Wrong Size Cabinet Pulls

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ScottCh

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Hi Folks,

I'm updating our late 1980's kitchen, including refinishing the wood cabinet doors. The cabinet hardware is also worn out looking, especially the door pulls.

Since there are so many kinds of pulls available, I thought I could buy a bunch of replacements (there are 26 doors total). But to my surprise, the hole-to-hole measurement for these pulls is 2.5" or 64mm. Pretty much ALL of the door pulls I can find are for 3" hole spacing.

Here's what one of ours looks like:
cabinet%20pull%202.jpg

I have found a very small assortment of 64mm pulls advertised online, but none of them look even close to the ones we have. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find out so far who made these. One of our cabinets - a rotating corner turnstile - has an Amerock plackard inside. But Amerock doesn't have any 64mm pulls like these.

When I ask about these pulls, the typical reaction is disbelief. "All door pulls are 3 inches" is the typical response. But there are hundreds of homes in our neighborhood that were made by Pulte in the 1980s, and all of the ones we've been in appear to have the same style cabinets.

Anyone have an idea how to handle this? The thought of re-drilling all of these doors and covering up the old hole has occurred to me, but I'm not sure I could get away with it. I tried polishing up one handle, but the brass finish is worn off of many of them, leaving a dull pot-metal appearance. It's not an improvement.

Thanks for any ideas or pointers!

Scott C. in Cary, NC USA
 
I don't see any way around having to drill new holes -- you're probably only going to be able to find 3" cc pulls or larger. However, you can avoid filling and refinishing the old holes by using back plates. Just google 3" back plates, you'll get all kinds of choices.
 
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