Monday, April 25, 2011

From Brass to Oil Rubbed Bronze on the Cheap

One of the first things we bought when we moved into our house was all new door handles.  The house had the original builders shiny brass knobs and we were in the market for paddle knobs (My oldest daughter lacks a lot of strength in her hands so paddles are a lot easier for her, plus they look great, win-win).  Of course we chose nice new oil rubbed bronze paddles.  They look great.  However, I have recently been stepping up my projects (more on why it took so long later) and painted the casings around all of my doors (seen in this post) which made my brass hinges stick out like a sore thumb.  So I went to Lowe's to purchase the matching oil rubbed bronze hinges.  Holy Moly Cow....those things were like $8/package.  Seriously??!  $8 x 11 interior doors = $88+tax just for hinges....  Pass.  I went home and decided to try my ORB spray paint that I had and see what happened.  This is what they looked like in their early stages:
So I took them off with my husbands drill... using a screwdriver to do all of the screws would have been way too much for this DIYer... then took them outside and just lightly sanded the hinges, mainly to get any dirt off and slightly rough up any shininess.  Then I stuck each of the screws in a piece of sheetrock that my husband didn't throw away (typical!)....cardboard or foam would have worked just the same.  And then I gave them a spray:

With the hinges make sure you paint both sides.  I learned this the hard way.  I only painted one side...the only side I thought would show....and hung them back up, but when I closed the door the round part where the pin went was still bright brass....so down it all came to do again.  So eventually you will end up with this:


So much better, and since I already had the ORB paint this project cost me $0.00!!!  Total score!  Do you have any free updates that you've done lately?

Like to party?  I sure do!!  This week I partied with Centsational Girl and Between Naps on the Porch check out all the details here or here.

3 comments:

  1. Wow, great job Sarah! Just a little elbow grease and you save some big money and it looks terrific! Thank you also Sarah for your comments on my blog, I'm glad you like the pillows.
    Cheers!
    Cyndy

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  2. Hey Sarah, email me back from your email address, it's not showing up on your emails and I will tell you why I do not think the freehand technique will work. Thanks!
    cYNDY

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  3. Is ORB a name brand? I recently tried to replace the hinges in my older kitchen and couldn't because the cupboards are so close together that new hinges are too wide. My only option was to keep the old nasty brass ones (which I hate) or to get ALL new cupboards (not an option). It would be amazing if this worked!

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