*THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED.*

Congrats to Leslie who has been searching for hardware for an entertainment armoire that she recently purchased at an estate sale. Coincidence? I like to think of it as a small miracle.

I’m all about scoring inexpensive pieces of furniture. Sometimes this means bringing home a scratch-and-dent piece and showing it some love with a fresh coat of paint or new hardware. If you’re into transforming thrift, antique, hand-me-down or IKEA furniture with simple updates then this week’s giveaway is right up your alley.

D. Lawless Hardware is an importer and distributor of cabinet and furniture hardware. They offer a variety of products from coat hooks to pie safe tins {!} to glass knobs – and everything in between and beyond.

I’m really into smaller projects right now after nearly a year of renovations. Not that we don’t have a ton of big projects left but it’s nice to throw in a few hour-long projects here and there for some instant gratification and a confidence boost. Need hardware for a smallish {or BIGish} makeover? Great! See entry details below.

PRIZE: $50 gift certificate to D. Lawless Hardware. There will be two winners this week!

RULES: You must be at least 18 years old and have a shipping address within the U.S. or Canada to enter. One entry per email address.

TO ENTER: Leave a comment on this post proclaiming “HARDWARE ME OUT!” Get it?

DEADLINE: Enter before Thursday, September 13th at 9:00 p.m. EST. Two random winners will be chosen and announced Friday, September 14th.

WHILE YOU’RE AT IT: Share what’s {hard}wearing you out these days. A whole house reno? A full schedule of chauffeuring in the minivan now that the kids are back in school? A demanding job? Late night pinteresting? Pregnancy? A really great workout? I’ll go first. Oh man. Everything wears me out right now. But I think it’s all due to broken night sleep. Mabrey has yet to sleep through the night. I used to think that my boys were great sleepers because I was a great mom. {Layne and Everett were both sleeping 12+ hours a night without waking at Mabrey’s age.} Shyeah. Right. Mabrey has proven that theory completely wrong. I’m doing all the same things I did with my boys and I’ve yet to get more than a five-hour chunk of sleep at a time. It’s only temporary though and I think we’re getting close to the end because she’s gradually stretching her longest periods of sleep. Until then, I’ll be hitting the hay at 9:00 p.m. once or twice a week to catch up.

If you can’t wait to win, you can score a 10% off discount by clicking on the D. Lawless Hardware ad over on the sidebar or using the coupon code ‘tweaking’ at checkout. Don’t forget to like D. Lawless on facebook!

images: D. Lawless Hardware

Ever since I came across this crazy good kitchen remodel a few years ago, I’ve been thinking about horizontal pulls on upper cabinetry. They definitely make for a streamlined look as opposed to a bunch of knobs. There’s something about the vertical lines of the cabinetry mixed with the horizontal lines of the hardware that provide an aesthetically appealing contrast. They seem pretty practical, too. But maybe that’s because I’m on the shorter side {5’4″ on a good day}, so reaching up and opening a cabinet via a horizontal pull feels more natural than the same action via a vertical pull.

Whatever the reason for my obsession over the placement of cabinet hardware, I saved the two images above in my kitchen inspiration folder noting ‘horizontal hardware?’ It should come as no surprise that when it came time to install hardware onto our own kitchen cabinets I suggested to Handy Hubby the idea of placing pulls horizontally on the upper cabinets. After seeing the simplicity of them {HH has a more modern aesthetic than me}, he was game.

We went with the VÄRDE handles from IKEA and chose not to use the rosettes.

Using a drill template that we had leftover from hardware installation in our previous home, HH added the handles to the cabinets. {Never mind the photo styling. It’s what I like to call ‘we just moved in 5 days ago and are still emptying box contents wherever.’ And the bar stool goes to the island. I haven’t found one for the desk area yet.}

Like my inspiration pics, we installed them horizontally on the upper cabinetry centered at the bottom of each door.

They have a good weight to them and feel nice in your hand when you open and close the doors.

Leaving the rosettes off gives a cleaner look.

More of the same on the other side of the kitchen. Unlike my inspiration pics, we didn’t do only horizontal placement on the lower cabinets. We kind of just went one-by-one pretend opening the drawers and cabinets and placing the handles the way that felt most natural to us. Basically, all the lower cabinet doors {except for the dishwasher panel and trash pull-out} got vertical handles and the drawers got horizontal ones.

It’s nice opening the drawers and doors via actual hardware instead of strips of masking tape…which is what we were doing. Little by little, it’s coming together.

images: 1) Cottage Living  2) flickr  3) IKEA  4-8 ) Dana Miller for House*Tweaking