I painted two door knobs in my house. Before I did it I got expert opinions on the right way...
Learn how to spray paint door knobs and handles the easiest way ever with this simple little trick! Best Part? NO sanding involved!
5 minute Anthropologie knobs knockoff: free printable designs & best secret to make $1 DIY cabinet & drawer knobs look beautiful & expensive! SO easy!
Who knew you could make your own awesome door knobs? I ordered some epoxy resin for a table that I was making, it was so much cheaper to buy a large bottle and now I have some left over to play around with. And making door knobs came to mind. #diyhomedeco
We had a variety of old picture frames and doorknobs in our attic. I wanted to make something that was unique and yet functional. I just love the variety of shapes and textures these old frames have. If you don’t have old picture frames, check out your local thrift store. I also think vintage doorknobs…
Flat to Fabulous: a dull door is transformed to a vintage tongue and groove look on a tiny budget! This hollow core door makeover is easy and affordable and looks lovely. Perfect for a cottage or farmhouse style room. Paired with a beautiful modern doorknob set for contrast the look is subtle yet interesting! #cottagedecor #farmhousedecor #diy #howto #homeprojects
Do you want the easiest way to upgrade your brass knobs? In this post you'll find the best spray paint to get new hardware in no time!
Three years ago, we moved into our house, a 1970's fixer-upper. I'm sure people thought I was crazy to take on the renovation of an older home. I had a very limited budget, and I had never done any sort of home improvement or home remodeling in my life. I knew that the only way I was going to make our old house look the way I wanted it to was to learn to do things myself. Since our budget was basically nonexistent, I knew I would have to work with what I already had. And so that's what I've spent the past few years doing. This post is a collection of my 10 favorite easy DIY ideas. Based on the reader emails I get each month, I know there are tons of you in older homes just like me, trying to figure out ways to improve things. I know how it feels. Not awesome. I was in that daunting place just 3 short years ago. The good news is that YOU can do what I've done. It just takes a little willingness to learn. And the ability to block out all of the people telling you not to paint something. So, here are my top 10 easy solutions to update things you might not like about your house, most of which involve paint Because when you need low-cost, high-impact results, paint is your best friend. #1. Paint Your Trim We'll start off with the one thing that will give you the most bang for your buck. Painting your old wooden trim. I painted my trim, and it completely transformed my entire house. Nothing will make as big of an impact as painting your trim. All you need is paint and a decent amount of patience. There are very few things that will transform an old house like painted trim will, as evidenced by the below picture of the upstairs. Or this picture of the basement. So, yes, I definitely think it's the cheapest way to make a big difference in the overall look and feel of your home. The complete (and very easy) tutorial of how I paint my trim can be found here. #2. Paint Your Tile Did you know you can paint your tile? Well, yep. You can. I had the ugliest tile countertop in our kitchen when we first moved in and it drove me crazy until I finally broke down and painted it. I couldn't afford to knock it out and just get rid of it (which we eventually did during the renovation), so in the meantime this was the perfect solution. I found a special type of paint made just for sinks, tubs, and tile, and it totally lived up to the hype...super durable. My tile painting tutorial is just a few easy steps and can be found here. I think it cost me less than $50 to do this. #3. Paint Your Old Furniture After we moved into our house, I quickly realized that my fantasy of shopping for all brand new furniture was not going to be a reality just yet. I was forced to instead think outside of the box and find inexpensive ways to furnish our home. This totally spawned my thrift store shopping and furniture painting obsession. This french provincial dresser was one of my faves and only cost me $50. The original tutorial can be found here. Another example is this thrift store dresser I painted blue. It's my most viewed post of all time, and I still get readers emailing me pictures of their own versions of this dresser. Never