Spray Painted Hardware–What Works? What Doesn’t?

Okay, people. Here it is … a follow up to the 'Refurbishing Hardware' blog post, where I spray painted every shred of brass in my house using Rust-Oleum Oil Rubbed Bronze spray paint . Y’all have asked. I have listened … and put off this post simply because it’s a tedious one. However, by far the most frequently asked question(s) is/are: “So … how are the door knobs holding up?” or “So, how’s the shower holding up?”

So.

Here is my detailed response. I have not touched up any of these pictures. There are tricks to saving tons of $$$$ spray painting your door knobs, locks, latches, bathroom fixtures, light fixtures, etc. However, there are things that you DO NOT want to spray paint and it’s better to spend just a little money to replace those with the real thing.

Okay.

Here we go.



First of all … the one thing we noticed very quickly was that the catch/latch on all of our doors quickly looked like this, after opening/shutting the doors a few times:



See that little brass strip? Yeah. Not a huge deal. In my opinion, it’s still way better than the whole thing being brass. HOWEVER. There is a very simple and inexpensive fix for this.

Behold:



Home Depot sells packages of JUST the door latches!!!!! They come in packs of 2 … and I think they were $2.48. Do yourself a favor. Buy one for every door latch. At around a dollar each, I promise, it is money well spent.

See?



Bam. No more annoying strip of brass. Easy Peasy.

Next, all but two of my bedroom/bathroom/closet doors look like this (still, 18 months later):



Still in 100% perfect condition … these door knobs (to inside doors) are absolutely worth spray painting. They hold up well. Zero problems. No complaints. (Saves you around $15-$20 per door knob)

However … the powder bathroom door knob (which gets used about 25x more than the average home’s powder bathroom door knob because I have a preschool in my house) looks like this (Ignore my dirty door … I’m doing you a favor here):



See that little bit of paint wearing off around the lock? Does it bother you? If so … buy a replacement. If you’re like me, this totally doesn’t bother you … because it just looks like it was antiqued. I’m not crazy. I’ve seen it. I’ve seen the ‘real deal’ and lots of those door knobs look slightly antiqued.

Moving on.

Here is my bathroom, today … 18 months after the renovation (thanks for making me clean it!) :



Boom. Still looks the same today as it did 18 months ago.



Was spray painting the cabinets worth it? Absolutely.



Did the sink/bath tub faucet handles hold up? Sure did.



Was all that tedious work of painting the shower trim worth it? AITCH YES, people!!! Best two week project we’ve ever done!!



Are there areas that don’t hold up? Um. Yes. But, pretty much only the shower door handle where it catches when it gets opened and closed. (Please note: just as before, the spray painted shower door handle holds onto soap scum just like it would if it wasn’t spray painted!! BONUS.)



Do I care about that? NOPE. Why? Because you can’t see it when the shower door is closed!! Winning, people!!!

**However, Superman told me that you can buy one of these door handles at Home Depot, in oil rubbed bronze finish, for cheap. Maybe someday I’ll decide it’s worth a few bucks. Who knows?

Okay.

Just keep swimming.

Remember the light fixture out front? This one:



Well. It still looks just like that. Here. Look:



Okay. There’s some dust on it. And a few water spots on the glass. Sue me, people.

This chandelier:



Still looks the same … it just houses a little more dust than it did back then. ;) (I’m too lazy to take a new picture)

How about the light switch plates?

Bam:



Outlet covers?

Boom:



And now, my friends … here is what you will want to spend money actually replacing ………

Front Door Hardware (Please over look the fact that I desperately need to paint my front door/trim. K, thanks.) :



Um. Yeah. With the heavy use (and need for a key), I recommend just spending the money on this one. I found an oil rubbed bronze finished front door hardware set at Home Depot that I liked for only $93. But. It’s still $93. And, my scratched door still works … so … I’m not running out to buy one just yet.



Because …. at the end of the day, I rarely notice anyone else’s front door handles when I go visit them. And if I did notice … I wouldn’t care two seconds if it was a little scraped. And I know y’all love me enough to not care either. Right? ;)



The inside looks the same … except … I have since replaced the little door catch/latch thing. If I cared enough, I might even just touch up the scuffs. But I don’t care, people. Sorry. I just don’t.

And, lastly, the other thing you’ll want to just replace, is the back door hardware:



Especially if your back door is like mine and you have blinds that clank against the door knob every time someone goes in or out. I found a back door hardware package in the right finish for only $53. But. Again. I’m not a big spender. So ….. I’ll wait on it. Because: I just. don’t. care. (I did, however, also replace the little door catch/latch on this one too … because it was a buck. Sometimes I go crazy. ;)

So. Moral of the story?

Don’t paint these:



Just replace them with these:



But, do paint the entire rest of the door knob/hardware set.
DO paint your shower trim, faucet handles, cabinets, light fixtures, outdoor light fixtures, chandeliers, light switch plates, outlet covers … yadda yadda. For added emphasis, I’ll say it again … There are only 3 things I wouldn’t recommend painting (because they don’t look 100% a couple months down the road) and those are: front door, back door, all door latches.

There.

I’m done.

I said my peace.

So glad I got all of that off my chest.

