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.

Painting Interior Casings

So we are in the middle of 1,968,446,354,796,131 remodel projects which means no laying around and sipping iced tea (good thing I don't even like tea).  So to start off this blog nice and slow here is an example of project  #105.....We are the second owners of our 15yr old house, but I don't think that the first owners did anything.....and I mean ANYTHING.  So a quick and cost cuddly project was sanding and painting my door casings.  Not all of the doors were able to go through this process because of damage, but most were ok.  So what I did was sand the wood trim >>side note:  I started this process by hand and then decided to break out the electric sander.  If you are not in the dusting mood then I don't recommend this, but if you want quick results then go for it.<<  Here is the before:

There was no need to sand them down to the bare wood, just rough them up some.  Then I used Kilz oil based primer and OMG that stuff stinks soooo bad!  Then as soon as it dried I applied a super duper white glossy paint over the top and that locked in all the stink.  Much better.

 It took four thin coats of the white paint to make me happy, but I am in love with the results.  Getting rid of the wood trim + replacing them with glossy white = LOVE.  What do you think?  Anyone else out there with an oil based paint headache?

Like to party?  I sure do!  You can find this post along with tons of other great ideas here: http://betweennapsontheporch.blogspot.com/2011/04/scary-hang-ups-welcome-to-117th.html