I swear I didn’t plan it this way, but, conveniently, my post on 5 Things You May Not Realize You Can Change in a Rental went live this morning with photos of our kitchen and how to update black kitchen cabinet hardware (matte black is so classic and trendy at the same time!). While we no longer rent, one of the items in that post was something that didn’t occur to me to change until we moved into our condo. I had lived with meh kitchen hardware in various apartments for years before the crystal kitchen knobs in our condo finally motivated me to consider how difficult it would be to make a change.
Spoiler alert: it’s the easiest change you can make in your kitchen. AND it makes a huge impact.
HOW TO UPDATE BLACK KITCHEN HARDWARE (including the faucet!)
After putting it off for weeks, I finally updated all of the knobs and pulls in our kitchen in less than an hour. Seriously, less than an hour. (An added bonus: I sold our old hardware on Facebook marketplace!)
I did a test run before ordering our new hardware to make sure that I could easily remove the old hardware. I found the pulls on Amazon (definitely the best price out there!) and did an order online-in-store pick up from CB2 for these amazing hexagon knobs. Then, once I had the new knobs and pulls in hand, all it took was a screwdriver and a bit of patience.
When it came to the faucet, that has surprisingly been the first thing many people have noticed in our place. It wasn’t something that bothered me, but Adam was dead set on getting a pull-down faucet — and any opportunity to incorporate more matte black is a win with me, so it wasn’t a hard sell to spring for this Vigo Edison Faucet. We did have our handyman install the faucet, but it is absolutely something that could be done with a bit of YouTube learning.
Plus, you can always unscrew the hardware and take it with you, so, if you’re in a rental, just hang on to the original hardware and reinstall it before you leave (don’t forget to, though! We installed a nice showerhead in our last rental…and totally forgot about it until several months later.)
Here’s the hardware we used: Matte Black Bar Pulls / CB2 Hex Matte Black Knobs / Vigo Edison Kitchen Faucet
Curious about anything else in our kitchen? Here are a few links: Spoon Rest / Black Cat Lamp / Wine Cooler (doubling as utensil storage!) / Chalkboard Canister Medium / Chalkboard Canister Small
IS THERE ANYTHING I SHOULD KNOW BEFORE I START?
Like I said above, this is one of the easiest home DIY projects you can take on (and I say that as someone who is terrible at DIY projects!). However, the one thing I wish I’d thought about first is that depending on how careful the person who installed the initial hardware was…it may take off the paint when you remove the hardware. Typically, it happens because someone attached the hardware while the paint was still somewhat wet — and it happened to me on, fortunately, just two of our bottom pulls.
Other than that, I promise this project is easy-peasy and super inexpensive if you’re willing to do a bit of searching (pulls can run up in price, but there are cheap options to be found — and those options can be totally high quality!).
One last hint: Anthropologie is a GREAT place to search for kitchen hardware, there are always pulls and knobs hanging out in their sale section.
