Knob Snob

by Heathered Nest

$20

1 Day

Medium

I'm not that girl who's got a Louie on her arm. Prada? I have nada. I don't wear expensive jewelry, and the minivan I drive, well, that's certainly not doing a blasted thing to elevate my status, either, I suppose. I'm no Snooty Sally when it comes to a lot of things, but I do have my issues, I certainly confess. Such as?
Door hardware.
I'm a knob snob.
My husband and I have moved in and out of 5 homes in less than a decade. And in each new pad, I've changed out EVERY. SINGLE. DOOR KNOB.
Here's the typical knobs we had all over our current house.

knob snob, doors, painting, repurposing upcycling

Completely functional. Just very, well, brassy.

Perhaps this disdain for brass stems from the past...a dark, dark time in my life known as junior high. A time when everything "cool" looked kinda like this...

(Original Image from www.loveMaegan.com (Meaghan Tintari) via Wikimedia Commons)

YES. Brassy hair, brassy jewelry, songs about monkeys that were brass...and we dug it. But junior high sucked, in all honesty. And as such, I DON'T DO BRASSY.

But enough teenage self-psychoanalysis. Back to door knobs and the impending sticker shock.

Let's do an exercise together. No sit down, it's not THAT kind of exercise. Google "oil rubbed bronze doorknob". I'll wait. Now check the stats. Do you see those digits? YES, that's $10-15 PER KNOB.

We needed 42 knobs in our house. Anyone remember how to do multiplication? Me either. Let's break out those fancy calculator apps.

$10/knob x 42 knobs = $420

Just a reminder here. We're talking boring, shmoring old door knobs, folks. FOUR HUNDRED DOLLARS for something that's sole purpose is to let me in and out of the loo! That's crazy talk. And I don't care if you've got one doorknob or a hundred doorknobs...we're still sinking WAY too much cheddar into silly door hardware.

Instead, I have a proposition. We're gonna paint those suckers.

But isn't this just putting "lipstick on a pig?" I hear you question. Yup, sure is. I like lipstick. And lipstick is undoubtedly cheaper than a new pig. I am, afterall, a very cheap knob snob.

So, for about $20 worth of paint (we used THIS kind of paint),

I updated 42 doorknobs in our home. They aren't perfect, but all in all, I think it's a vast improvement from where we started. That brass will no longer darken our doors.

If you think this may be something you want to try, head over to the blog, for all the nitty gritty details and tips we learned along the way.

With just a little paint, you can shut the doors on the brassy 1980's, and step into a classy 2015.

And I, for one, am quite happy to leave all that brassy, teenage, angst-ridden yuckiness where it belongs. In the past.

Thanks for stopping in, and come and visit again, anytime. We'll leave the door(knobs) open for ya!

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3 of 88 comments

Betty Sides on Apr 12, 2015
I agree you had a great idea! I hate brass anything....with the silver-pewter era, I think that is what I will do. I'd like to use the glass knobs from yesteryear, but they, to are too expensive! I think I will check out what they would look like if I paint them a beautiful color! Keep you fun messages coming, so enjoyable. Meet on Facebook, I agree can't have too many friends!

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Cheryl Peters on May 07, 2015
nice humorous post...I can so relate as a child of the eighties who also hates anything in brassy gold tones although I believe its making its way back-ughhh, I am going to do this...thank you!

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- Heathered Nest on May 07, 2015
  @Cheryl Peters Agreed...totally coming back...as long as the bangs don't reappear as well, I'm ok with it.
  
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