If we’re friends on Facebook, you know that I’ve been looking at kitchen cabinet knobs and pulls for longer than I thought humanly possible. It’s become ridiculous.
Here’s the problem in all it’s mundane glory: The catalogue picture of our cabinets (the picture on the left – but ours are natural maple, without all the banister-looking trim things) features a certain type of pull. They’re thin and traditional, and complement the cabinets without being too obvious. They’re like good jewelry for the kitchen!
But those pulls are dark, and apparently unique in all the world. Nothing like them exists in any sort of brushed nickel variation anywhere on the planet. I’ve gone to knob/pull stores and visited knob/pull websites. My eyes are bleary with knob/pull-ness. And yet it feels like a hole I’m in too deep to pull myself out of – by caring this much already, it feels like a waste of life to stop caring now. It’s taken on this deranged significance, as if my cabinet hardware has to represent who I am as a person, my design aesthetic and point of view. (Clearly, I’ve been watching too much Project Runway.)
I am embarrassed to admit this. It is shallow and privileged and the epitome of silly. Which is why it feels important to admit. This feels like the sort of thing that could multiply and take over if left unchecked, and soon I’d be scouring home decor magazines for Martha Stewart’s recommendation for the perfect recycling bins to compliment the hybrid grass I’ll cut by hand with tiny scissors so my lawn will tell you what a good person I am.
So let’s just be clear now: I’m not a very good person. I’m solidly mediocre, with occasional flashes of okay-ness. But if you ever see my lawn looking spiffy (or if I find the perfect pulls!) don’t be fooled.
Do you have things like this – simple choices that become obsessive traps into which you pour time and energy, doing the same web search again and again, hoping the results will be different? If so, how do you break free? How do you pick something and be happy with it and move on?
Trish Ryan 
“Do you have things like this – simple choices that become obsessive traps into which you pour time and energy, doing the same web search again and again, hoping the results will be different? If so, how do you break free? How do you pick something and be happy with it and move on?”
I have some OCD, but it applies more to painting, not furniture. E.g. dirty or unstraight lines between tiles give mem uneasiness and I try to “cheat” them into exact looking lines with all tricks I can come on.
I’m not sure how to break free. My OCD got much better in the past years, but I’m in therapy for anxity and depression problems, and it’s likely that my medication also helps with OCD problems.
In your case I’d try to find knobs and pulls which match the desired shape, and then try to paint them so that the surface matches your desired look as close as possible. The are metal effect paints which do quite fine.
Problem is, that the paint on a knob will wear off and must be refreshed now and then. I tried it with door handles, and while it looks fine for a while, you must consider renewals of the paint every few years.
“How do you pick something and be happy with it and move on?”
I think only certain personality types can do that. And those won’t even understand how such can be a problem. It’s a state of mind, and I’m not sure if one can acquire it by training.
I love how you’ve articulated this, Trish. I could go on and on about the existential conversations this sparks for me, but I have been thinking a LOT about this lately: the time, energy, and meaning that we pour into what we choose to produce – both form and function. You are re-creating your world around you, making an impression on the space and time – “Trish was here” – even in that small expression. Avoid the trap that there’s a “right” answer and enjoy exercising your perspective!
For a while it was floor cleaners. When we first moved into our house it was my first one with hardwood floors. I bought three different steam cleaners thinking each time it was the ONE that was going to make you envious when you walked in and saw the brazillian cherry gleam. Once I became to busy to wash my floors, and people became lucky if dust and dog hair didn’t billow so much that they couldn’t see the floor at all, I moved on to books. Not the books I wanted to read, but the ones I wanted for my shelves. There certainly must be books, that if I died in an accident, would convince all the nice folks (who came to help my family) that I had been a giving, loving, and faithful person. Then there were scrapbook supples for the same purpose, and now my current fruitless obsession in face cream. I must have bought half a dozen since Thanksgiving, trying to find the one that would find baseball moms exclaiming about my youthfulness as they joined me on the bleechers… and yet Vogue has not called. I wish you luck in finding the ones you are seeking. But remember service is so much more important. I loved the post your friend added about the pulls she chose, when she said she likes to put just her pinky in if her hands are dirty… this is far more important than the look. Hopefully when you find them they will be delightfully utilitarian. Hugs, Michele