Push and Pull: How to Make Leather Drawer Pulls

DIY leather drawer pulls are such a cool, easy swap for regular cabinet pulls.

I love DIY drawer pulls and cabinet pulls because they are one of the easiest home projects you can do. They’re affordable and great for DIYers of all skill level.

I made a whole bunch of them when I was doing some updates to my studio kitchen. Remember when I resurfaced laminate countertops and created a bold DIY backsplash? So, I thought I would share the tutorial today.

I love this idea for renters because it’s such an easy and affordable upgrade for basic builder grade cabinets and they’ve held up really well too. It’s been about 6 months since I installed them and they’re still going strong and basically look exactly the same. 

Click through to learn how to make leather cabinet pulls in just a few minutes.

Materials for Leather Drawer Pulls

• sheet of leather (mine is from Amazon)
• round head brass screws (I used #8-32 thread / 1.25 inch – you’ll need 2 screws per handle)
• machine screw nuts in brass (I used #8-32 thread / .25 inch and you’ll need 2 nuts per handle)
• rotary cutter
• leather hole punch
• straight edge or ruler

Are DIY drawer pulls budget friendly?

Yes! Assuming you have the other supplies already (hole punch, rotary cutter, and straight edge), the cost of these cabinet pulls is super reasonable.

One $20 sheet of leather will make 18-20 cabinet pulls that are 5 inches long and 3/4 inch wide. And then with the cost of the screws and bolts (which are roughly 75 cents per set), you’re still at less than $2 per cabinet pull.

Average cost of a pre-made leather cabinet pull is anywhere from $8-25 per pull, so this DIY option is way, way cheaper!

How to Make Leather Drawer Pulls

1. If you’re working with a large sheet of leather, like I did, you’ll just need a straight edge and a rotary cutter to cut down strips that will work for the handles.

I found that a good measurement for the leather strips (when you’re using standard cabinets) is 3/4 inch wide and 5 inches long. You can tweak this measurement to your liking of course, but that’s what worked for me.

Sorry I don’t have a photo of this step. I ended up (accidentally) deleting all the photos the first time around and I had to redo what I could. But I had already used all the leather for making the pulls, so I couldn’t reshoot that part. 

2. Next punch a hole in each of the two ends of the leather strips you made in step #1.

I found that about 1/2 inch in from the edge is a good place for each hole (and of course, make sure it’s centered).

*Make sure the hole you create is large enough for the screw to snuggly fit into, but not so large that the head would go all the way through the hole.

3. Then just add the screws and thread those through the cabinet holes. To secure the screws, add the bolts to the back of each screw and tighten as much as you can. That’s it! Super easy, right?

You may find that you’ll occasionally want to retighten the bolts every so often if they started to loosen up with use.

I tighten mine as needed once or month or something like that. No biggie – only takes a minute to get through the entire kitchen.

Photography Amelia Lawrence

So, what do you think of these leather cabinet pulls and drawer pulls? Yay or nay?

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