Have you ever sat back after a long hard day and allowed your eyes to glaze over and just take in your surroundings? The next time you do this exercise, take a look at your surroundings. You are most likely looking at the smallest nooks and crannies in your home, rather than the entire room itself. Replacing or reinstalling faulty or old and damaged cabinet knobs is the perfect way to update the style of your home without the major hassle or price tag. But before you go crazy with the idea of ​​a home renovation project, follow these guidelines.

Guideline #1: Choose a room to personalize it
Since home renovation projects often come with clouds of dust, headaches, overspending, and general malaise, the thought of simply replacing a few small items may seem like an easy task. Do not get ahead. Carefully plan which rooms you would like to update, such as the kitchen, bathroom, bedrooms, or storage spaces. Now, using pencil and paper, you need to count the current number of cabinets, cabinet handles, and cabinet hinges. This is a crucial step; you don’t want to spend money on unnecessary home hardware. Likewise, you don’t want to have to buy additional parts because you forgot a few here and there; You could risk buying mismatched accessories.

Guideline #2: Get Serious With Multiple Sizes
Not all cabinet pulls are created equal. In your list of cabinet numbers and their corresponding hinges, pulls, and screws, you should also include the dimensions of the cabinet itself, along with the approximate diameter of the actual cabinet pulls. This way, you will know what size you were originally. However, before you simply replace the same hardware you had, consider increasing your sizes. For busier areas of the house, having a larger area to grab can make life easier (like cooking dinner at a critical time or frantically searching for car keys). Conversely, if you want to keep some dangerous or personal items out of the line of temptation, don’t call attention to those drawers, shelves, or cabinets with a large handle.

Guideline #3: Get fit in style
Knobs and pulls are traditionally, well, just that: cabinet knobs and pulls. But just because most homes have boring, typical cabinets doesn’t mean you should too. Bringing your design to life with some bold shapes is the perfect way to accentuate the cabinets, drawers, and shelves you’ve already installed without the expense of a new renovation project. So go ahead and be bold! If the theme of your bathroom is fish, why not install some unique goldfish or guppy pulls? Likewise, this is a great hands-on project to get your kids involved. If you have a budding astronomer in your home, letting them choose drawer knobs in the shape of stars or planets is great. Plus, taking the time to replace cabinet hardware will give kids a sense of accomplishment, and best of all, all you have to do is supervise (depending on age, of course).

Guideline #4: Evaluate location based on purpose
Have you ever noticed that drawer handles are centered on the drawer faceplate, while cabinet knobs are often located in the top corners of the faceplate? Have you ever tried to quickly open a cabinet or drawer and found yourself fumbling multiple times until you finally opened it? Maybe you should reconsider changing the location of the knob. While below-waist-level cabinets and drawers may be easier to open through the corners, mid-to-high cabinets, and certainly raised cabinets, open more easily when you get to the middle where it’s less likely to be lost. If you choose to create a new hole, be sure to patch up the old area properly or replace your cabinet front entirely.