Installing Kitchen Cabinet Door Handles

My boyfriend and I spent weeks remodeling our kitchen. After countless hours scraping paint, sanding wood, primering and painting doors, and staining cabinets, we finally got to the last part to complete our kitchen. installing the final hardware bits! I was adamant that the handles be even and perfect. My partner in crime showed me this great and inexpensive trick to making sure that all the handles matched up, without the use of fancy tools, or the annoyance of having to measure each door.

I've done a lot of doors in my time. Your method will work if your careful but it's easy to make mistakes. Also if you have a lot of doors to do, the drill hole in the masking tape can get chewed up and no longer be accurate.

What I do is make a hole guide template using some scrap pieces of wood.

this can also be done with cardboard. Because I always have projects going on I have no shortage of scrap wood.

first take double stick tape and use it to stick the handles onto the door so that you can visually pick where you want them. this will determine the measurements to use on the guide.

I make the guide jig using a 6x10x1/2 scrap piece of plywood with (2) 6 1x2's glued and nailed to 2 sides to create an L . Attach the 1x2's so the plywood is centered on the 1x2. this way the template can be flipped for opposite doors. i then transfer the handle measurements onto the plywood and drill holes (I drill 1/16 holes). check and re-check your measurements several times before drillings. then i stick some double stick tape to both sides of the template. usign the L of the 1x2, I align the guide in the corner of the door and press so the double stick tape holds it in place while I drill the handle holes. the guide can be flipped for the opposite door.

Although you could use this to drill the 1/4 holes for the hardware, I've found that a 1/4 bit can drift, even with the jig, so I actually do a 1/16 pilot holes (which is what I drill on the guide) on all the doors then go back with a 1/4 bit to finish the job. make sure that you use a good quality drill bit and that you don't use to much pressure so that you don't chip the wood of have tear out when you pop thru.