Easily Add Leather Pulls To An IKEA Shoe Cabinet

By Caroline Burke Updated July 19, 2022

White cabinet with four doors and leather pulls

Caroline Burke

While we at Hunker adore everything IKEA, sometimes it's nice to give a personalized upgrade to the furniture. (All hail IKEA hacks, right?) These Scandi-inspired DIY leather pulls are the quickest way to update anything from drawers to kitchen cabinets. They are the perfect IKEA hack: Not only are they budget-friendly, but they're incredibly easy to make. (Trust us, you'll kick yourself for not making them sooner.) We've transformed this basic Hemnes shoe storage into a "new" aesthetically pleasing piece with very little effort.

White IKEA shoe storage cabinet with framed poster

Caroline Burke

Tip

Read: 3 Things to ALWAYS Do When Creating IKEA Hacks

Things Needed

IKEA Hemnes shoe cabinet
Belt leather (an old belt would work for this project.)
Punch pliers
Tape measure
Craft knife
Stainless steel screw nuts, (4)

Step 1

Measure a 5-inch long length of leather strap (or an old belt if you have one you don't mind cutting up.) Cut using a sharp craft knife or box cutter.

Caroline Burke

Repeat until you have four 5-inch pieces in total.

Green cutting mate with 4 identical strips of leather.

Caroline Burke

Step 2

Take the punch pliers and punch a hole at each end of the leather.

Metal punch pliers making a hole in tan leather

Caroline Burke

Repeat on all four pieces.

Hand holding piece of tan leather with a hole punched at each end.

Caroline Burke

Step 3

Remove the standard handles from the Hemnes cabinet. Keep the metal bolt that comes with each handle because you'll use it in the next step.

(Note: you can also spray paint the metal bolt black for an extra design element.)

Hand holding metal bolt and black IKEA door handle.

Caroline Burke

Step 4

Take a leather strap and fold it in half. Thread the bolt through the holes, then push the bolt through the existing hole where the old handle was on the Hemnes cabinet.