Now, go spray paint something, y’all!!

Twitter

At the request of reader Buffy ……..

I invested the time and figured out Twitter.

Y’all be patient.

I’m like a 93 year old.

Trapped in a 32 year old body.

So.

If you don’t do Facebook.

Or Pinterest.

Or Google Reader (which I hear is sick and dying  … thanks to Buffy – I heard that thanks to Buffy; Buffy didn’t poison Google Reader).

Now you can follow me on Twitter.

Just what we all needed … me to join another time waster.

You’re welcome. :D

Come follow me. 16 other people are doing it … you know you want to. ;)

www.twitter.com/LoisLaneJanette

Building a Raised Garden Bed

Okay. Here’s the deal. I’m not a gardener. I couldn’t keep a plant alive if my life depended on it … but … surprise, surprise, Superman has a green thumb. Add it to the list of EVERYTHING he can do.
So. He’s been wanting a garden for quite a while. And, I’ve put it on the back burner for quite some time because I didn’t want to deal with the preschoolers getting into it. And our kids have been little forever, it seems. But … a week ago, Dude decided he was gonna go for it.
And that’s where the ghetto in this post begins. :D (There’s always a little ghetto in everything I post, isn’t there?)

Our shared fence with our neighbors was ghetto rigged about 6 years ago by our neighbor. (See? We aren’t the only ghetto people in the world!) In an attempt to create an 8 foot fence on a budget, he used these 12”x2”x8’ boards along the bottom of the fence. Not along the entire length of the fence … just along a 30 foot section. We are ghetto people. And because we aren’t the confrontational type, we let it slide. Even after other neighbors we met at the grocery store asked us what was going on with our weird fence. True story.

ANYWAY … Those neighbors, sadly, have since moved out. Their home sits vacant right now … and Gary decided while the other lot was vacant, he would rob the ghetto out of the fence and use those bottom boards to build his garden box. Because if he’s anything at all: he’s resourceful!

And that is where our process begins. If you want to build one like ours, here’s what you’re going to need:

12”x2”x8’ boards
metal corner brackets (pictured below)
old fence pickets for trim and brace support

And … here we go …



Superman started by placing a corner bracket at every corner of each board. If you are doing a garden box that is two boards high, you’ll need 2 corner brackets per board, like this:



Once he had secured all of the corner brackets, he took some old fence pickets (these happen to be cedar), cut them into braces supports, and put a brace for support every 18” or so on the inside of the box. Our garden box is actually two boxes, put together, sharing a middle divider board. Hope that makes sense. Here. Look (at not the next picture, but 2 pictures down):



After he had done all the corner brackets and fence picket supports, he decided to line the inside of the garden box with some heavy duty plastic. We happened to have some in the garage from back in the day when Superman worked in construction. Y’all could use some heavy duty garbage bags. Or painters plastic/drop cloth. Or something like that. It doesn’t have to be fancy, or look nice. It’s all getting covered anyway.



He had to line each side separately, and took advantage of the middle dividing board so he could wrap it around the sides and staple it to the top of the boards. Like this (sorry for the blurry picture):



*** Make sure to line the entire inside of the garden box … it will make a difference in how much water you ultimately end up using.



After both sides were lined with plastic, he decided to trim out the outside of the box. This served two purposes: First and most importantly, it made it look nice. :D And second, it added additional support to the outside of the box. (Sorry for another blurry picture … I’m no photographer, people)



Having brace supports on the inside and outside of the garden box means that the 2,000 lbs of compost and dirt that is about to be dumped into the box won’t warp the box with its weight. He also took the time to trim out the top of the box, which was equally as simple as the brace supports. But, most importantly … it made it look nice. ;)

When he finished the construction, it looked like this:



But. You know my perfectionist Superman can’t leave it like THAT.



All those old fence pickets with worn out stain showing all over? NEVER. Icky. Can’t have that.



So he dug out the extra fence stain (that we ghetto rigged up for cheap) and sprayed it on with his air compressor. And … bingo:



He successfully satisfied both of us: the box is tall enough to keep out bunnies, our silly puppy, most of the preschoolers … and, it makes weeding it much easier on the back. Okay. Those were my requirements. He satisfied all of MY requirements … the poor dude just wanted a garden. He wasn’t picky about how it came to fruition.



Superman is such a rock star. I swear there isn’t anything he can’t do.



And now it’s time for the dirt. We were able to score an awesome deal on compost at our local transfer station (that would be the dump, people). They were selling compost for $18 per cubic yard. A little ghetto rigging of Superman’s truck and he was able to pick up all the compost he needed in 1 trip.



And a whopping $36 later, our giant garden box was filled with dirt. (The ‘whopping’ was a joke, y’all. What a steal!!)



Now, from what we’ve read, we just need to mix in some peat moss and vermiculite and we will be ready to start gardening.



What garden style are we following? Most likely the square foot gardening idea. I like the idea of being told exactly how many of what to plant where. To me, square foot gardening is gardening for dummies. :D



Happy Spring, y’all!! What are you going to plant?!

The jury is still out on exactly what is going in our garden … but, that will be determined VERY soon. Like. Tomorrow.

UPDATE: If you'd like to see what we've planted and check out our progress, go here.