I’m excited to share today’s DIY project with you! If you’re like me, you love fun home décor items, but are on a budget and don’t want to break the bank on something as simple as door pulls. There are many affordable options out there, but some of the nice pulls are anywhere from $10 to $25 each, which can really add up. Today, I’m going to show you how to make your own abstract geometric door pulls. These would look awesome on kitchen cabinets, bathroom drawers, cabinets or any other handle-fronted openings. I put mine on my Ikea Kallax doors in place of the tiny plain, standard issue pulls that came with them.  They take a few days to make, letting the clay dry and set, but look great when finished.

Can you believe they only cost about $0.50 to make?! To make your own pulls, you will need either a simple tiny door pull (I used the ones that came with the Ikea kallax door) or a large headed bolt that is long enough to fit through your cabinet door without hanging out the other side too much. You’ll also need some air dry clay, X-Acto knife, and spray paint in the color of your choice. I went with my current favorite: gold.

The first thing to do is mold the clay around the door pull or bolt head. I started by making a large log/snake out of clay and then pressed the pull into the clay. I added more clay to the sides to make sure that the pull was nice and surrounded. Then, I smoothed out the clay into the approximate length that I wanted.

Once your clay is completely around the pull and smoothed out, set it somewhere to dry out for approximately 12-24 hours. You want the clay to firm up a bit before you start cutting into it, but not so much that it gets hard. Once the clay has dried slightly, use your X-acto knife to slice bits of the clay off. There is no precision in this part, just cut a little here and a little there to give some nice angularity to it. Don’t cut too deeply around where the pull or head of the bolt is. You want to make sure there is ample clay around it to give the pull strength.

Once you get the pull shaped the way you like, set it aside and let it fully dry for another few days. When the pull is completely dried out and hard, it is time to spray paint it in whatever color makes you happy. After the paint has dried, it’s ready for installation. Just screw it on the door where you like and ta-da! Your very own inexpensive, hand-made, one of a kind door pull!

What do you think? Not too complicated right? I love the look it gives the door. It really steps-up the design of the unit and makes it look much higher end. All it took was quietly pilfering some of my daughters craft clay!