re-drill and patch up holes. However, the first ones I ordered off Amazon were supposed to have a 3” space between the screws… but they were about ¼ inch off.

Then, I took one of my pulls off my cabinets and held it up to every possible match at Home Depot, narrowed it down to 2, bought 11 of each of them and brought them home. I tried the options on and gave it a gander.

• Top: the ones I picked
• Middle: the ones I considered, but decided against
• Bottom: our original pulls

Once I had all the proper pieces, the actual switching out of the hardware was super easy. I used a small screwdriver to remove the existing hardware, cleaned the cabinet with degreaser (I like Zep Heavy Duty Citrus Degreaser), and then put on the new knob.

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The whole project cost just under $100 and was totally worth it. The new knobs and pulls really updated the look of our kitchen and the ‘hand-feel’ is just really nice and hearty. I’m super happy with the change (and the price) and now I’m looking around the house for some other easy DIY updates!

Disclaimer: This post contains Amazon and ShopStyle affiliate links. This means that clicking on a link may help me earn a small commission at no cost to you.

Do you guys remember when I thrifted a load of fabric for a steal? That’s right, back in August I found some fabulous canvas or linen floral fabric. I eyeballed it at about 4 yards and it was marked at just $2.49 and then on sale for $1.25. For all of it. INSANE!

After sticking it in my sewing stuff box for a while, I had the random urge to be creative. So, I decided to pull out the fabric, a pillow form and some pompoms that I had sitting around for a little project.

In my opinion, the pompoms totally make the pillow! It’s actually not that much harder to add on the pompoms – you just pin them to the sides of the pillow and sew everything all together at once. I didn’t do a full tutorial because I pretty much just sew using common sense. Need two things to stick together? Pin them and then sew a straight line. Need to add some pompoms? Pin it on the line you are about to sew. Boom. Easy peasy, lemon squeezie.

Anywhoo, I added the pillow to my favorite little reading area in my den and look how cute it is!

Oh and if you want more of an instructional post. I found this one I wrote WAY BACK in 2012 showing how I made a pillow from a pack of napkins: The Hunt for the Perfect Yellow Pillow. It’s kind of crazy how much my house décor has changed over the past 9 years and it was especially nice to get a glimpse of my sweet dog Potter again!

I took the week off work between Christmas and New Years because I’ve been feeling very burnt out and really needed some time off. A full week of NO work and NO online schooling sounded like heaven. My plans were to do some home projects I’ve been putting off, read a book or two, watch a movie or two, and keep up with my Peloton workouts.

We also knocked out a few doctor’s appointments – dentist appointments for me and Jack, and then a dermatologist appointment for me and a pediatrician appointment for Jack. I mean, we are LIVING LIFE over here. But really, when you have time off as a working parent, you need to get as much done as possible!

Week Off Project 1: Organizing the linen closet

Our linen closet is a catch-all for everything from extra items, towels, light bulbs and paper products. As we go through life, it gets more and more messy… until I finally take a couple hours to rip it apart. For my first project of the week, I went through all our medicine and threw out all the expired products and re-arranged everything so that it fit without attacking you when you opened the door. I also used some boxes that I saved from the recycle bin to better organize everything for free. This whole project probably took an hour or so.

Week Off Project 2: Organizing office crafts/art miscellaneous

Here’s another spot in my house that needed some attention. This organizer shelf contains a ton of different art/craft project supplies, extra office supplies, books and candles. I had thrifted some decorative boxes a while ago, so I spent some time sorting through everything, putting it into boxes with like items, and labeling everything. The entire square full of extra notebooks is a good reminder that I don’t need to buy anymore this year.

Week Off Project 3: Take down and rehang my gallery wall

I had a gallery wall in our living room that had been driving me nutty for years. There were too many frames and they often would be knocked off center… so everything just looked crooked to me all the time. I took every single frame down off the wall, filled the nail holes and then picked just a few frames to go back up. I was also planning to repaint the filled holes… until I found that the touch up paint was fully expired – it was clumpy and discolored and totally useless. Luckily the new frames covered most of the filled holes and the others are barely noticeable. So I’ll have to be okay with it until I decide to repaint the entire living room.

You can click through here to see the before, during and after:

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Also, I found this photo hanging kit at Home Depot that keeps each photo frame perfectly straight and it’s a life changer! It’s the PicGenie123 kit and they are super easy to install and then keep everything from moving once they are up on the wall. I love, love, love them and will definitely be using these elsewhere in the house!

Week Off Project 4: Organizing the stockroom

Yup, more organizing. This time I attacked our stockroom areas in our laundry room. This is the overflow area for food that won’t fit in our pantry. Once again, as life happens this area gets super messy as we just throw stuff on there when putting the groceries away. I took about 20 minutes and pulled everything off and rearranged everything. Now, I can see exactly what I have and won’t accidentally buy 2 more packs of cookies when I still have 3 on the shelf.

I’m so glad I finally had the time and energy to attack these organizing projects. Not only did it make me feel good to check some projects off my list. But I feel like I get to start 2021 with a clean(er) slate!

Disclaimer: This post contains a Shopstyle affiliate link. This means that clicking on a link may help me earn a small commission at no cost to you.