Renovate your Furniture with Leather Handles

Leather handles are one of the latest trends in the world of interior decor. And the best bit is that they're so easy to make yourself.
Renovate your Furniture with Leather Handles

Last update: 28 January, 2021

If you’re bored with your old furniture, now’s the time to give it a new lease of life. This doesn’t necessarily mean giving it a complete makeover, or doing something drastic you might regret later. In this article, we’ll tell you all about the latest decorating trend: leather handles. Renovating your drawers and furniture is much easier than you might think!

Leather handles: the latest fashion

Horizontal leather handles.

The rustic and Nordic styles are making waves in the world of interior decorating. Among the many interesting pieces of furniture and decorative features they offer, today we’ll be focussing on one element in particular: leather handles.

There are two main types: horizontal and vertical. Horizontal handles are really ergonomic and work well in rustic or classical style homes. The second is more innovative and original and is really easy to use, requiring only one or two fingers to pull the drawer open. They work particularly well in Scandinavian or Bohemian style homes.

Whichever you decide to go for, you’ll need through-bolts to attach them to your furniture.

Where can you use leather handles?

Basically, you can put them wherever you want… They’ll look great anywhere in your home!

1. Kitchens

Horizontal leather handles for kitchen drawers.

This idea isn’t for everyone. In kitchens, leather handles can quickly get dirty. Leather is not the simplest material to clean, especially if it gets covered in grease or other sticky substances. However, if you have a piece of furniture you don’t use very often, you wear gloves or you make sure to wash your hands, they can be a great option.

When it comes to aesthetics, leather handles look great in rustic, vintage or Scandinavian-style kitchens.

2. Bedrooms

A bedroom dresser with leather handles.

Bedrooms are one of the best places for leather handles. Wh ether you use them for a chest of drawers, closet, dresser or cupboard, they’ll give your furniture a whole new look. They are really great in nurseries, teenager’s bedrooms or master bedrooms, and work well with all different decor styles.

3. Living rooms

Tiradores de cuero para el salón.

If you have antique furniture and the original handles are looking a little worn out leather handles can really enhance it. Or if you have an old cabinet for your good chinaware in your dining room, or your tv cabinet has drawers, they can also be a great option.

You can also use leather handles on furniture in your entrance hall, dining room, living room, or even in hallways.

How to make leather handles

Silver screws on brown leather.

Whether horizontal or vertical, making your own leather handles is really easy. You can even reuse old belts to give your drawers and doors this mini makeover.

To make a vertical handle, you’ll need a strip of leather approximately 4-4.5 inches in length. You’ll need slightly more for horizontal handles. Measure the size of the drawer or door first to work out exactly what size you need.

The other materials you’ll need to make your own leather handles are a knife, pen, screws, a ruler, screw caps, and a drill.

To make vertical handles, first, cut the strips of leather to the size you want. Fold them in half, and mark the place where you want to fix the screw. Use the drill to make a hole in both ends (you should leave approximately half an inch of material between the screw and the end of the strip).

Thread the screw through the holes and add the screw caps. Next, you need to attach it to the drawer or piece of furniture. To do this, you can simply use the holes where the original handles were attached.

Horizontal handles

The process for making horizontal handles is fairly similar, except the handle is flat instead of looped. This means that you need to attach a screw at either end. Measure the distance between the original holes to work out what length of material you need.

Leather handles are really charming and can be added to furniture of any color to create a whole range of interesting combinations. Some of our favorites include dark brown or black handles on white furniture and beige or white handles on dark brown wood furniture.

And of course, you can also play around with the colors of the screws. We recommend gold or silver screws, which look great with leather and wood.