in a million years did I expect that to happen. You can see my top 10 furniture paint projects here. #4. Spray Paint Your Doorknobs If you have tons of outdated 1980's brass doorknobs like me, you can easily update them with spray paint. Using the right spray paint will give you a high-end, durable result. And it's much better than paying $20+ a piece for new knobs! (See more about what paint to use here.) #5. Spray Paint Your Light Fixtures: I love a great light fixture. And our house didn't have a single one. I mean, we had light fixtures, but they were hideous. So, instead, I had Jesse take all of them down and I found some (new to me) old thrift store chandeliers and spray painted them a color I liked. For example, here's an old brass pendant I found for $5 at a local thrift store. And here it is in our office after a few coats of silver spray paint. #6. Paint Your Dirty Tile Grout This one product has totally transformed our floors. I've used it on 3 rooms worth of tile, and it's held up great for a really long time now. It cost me about $10. Original tutorial can be found here. #7. Paint outdated Bathroom Fixtures Rather than spend hundreds of dollars on new bathroom fixtures, I just used this silver spray paint and this metallic paint pen (affiliate links) to completely update our outdated two-toned fixtures. It's still holding up over a year later. You can see more details about that transformation here. #8. Paint the insides of old cabinets I used a quart of this chalkboard paint (affiliate link) to completely update the insides of my kitchen cabinets. They were really disgusting before, and it's made a bigger impact on our little kitchen than anything else we've done. See the full before and afters here. #9. Create an Accent Wall: Adding a fun accent wall is one of my favorite ways to take a room up a notch. For cheap. I did in in our bathroom (seen here) and in our guest bedroom (seen here). #10. Paint your boring old walls! I painted our boring peachy colored walls throughout the entire house. I kept the color palette neutral, but varied the color from room to room. The overall effect is a calm, serene, cohesive looking house! See my favorite neutral paint colors here. And my best paint advice on choosing a paint color here. #11. BONUS!! Update your fireplace! We were blessed with a 1970's gem of a fireplace in our living room, so to make the most of it, we built our own diy mantel for less than $30! It totally upgraded the fireplace and ended up being a super easy project! You can check out the full story here. or you can also paint your fireplace like we did to our fireplace downstairs. See more about that here. So, that's it! Those are my top 10 ways of making the most of what you already have. Thanks for being here. You guys know I appreciate it. 'Til next time, Follow my blog with Subscribe to LiveLoveDIY with email! Enter your email address:
5 minute Anthropologie knobs knockoff: free printable designs & best secret to make $1 DIY cabinet & drawer knobs look beautiful & expensive! SO easy!
In renovating my old home, adding back some historic charm is a priority. Check out how I took my doors from 1980 to 1880 in 10 minutes!
If you know anything about us, then you know we are all about putting the DO in DIY! If it’s overcomplicated then it just doesn’t get done, right? Our IOD Flexi Stamper was created with this in mind. With our Flexi Stamper, Wooden Knobs and our Knob topper Decor Stamps, you are all set to create as many different knob
Flat to Fabulous: a dull door is transformed to a vintage tongue and groove look on a tiny budget! This hollow core door makeover is easy and affordable and looks lovely. Perfect for a cottage or farmhouse style room. Paired with a beautiful modern doorknob set for contrast the look is subtle yet interesting! #cottagedecor #farmhousedecor #diy #howto #homeprojects
chippy dresser makeover with decoupage wooden knobs MyRepurposedLife.com #furniture #makeover #decoupage #knobs
Learn the 6 easy steps for how to paint hardware and make it last. It's easy to update a piece of furniture by giving the hardware a little makeover.
Do you love the look and feel and aura of vintage items...but sometimes get lost in trying to figure out what to actually do with those items? This is a
Painted knobs are a great way to update door hardware on a budget! This tutorial will teach you how to paint your door knobs at home...
5 minute Anthropologie knobs knockoff: free printable designs & best secret to make $1 DIY cabinet & drawer knobs look beautiful & expensive! SO easy!
