Need an easy DIY House Upgrade? This is a quick, easy, and super affordable house upgrade – Spray Painted Door Hardware!
We’re in the midst of a major house renovation. We’re also in the midst of one of the largest pandemics the world has ever seen – COVID-19 – which calls for some serious social distancing. When you mix these two life events together, you’ve got yourself a collision of “must-do” projects and an abundance of time. Sounds perfect, right?!
Well, I don’t think “perfect” is the word I would use (we have two toddlers in the house with us), but we have been able to get really focused on our house projects. We were set up to have one heck of a March – from a social standpoint – and then COVID-19 came and upended any activities we planned to do outside of our home or with anyone besides our immediate family.
We’re currently working on interior rebuilding after we moved and added many walls for our addition. We spent last weekend prepping and texturing two large areas of our project – our hallway and our master bedroom.
While the guys were focused on that, I got set up to continue painting our interior doors. And while I had my father-in-law’s commercial-grade paint sprayer on hand (which is such a game-changer, btw!), I decided we might as well give our exterior doors a facelift and create better color cohesion throughout our house.
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you Know How it Goes
And then, of course, that snowballed into me determining that if we’re painting the doors, we better just go ahead and freshen up the door hardware to match the matte black hardware we’re using elsewhere. That’s how all home projects go, right? One thing leads to another and then all of the sudden… well, you know where this goes.
So, I talked Eric into going along with me on this and we got the doors off the frame and then I took all of the hardware off. Now, for us, this is just a band-aid project for right now. We’ll eventually be replacing these doors and the hardware, but this is a great option if you need a quick, easy, and super affordable upgrade.
If you’d like to make this more of a permanent fix, I’d highly recommend you go read this how-to guide from the Remodelaholic blog! It is super in-depth and more of a long-term solution for upgrading your existing hardware. If I need to freshen up hardware in the future, this will be my guide to get it done!
Step 1: Remove Hardware
The first step I’d recommend for this project is to remove all hardware that you want to paint. It’s somewhat invasive and time-consuming, but it’ll make the process so much easier and quicker in the end.
And trust me, it is way more simple than it seems to take your doorknobs and locks off your doors. Simply unscrew the screws and pop off each side of your doorknob. Really, it’s that simple. I did it myself. If I can do it, so can you, friend!
Since I was painting my doors with a paint sprayer anyway, this worked out well for me – we were taking the doors off the hinges anyway.
Pro Tip: As you are taking your hardware off, keep all hardware for each door together in separate bins or areas.
I took a few small bins and placed all hardware (hinges, doorknobs, and screws) for each door in them as I went along. This will make reattaching a breeze and will save you a few marital bickering sessions, I’m sure.
STep 2: Prep Workspace & Hardware
A key strategy I used was to keep all hardware upright as much as possible. Had I spend a bit more time researching or reading the guide I mentioned above, I could have done this even better by using craft foam or a piece of cardboard to brace and hold each item. In fact, I basically had all the right props, I just didn’t think to use them as cleverly – duh!
Sticking the screws into the hinge holes worked really well for me though, and served the purpose just fine for this project. I also labeled the newspaper I propped everything on with which door those items came from.
Step 3: spray Paint the Hardware
Once you’ve got all of your items braced, it’s time to paint them! If you’ve spray-painted anything before, you know that it’s important to shake the can very well before and during painting. It’s also important to stay (and maintain) a good distance away from the object you’re painting – roughly 6-10 inches away.
Keep in mind, it’s much better to do quick, light coats than it is to do heavy coats with spray paint. I struggle with this because I want to make it look perfect the first time around, and worry that if I don’t get a good coat on it won’t look even by the time I’m done. I’m wrong. Do as I say, not as I do. Ha! Use quick and smooth swipes across the object/s you are painting for smooth, non-running paint. I used this Krylon Spray Paint in Matte Black.
I let my hardware sit after the first coat for a good 30+ minutes. The can said it only needed 20 minutes before another coat, but mine didn’t appear to be all the way dried at that point (probably because I went too heavy with that coat…sigh). Once they were dried well, I rotated them a bit to get another angle.
Be sure to look and spray at different angles, especially on the knobs, to make sure you get in all the nooks and crannies. I repeated this process one more time, for a total of three coats. I used the final coat to get any small areas I missed in the first two coats.
If I’m being 100% transparent, I still missed a couple very small, fairly hidden, spots. So, I’d just recommend two things – 1. make sure you have great lighting on your objects and 2. make sure you hit it from every angle.
Step 4: Let Dry
Once you are satisfied with your paint job, I’d recommend letting them rest and dry in place for at least a couple of hours. These are high-touch objects, so the longer you can let them cure and set up, the fewer imperfections you will cause when you go to reinstall them on your doors.
Step 5: Reinstall Your Updated Hardware!
Finally, you can take all of your hardware and reinstall them on your doors! Make sure to keep tabs on which items came from which door. I paid special attention to which way the locks turn on our doors to “unlock/lock” so that they are the exact way they were before. I think I got our deadbolt wrong, but other than that, everything is the same!
All in all, this project took me about 2 hours total. I was also painting my doors in conjunction with this, so I’m sure it wouldn’t even take that long if you were only doing your hardware.
House Upgrade: Spray Painted Door Hardware
I love the updated look this gives our exterior doors! This house upgrade – spray painted door hardware, was definitely worth the time and effort. It’s been a great way to test out my fairly new-to-DIY skills, and it also pacifies my “let’s-update-everything-right-now-because-we’re-in-a-house-renovation-so-why-not” urges. haha!
I’m happy I thought to do this while we had our doors off the hinges to paint anyway. It was a very easy project that I could complete on my own. It’s also a great starter DIY project to get your toes wet! What was your first DIY project? Have you updated your hardware in your home? Tell me about it below in the comments!
To the Chaos!
-MG
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