Make Your Own “Frugal” Kitchen Cabinet Feet

May 25, 2011

I love the look of feet on cabinets. I think they epitomize the french country farm kitchen look. But have you ever priced those lil’ suckers?! They are EX-PE-NS-IVE!! For instance these beauties:

No you are not seeing things. that is $58.07 for one foot!

I placed it to the cart for the fun of it..and it added another $12 in shipping! Good Lord! That’s an expensive foot! Now I do understand they are maple, and fluted and pretty but seriously? These feet aren’t even painted people. Once you slap some white paint on it who cares if it’s whole maple, split maple or whole cherry? I mean really. I knew there had to be a better way.

I hit my local Lowe’s store (seriously need compensation for mentioning the “L” store so much…lol) and wandered up and down the wood aisles. I saw the normal table legs and even some smaller legs that might have worked with some modification but even these were still around $8 each and people we’re working on a very frugal budget here and I needed 12 feet! At $8 each that was still way more than I wanted to spend.

But I really {Heart} cabinet feet and I just knew there had to be an alternative. There was. The question was would it work? What was my solution? Finials and Buttons.

2 pack of medium craft finials and 1″ flat head plugs (6 pack)

Yep. Medium craft finials and 1″ flat head pluggy things you stick in screw holes. They would become my legs. I just knew it would work. I had faith in my little finials to become the feet they knew they could be!

It’s calling to me..”Make me a foot please!”

First, using needle nosed pliers, I removed the screw that is sunken into the bottom of each finial. This would be used if you were going to attach them to a rod for curtains per their original intention. But we don’t need them so off they go.

Remove screw from bottom of finial

Next I glued the button , using liquid nails, to cover the hole where the screw was, with the narrower end of the button facing out.

After the glue had dried. I painted the first coat of paint onto the tops of all of the finials.

Aren’t they so cute all in a row! They look like little chess pieces.

I then painted the lower third of the feet resting them in a large egg carton so they would not touch and the bottoms could dry properly. I repeated this step again adding another coat of paint.I did not want the feet permanently attached to the cabinets in case I ever needed to remove them for new flooring..a girl can hope can’t she?? grin. So I located the corner underneath each cabinet and placed the feet in the right location, with the round knob at the end of the finial located up under the cabinet. This will help keep the foot in place.

Of course. as with everything else in this house. some of the cabinets were slightly higher or lower than another. On the ones I could I gently tapped the foot into location and so far they are holding tight. For the ones that were loose under the cabinet still, I applied a small bead of caulk to the bottom of the foot and adhered the foot to the tile. This will not damage your tile but will hold your foot in place. The foot will be permanently in place, but can be removed if ever need be.
Let me just say…I am in L.O.V.E!!

I think they turned out great considering they started out as finials and buttons

Oh and what do you think of my “new” painted cabinets..or at least what you can see?

Side view of cabinets

And did you notice the beadboard along the toe kick? Another great use for beadboard wallpaper!

Total cost for 12 kitchen cabinet feet: $ 22.48
6 packs of finials @ 2.86 = 17.16
2 packs of 1″ flat head plugs @ 2.66 =5.32
white paint: already had for cabinets

Now that’s a savings! I’m so glad this idea worked for me! I hope if you give it a try it will work for you too!

Would you like to see more of my kitchen updates? Visit the following links:

DIY Windowseat
Installing Beadboard
Painting an existing chandelier
DIY Oak Island Transformation
Easy and Cheap DIY Window Cornices
Installing an Ikea Farmhouse Sink in Existing Cabinet
DIY Island Transformation and Butcher Block Staining Tutorial

or click on the Kitchen Remodel tag to see ALL of my kitchen remodel posts!

And as always, thanks for meeting me (and my new cabinet feet) at the picket fence!

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