What a busy week! Unfortunately it was a week busy with nonhome projects for me. Even though I love it, I don't normally work very often outside of the home, but this week was a little different and that meant I didn't get a whole lot done here. We're almost finished with the bathroom. We're putting up some crown molding this weekend and I have one panel to poly for the vanity and one wall to finish decorating and then its D.O.N.E.! So far, I love it!
Since I don't have anything I am currently working on, I thought I'd show you some doorknobs I spray painted last year. When we moved into our home 2 1/2 years ago, we had shiny brass doorknobs on all the doors. Since it would be quite expensive to replace them all and we had a ginormous list of other things to spend our money on (who doesn't, right?), I wanted to try to spray paint them.
So, here they are before:
And here they are after, in ORB:
Lovely, isn't it?
To do it, I sanded the old finish very thoroughly, sprayed primer on them and then used Rustoleum's ORB. Finally, I sprayed a clear coat on them and waited a day before reinstalling them. The whole process was very easy.
Here is where the big *sigh* comes in....a year later, they have not held up well. :(
Honestly, they still look better now than before (for the most part), but they are not holding up to the wear and tear at all. The smaller knobs on our closet doors where we just use the tips of our fingers to open them are doing ok, but the larger lever doorknobs where we use our whole hand to open them are not.
Looking back, I probably didn't let the knobs cure long enough before we put them back on. Also, I used a primer, but not a primer specifically for metal. Finally, I was probably too heavy handed (although I did do it without any drips anywhere) with the spray paint. I'm disappointed, but I think I am just going to cut out a backdrop for the knobs and just keep a can of paint on hand to do touchups every so often, with them right there on the door. I still need to do my upstairs, so I am curious if I see any difference when I correct some of my errors from the first go around. Truly though, I have a feeling I am going to be replacing these babies with the real thing one by one sometime in the future. Maybe (or probably more than likely) I won't even attempt to to spray the upstairs knobs. We'll see when the time comes. From a little googling and talking to other people, it sounds like my experience isn't an isolated thing, unfortunately.
How about you? Have you tried spray painting your doorknobs? How have they help up? I'd love to hear about your experience...or if you have a favorite uncle who works in the doorknob industry and is looking for a poor soul to take pity on by donating, say 17 sets, not including closets to, I'd love to hear from you as well!...What? A girl can dream, can't she?
Have a fabulous weekend!!
Jodi - brass was so "in" at one time and now it seems that many of us are on the hunt to get rid of it! While I haven't tackled our knobs yet, I have been methodically removing those generic brass ceiling lights and spray painting them white. I also got rid of the brass around the fireplace in my old home and spray painted it black - huge difference!
ReplyDeleteI used steel wool to rough up the surface, then spray painted them (no clear sealant). The lights don't come into daily contact with hands or anything, so I never had the chipping problem. I hope there is someone out there who does have a solution for you!
I have not tried this....but I think they do look pretty good, especailly after a year. I'll be curious to see if anyone else has tried this and what their outcome has been. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteThat's too bad. I think I told you we have the brass too. I hate it! In due time!!!
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