Updating Knobs Throughout The Home

So, when we moved into our house 2 1/2 years ago, I hardly noticed, or even cared that every knob and hinge thoughout the home was BRIGHT. BRASS. GOLD. Over time, I just felt like I was being blinded by the blazing sun of 1990's home decor.

Time for a change.

Honestly, I didn't think updating every knob and hinge throughout our three story (yes, counting the basement) home was going to happen anytime soon. I mean, it's quite the pricey endeavor to buy all those brand new! A new front door knob system that I was eyeballing at Menards was about $70...not with hinges. Ouch. It was always something I had in my mind to do in the future, but just, let the dream go a bit.

A few weeks later I found this on Pinterest:

"Paint all the shiny brass knobs with Rustoleum Oil Rubbed bronze spray. EASY WAY TO UPDATE YOUR HOME!"

What?! You mean I can paint those?! It's genius, yet so obvious to where I'm surprised that myself, or my super handy husband didn't think of this simple solution. And now, the project was on!

Here is what we bought:

The Rust-Oleum Oil Rubbed Bronze was the exact suggestion, even down to color, that was on Pinterest. We ended up going through about 2 cans of that Rust-Oleum Primer, and about 3 cans for the paint.

This was definitely a bigger project than I had anticipated. Every knob and hinge set had to be labeled so that they would go back on the doors correctly. My husband pointed out that even though the doors and hinges appear to be the same, it's a bad idea to mix them up as they might not go back together as smoothly. Who knew? Glad he was here for that tid bit of information because I would have just taken all the knobs and hinges off of one floor, paint them all, and attempt to put them all back on. Most likely would have ended in disaster. And trust me, I did mix up a couple hinges....IT MATTERS. So, if you are going to do this project, make sure your organized with keeping everything in order and numbered!

The actual painting of the knobs was the biggest pain in my ass most difficult part. We wanted to be able to spray the whole knob at once, as opposed to spray one side, then turn it over and spray the other side; risking, scuffs and paint lines. So propping those bad boys up was a challenge - a rod of sorts (notice my technical door knob vocabulary is weak), sticks out the bottom of the knob, making it so you can just sit it face up and paint. If you've ever taken a knob off of a door, you know what I mean hopefully. And really, that was probably the worst part of it, but once we got a system down of propping them up on a long screw that was attached to a board, we were doing okay.

It took a couple weeks to complete this project. Mostly because we only really worked on this on the weekends, plus chasing a baby and other things. But here are a couple pictures of our knobs and hinges after we completed the whole house.

Please ignore how badly this door needs painted....

We think it turned out great!

If there is one thing that I am worried about however is that the paint does actually scratch off if given enough resistance. Luckily, we've had our knobs and hinges painted for over a month now and even with a little munchkin and frequent travel through doors, we haven't seen much issue yet. Honestly, I think that what would scratch the paint off would be more of a freak encounter than anything. For example, the scratches we've seen so far was a result of not having some sort of bumper system that kept a door from opening into a banister. What can you expect though in that situation right?

In the end, totally work the work to save all that money!!! We MAYBE spent $20 on the paint and primer. If you remember how much I was almost willing to spend on JUST the door knob to the front door, you can see how worth it all the work really is.

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Have a great weekend!!