I’ve shared pictures of this little painted dresser in our nursery several times, but I don’t think I have ever really shared its whole story. This dresser was a freebie that a fellow furniture lover
This post contains affiliate links. Please see my disclosure policy for more info. On my quest to update and upgrade our substandard, boring construction grade home I have now come to a point where the ugly brass door knobs and hinges need to be changed. This is one of the last projects on my list for my son's bathroom renovation (woo hoo!! I'm almost done!!), but ultimately it involves the entire house since eventually I want a brass free home. I hate brass. I can't say it enough. It just oozes cheap, construction grade quality and I want it all gone, like it was never here to begin with. Now I could go out to the store and blow hundreds of dollars on new, beautiful knobs and hinges but we don't have the cash for that. Up-cycling and saving hundreds of dollars is more the style in my household anyway. If it can be done, we will do it. In my $50 Power of Paint Bathroom Reveal I touched on how Cory spray painted the knobs, towel bars and toilet paper holder to look like oil rubbed bronze, but I didn't really delve too deep into the process. Well today I'm going to show you all just how easy it is to change your ugly, out dated knobs, pulls, hinges, (pretty much whatever your heart desires) to look like expensive oil rubbed bronze. All the supplies you need can be picked up at the hardware store except copper craft paint which you can find at a craft store or Amazon. Here's the supplies you will need: Spray Painted Knobs & Hinges Supplies Ugly knobs, hinges, pulls, etc. Rust-oleum metallic Oil Rubbed Bronze spray paint (this is our fave)- $6 Paint deglosser- $6 rag or sponge Metallic acrylic copper colored paint (the color we used is worn penny)-$3 Small detail paintbrush Paper plate for copper paint and knobs to sit on Clear spray paint- $3.50 Screwdriver to remove knobs Containers and/or boxes to degloss knobs and spray paint knobs First things first I removed all the knobs and hinges and other parts from the door that I wanted to spray paint. There are many ways you can "prepare" your metal items for spray paint from sanding to just a wipe down. We chose to use paint deglosser because we wanted the spray paint to have the best possible chance to stick and stay forever. Ok, maybe not forever but it would be a shame if the paint started wearing off just because we were lazy and just wiped off our metal pieces. I used zinsser paint deglosser that was purchased at Menards for about $6. The directions say to scrub your surface with a rag (I used an old scrubby sponge) and then apply a generous amount and let dry for 30 minutes. Pretty easy stuff. After the 30 minutes I simply wiped down all my pieces and headed to the basement to spray paint those puppies in our makeshift spray booth made out of cardboard boxes. Ideally I'd love to spray paint out doors but it's 30 degrees and snowy here right now so the basement will have to do. Although I'm sure I'll still be doing this project come warmer weather since we have about 14 doors to do... My inspiration for my oil rubbed door knobs came from our front door. We purchased an expensive, heavy duty oil rubbed door knob when we first bought our home. Pret-ty nice if I do say so myself. After my knobs and hinges were dry I brought up the knobs to put touches of worn penny paint on. The hinges would be just fine the way they were since I just wanted them to be dark oil rubbed bronze, no need to do anything more with them than to hang the door back up. I gathered my supplies for this part of the project: a paper plate, worn penny paint, the knob and a small detail paintbrush. To start I put a dab of copper paint on the plate and dipped my paintbrush and just barely painted the edges of the lever part of the knob. After I had painted a small section I rubbed the paint with my fingers to soften the look and to fix any "mistakes". I also thought it made the copper parts look more natural, like it had been worn that way instead of just been painted on. When I paint artistically I tend to paint a lot using my fingers so it's only natural that I would use this technique for this project too. I found there is a lot of room for error while I was painting my copper paint. You do not have to make it look absolutely perfect because oil rubbed bronze is worn to look the way it looks. It's not a perfect look. You can go back over parts and use the good old fashioned spit and rub technique if you truly don't like how a section turned out. It's only paint and can be fixed if worse came to worse. Here's a view of all the sections I used the worn penny paint on. I painted both sides of the lever, the stem (where the lever attaches) and the outer rose (section that attaches to the door). This is a picture of the under-side that no one will see unless they were laying on the floor looking up at the doorknob. When you are done putting copper touches on your knob simply spray paint some clear spray paint on the knob to further protect it and to keep that worn penny paint from wearing off. Wait for it to dry and then put it back onto the door from whence it came. Here's a before picture of my brass knobs (as if you could forget). Here's the after. Ahh so much better! Again here is a before, my inspiration knob and an after pic. I am over the moon with the results of my painted doorknobs. They look a million times better (and more expensive) than the ugly, outdated brass doorknobs. This project literally costs around $1 a door since I can reuse the paint and other products on all the other knobs, hinges, strike plates, etc. that I have left to do. So this paint project has saved us hundreds of dollars, but it does take some time. If that's the trade off, it is one I will gladly take. Now to just get the gumption to do all that deglossing and painting 15 more times! Coming up next is an a-door-able post (link here) that I cannot wait to show you all!! I am sooo close to being done with my son's bathroom and this next post is the last project before the big reveal of my first completed room in our home! Until the next time!
