Who woulda thought to use plain old branches as drawer and cabinet pulls?  What a GREAT idea!   (Such a nice walk up at the lake looking for the perfect branches for the project.  The only problem I had was that it’s still a little snowy up there, so they were all wet.  Eh, not a problem, I just stuck them in front of a little floor heater we have to dry ’em out.   

After they dried out, I lightly scraped off the bark.  Just enough so that they wouldn’t “shed” bark as they were used. 

I cut them down to the size I needed, for me 6″ or thereabout (it didn’t matter to me if some were shorter than others.  That gives it that natural look, in my opinion.) 

I wanted to try just the dried out branches and then some coated with polyurethane.  Here’s the difference:

Without polyurethane

Coated with Polyurethane

How I Installed the Handles

Once I cut the branches to the length I wanted them, I held them up to the drawer/cabinet.  With a very skinny pen (which I have hung on to for years knowing that it would be difficult to find another one that would fit through small holes) from inside the drawer/cabinet, I stuck my pen in the hole to mark where I need to predrill the holes for the screws.

I used a drill bit much smaller than my screws, to predrill the holes.  I didn’t use the old drawer pull screws, I needed a sharp screw so it was a chinch once I pushed the screw from the back of the drawer, through and found the predrilled hole, then screwed it in from the inside of the drawer.

I didn’t finish all of the cabinets and drawers but I will this week when I go back up and will post more pictures.

Thank you to Kristi at Addicted 2 Decorating for the idea!