Pretty in Pink {Pottery Barn knock off bed} Drawer pulls

Ok, one more progress post.  The bed is done and in her room and the reveal post will be coming tomorrow.  It turned out better than I had hoped!

I decided to seal the inside of the drawers, so first I used my finish sander with 220 grit to get it smooth, then applied Minwax Polycrylic water based sealer.  Water based sealers will raise the grain on the first coat, so once it was dry, I used a 320 grit sanding block to lightly sand down to a smooth finish again.  I sand between every coat, and each one takes an even lighter hand to get smooth again.  I find it well worth the time it takes.  I did 3 coats for the insides and tops of the drawers.

This is the smooth finish I got using a foam roller on the 2 primer coats, and the one paint coat, sanding between each with 320 grit.  I then sealed it with General Finished High Performance Polyurethane in satin applied with a foam brush, 3 coats, sanding between each with 320 grit.  Smmooooth.

Finally found pulls that I like and they ended up really close to the Pottery Barn version.  Not on purpose–I was having some trouble finding pulls I even sorta liked.  Amazingly, they were the best price I found too–6 for $14.99 at Target.  Gotta love that!  There are probably better quality pulls out there, but these are pretty good and work just right for this room.

I stress about drilling into my wonderfully smooth, finished drawers.  Mistakes now are not fun to correct–this close to being done.  This is how I got the right spacing.

Make a paper template for the inset drawer front.  Find the exact middle and then measure out the appropriate amount for the pulls.  Mine were 3″ center to center, so I measured out 1.5″ each side of the center.  I then drill with a small bit on my marks.  Next drill a hole in a scrap piece of 1/4″ plywood with the size bit for the hardware screw.  Use this scrap to prevent tearing out the plywood when drilling:

Center it right over your original drill hole. Hold it tight with your fingers, it will want to spin.

Since the plywood center of the drawers is only 1/2" I had to shim out the back to make the hardware fit snug. I used 1/4" plywood scraps to get to the 3/4" it needed.

It looks so much better in there now and I am excited that we added 6 large drawers, using up no more space than what was already being used before.  We haven’t filled them up yet–I want them to have plenty of time to dry thoroughly.

I. Love. It!!!!