Transform old door knobs with spray paint. This tutorial shows you how in three easy steps. As part of my Budget Friendly Hallway Refresh I wanted to do something with the brass door knobs on all the doors in the hallway. Since the word budget friendly was part of this project I decided to spray paint ... Read More about Easily Update Old Door Knobs with Spray Paint
We had a variety of old picture frames and doorknobs in our attic. I wanted to make something that was unique and yet functional. I just love the variety of shapes and textures these old frames have. If you don’t have old picture frames, check out your local thrift store. I also think vintage doorknobs…
Painted knobs are a great way to update door hardware on a budget! This tutorial will teach you how to paint your door knobs at home...
We had a variety of old picture frames and doorknobs in our attic. I wanted to make something that was unique and yet functional. I just love the variety of shapes and textures these old frames have. If you don’t have old picture frames, check out your local thrift store. I also think vintage doorknobs…
Spray Painting Door Knobs on a Budget Does spray painting door knobs last? With this easy tutorial, you'll learn how to spray paint door knobs that are so durable they outlast the house! What if you had an extra $200 to spend on your home? Would you rather spend it on doorknobs or something more exciting
I know door knobs aren’t usually at the top of your “to buy” list, and frankly you probably don’t even notice the ones you have after about a month of living somewhere……
Simple way to fix an antique doorknob vintage mortise lock that won't latch anymore - all you need is a rubber band
Dress up a furniture piece or wall cabinet with coastal nautical knobs and pulls.
Easy step-by step tutorial filled with pictures to help you! How To Install/Replace A Door Knob (for beginners). thetarnishedjewelblog.com
Painted knobs are a great way to update door hardware on a budget! This tutorial will teach you how to paint your door knobs at home...
Spray Painting Door Knobs on a Budget Does spray painting door knobs last? With this easy tutorial, you'll learn how to spray paint door knobs that are so durable they outlast the house! What if you had an extra $200 to spend on your home? Would you rather spend it on doorknobs or something more exciting
Painted knobs are a great way to update door hardware on a budget! This tutorial will teach you how to paint your door knobs at home...
If your drawers could use some dressing up, but basic pulls at home stores aren't what you want, DIY one of these unique drawer pull ideas. It's easy!
Easy step-by step tutorial filled with pictures to help you! How To Install/Replace A Door Knob (for beginners). thetarnishedjewelblog.com
Welcome to my “Spray Painted Door Knob Makeover”…I know, not exactly the most exciting subject I have posted about, but maybe I can liven things up a bit with a funny story. You see, the word “door knob” reminded me of something from my childhood. I was a bit of a rascal in my teen... Read More
It's easier than you think to upgrade your home by replacing the interior door handles. Give your home a new look with updated hardware!
