Missing backplate remedy

Good backplates are hard to find. Many times you might pass up a good piece of furniture becasue it is missing a few backplates. Backplates are the piece that sits behind the pull or the handle and is usually decorative in nature. It may look like the part on the left. The pin on the handle goes through the square.

My Berkey & Gay dresser was missing 3 of the 6 backplates.

All of the original pulls were still on the dresser but becasue they were missing the backplate as protection, the pin wore down the wood around the opening everytime the drawer was opend and closed and it looked really bad. If I wanted to use the hardware I had to come up with a solution for a backplate or spend alot of dough on new handles. 

I went to Hobby Lobby because they have an amazing selection of drawer pulls and they are ALWAYS at 50% off! However, I forgot my paint chip and some of the pulls I liked had green in them and I wasnt sure it was a good match. And since I had Tessa with me as well, I was not having much luck deciding what I liked as she was showing me every single pull, in every single bin, during every single minute of our time there. Yes they are all lovely, trust me. 

I thought I'd try the jewlery section to see if anything struck me and nothing did there so then I thought I'd try the wood aisle. It helped me solve my drawer runner issue.

Thank God for miniatures!

I found a package of small wood wheels like the kind used to build wooden cars.

Brought them home and drilled out the center to be the same size as the pin on the pull. I then primed and spray painted them the same black on the handles.

You may need to buy longer screws since you are adding about another 1/4" to the depth of the handle and the origianl screw may not catch the threads on the inside of the pin.

See how they add just a pop behind the drawer pull but they completely cover up the huge holes that were there.

I also added a washer onto the screw of each pull for security and to make sure the pull was attached tightly.

Now you have a way to keep the original hardware on a great antique even if some pieces went missing along it's way to you.

Always being renewed,

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