Unhinged: A DIY Tale

If you have an old home you'll love the charm that comes with the house.  There are bad things that come along with old homes, too.  Like rust and grime from things being old.  This was true for our indoor door hardware.  I'm pretty sure our door hardware had never been cleaned or taken care of since 1926 when it was installed.  However, there is still potential before spending tons of money on brand new hardware!

HINGE PINS

The hinge pins had a black grime coating because of time.  I solved this with a little cleaning!  Bar Keepers Friend and an SOS steel wool pad brought the hinges back to their former glory.

HINGE HARDWARE

The actual hinge hardware was mostly painted on by a sloppy painter.  There's two solutions to strip the paint.  

1.   Take the hardware off and soak in a crock-pot with some liquid soap. 

2.   Take a flat razor blade and scrape the paint off.

After each of these options, the hardware will need to be cleaned which can be done the same way as the hinge pins.

Before:

After:

  

DOOR KNOBS

The decorative door knob plates were discolored and rusting but the actual crystal style knobs were just fine!  

Since the hardware could not be restored to it's former glory, the remedy (without buying brand new) is to give the hardware some new color:

1.   Strip any paint on knobs/hardware (as explained above).

2.   Sand the metal with a lower-grade grit sandpaper (100 grit is my choice).

3.   Tape up the crystal knob so it will not get sprayed with paint.  

4.   ***Tape up the threads so the knobs will still screw together correctly OR just screw knobs together before spray painting.  Both will achieve the goal of not getting any paint on the threads.***

5.   Spray paint! 

• Since some of the pieces were rusting, first I used Rustoleum Rusty Metal Primer as a base coat.  
• Next, I used a hammered silver spray paint to go with the gray theme throughout the house.  I personally think darker colors which imitate an oil-rubbed bronze finish look amazing.

Before:

Spray paint:

After:

And PLEASE, if your door ever needs painting, do yourself a huge favor and take off the hardware before painting or make sure your hired painter does it for you!  The end result is worth the little extra effort.  (The same applies for electrical outlet covers when painting a wall )