My basement workspace is a mess. Still. I tidy it up. I make some headway in the organization department, and 2 nanoseconds after getting some crazy notion in my tiny brain, the place looks not unlike the epicentre of some horrific crafting disaster. Why do I let this happen? SIGH. So much needs to be...Read More »
Spray Painting Door Knobs on a Budget Does spray painting door knobs last? With this easy tutorial, you'll learn how to spray paint door knobs that are so durable they outlast the house! What if you had an extra $200 to spend on your home? Would you rather spend it on doorknobs or something more exciting
Three years ago, we moved into our house, a 1970's fixer-upper. I'm sure people thought I was crazy to take on the renovation of an older home. I had a very limited budget, and I had never done any sort of home improvement or home remodeling in my life. I knew that the only way I was going to make our old house look the way I wanted it to was to learn to do things myself. Since our budget was basically nonexistent, I knew I would have to work with what I already had. And so that's what I've spent the past few years doing. This post is a collection of my 10 favorite easy DIY ideas. Based on the reader emails I get each month, I know there are tons of you in older homes just like me, trying to figure out ways to improve things. I know how it feels. Not awesome. I was in that daunting place just 3 short years ago. The good news is that YOU can do what I've done. It just takes a little willingness to learn. And the ability to block out all of the people telling you not to paint something. So, here are my top 10 easy solutions to update things you might not like about your house, most of which involve paint Because when you need low-cost, high-impact results, paint is your best friend. #1. Paint Your Trim We'll start off with the one thing that will give you the most bang for your buck. Painting your old wooden trim. I painted my trim, and it completely transformed my entire house. Nothing will make as big of an impact as painting your trim. All you need is paint and a decent amount of patience. There are very few things that will transform an old house like painted trim will, as evidenced by the below picture of the upstairs. Or this picture of the basement. So, yes, I definitely think it's the cheapest way to make a big difference in the overall look and feel of your home. The complete (and very easy) tutorial of how I paint my trim can be found here. #2. Paint Your Tile Did you know you can paint your tile? Well, yep. You can. I had the ugliest tile countertop in our kitchen when we first moved in and it drove me crazy until I finally broke down and painted it. I couldn't afford to knock it out and just get rid of it (which we eventually did during the renovation), so in the meantime this was the perfect solution. I found a special type of paint made just for sinks, tubs, and tile, and it totally lived up to the hype...super durable. My tile painting tutorial is just a few easy steps and can be found here. I think it cost me less than $50 to do this. #3. Paint Your Old Furniture After we moved into our house, I quickly realized that my fantasy of shopping for all brand new furniture was not going to be a reality just yet. I was forced to instead think outside of the box and find inexpensive ways to furnish our home. This totally spawned my thrift store shopping and furniture painting obsession. This french provincial dresser was one of my faves and only cost me $50. The original tutorial can be found here. Another example is this thrift store dresser I painted blue. It's my most viewed post of all time, and I still get readers emailing me pictures of their own versions of this dresser. Never in a million years did I expect that to happen. You can see my top 10 furniture paint projects here. #4. Spray Paint Your Doorknobs If you have tons of outdated 1980's brass doorknobs like me, you can easily update them with spray paint. Using the right spray paint will give you a high-end, durable result. And it's much better than paying $20+ a piece for new knobs! (See more about what paint to use here.) #5. Spray Paint Your Light Fixtures: I love a great light fixture. And our house didn't have a single one. I mean, we had light fixtures, but they were hideous. So, instead, I had Jesse take all of them down and I found some (new to me) old thrift store chandeliers and spray painted them a color I liked. For example, here's an old brass pendant I found for $5 at a local thrift store. And here it is in our office after a few coats of silver spray paint. #6. Paint Your Dirty Tile Grout This one product has totally transformed our floors. I've used it on 3 rooms worth of tile, and it's held up great for a really long time now. It cost me about $10. Original tutorial can be found here. #7. Paint outdated Bathroom Fixtures Rather than spend hundreds of dollars on new bathroom fixtures, I just used this silver spray paint and this metallic paint pen (affiliate links) to completely update our outdated two-toned fixtures. It's still holding up over a year later. You can see more details about that transformation here. #8. Paint the insides of old cabinets I used a quart of this chalkboard paint (affiliate link) to completely update the insides of my kitchen cabinets. They were really disgusting before, and it's made a bigger impact on our little kitchen than anything else we've done. See the full before and afters here. #9. Create an Accent Wall: Adding a fun accent wall is one of my favorite ways to take a room up a notch. For cheap. I did in in our bathroom (seen here) and in our guest bedroom (seen here). #10. Paint your boring old walls! I painted our boring peachy colored walls throughout the entire house. I kept the color palette neutral, but varied the color from room to room. The overall effect is a calm, serene, cohesive looking house! See my favorite neutral paint colors here. And my best paint advice on choosing a paint color here. #11. BONUS!! Update your fireplace! We were blessed with a 1970's gem of a fireplace in our living room, so to make the most of it, we built our own diy mantel for less than $30! It totally upgraded the fireplace and ended up being a super easy project! You can check out the full story here. or you can also paint your fireplace like we did to our fireplace downstairs. See more about that here. So, that's it! Those are my top 10 ways of making the most of what you already have. Thanks for being here. You guys know I appreciate it. 'Til next time, Follow my blog with Subscribe to LiveLoveDIY with email! Enter your email address:
