My Frugal Adventures

Simple recipes, DIY and inspiration to make everyday a little more fun

  • Home
  • Travel
  • Recipes
  • Crafts + DIY
  • Shopping
  • Home Decor
  • Shop My Favorites

Cheap & Easy Home Improvement Tip: Custom Painted Doorknobs

10/30/2013 By Charlene 6 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links, please see my disclosure policy.

How to update old door knobs

So here is another project we did a little while back that was cheap and easy.  I am going to break this all down for you so you can decide if it is a good choice for your home- plus some directions on how to do it.

Do you have gross brass doorknobs?  Or maybe some other style of doorknob that just doesn’t suit your home?  Well you can fix that for about $4 with just a can of spray paint!

We have disgusting brass door knobs that I hate.  Our home is from the mid-90’s and since we bought it I have been on a mission to tame the brass fixture and oak wood beast. (Curse you 1990’s!)

How to update old door knobs

When we bought the home we had a shoestring budget for repairs and one of the first things I did was spray paint the outdoor lighting from brass to a brushed chrome color.  It turned out ok (certainly better then before) and so when my husband started talking about replacing doorknobs I immediately thought to try painting them.

We counted all the doors and hit the home improvement store and discovered it would be about $250 total for new door knobs throughout the house.  BOO!

And you might be thinking- well who noticed doorknobs anyway so who cares?  But actually this is one of those little details that will really update a home.

I think you might be surprised at what a difference this does make.

How to update old door knobs

So off to the Home Depot and we found about 8 zillion metal tones of Rust-oleum spray paint.  I settled on a Brushed Chrome color that matches the rest of our lighting fixtures and we spent about $4.99 for the can.

how to paint doorknobs

Next is just the tedious part.  You need to yank those doors down one by one, remove the hinges, spray paint (we did two coats) and then put it all back together.

  • If you want to do this the right way, you will want to remove all the hinges and the door knobs and sand them lightly.
  • Next use a primer spray paint for your first coat.
  • Third use your Rust-oleum spray paint- you will likely need 2 coats.

We started the project without primer and then when we got our refill can of spray paint halfway through the project the Home Depot guy asked if we needed primer too.  (Doh!)

So we went ahead and finished without primer but considering how tedious this project is, I would definitely do it right the first time and grab the primer too :).

You might find a system to keep track of which hinges and knobs go to which door.  My husband had some sort of secret code written on the boxes to keep track of what hardware went to what door.

How to Spray Paint Doorknobs

One last little tip is that the hinges are sold separately at the home improvement stores.  The hinges are where the most scratches and little dings will likely occur so if you want to invest just a little bit of money you can always buy those and then spray paint the actual knobs only to match.

We just went ahead and spray painted all the hardware.  If we need to replace these door jam things in the future due to scratches and chipped paint that is really something that would only take minutes to do.

how to paint a doorknob

So far ours have held up really well!  I figure it is worth it to try the $5 fix before we drop a whopping $250.  We used (2) cans of paint and made it through 12 doors total.

So for us, this project was definitely worthwhile and I hope you consider doing this in your own home!

Oh and you might consider a site supervisor to oversee the project.  Our construction foreman works pretty inexpensively (we mostly pay in biscuits and trips to the park) and he definitely kept things running on time and on budget.

How to update old door knobs

 

And I hope you will consider following my DIY Tips and Cleaning Ideas Pinterest board for more little tips like this.

DIY Garage Door Upgrade

And here is a nifty little garage door upgrade you might tackle for about $20!  

Filed Under: Crafts and DIY Ideas Tagged With: how to paint old door knobs, how to spray paint door knobs

« Reminder: Halloween Freebies and Deals
Free Lipton K-Cup Sample Pack (CA Residents Only) »

Comments

  1. Wendy says

    10/30/2013 at 3:03 PM

    Your construction foreman is the cutest one EVER! I’d hire him 😉 and I agree, some people may think doorknobs don’t matter too much but my hubby and I changed ours too when we moved into our home… big difference. Thanks for posting the tips!

  2. Charlene says

    10/30/2013 at 8:11 PM

    Thanks Wendy!

  3. Northwest Arkansas Homes says

    11/05/2013 at 12:01 AM

    Simple changes in our home can really make a big difference, especially while spending not much.. Also, I must agree that your foreman is sooo cute.

  4. melanie says

    03/21/2014 at 2:04 PM

    How the painted door knobs holding up? I’ve been reluctant to paint them because I fear they would chip with continual use.

  5. Charlene says

    03/21/2014 at 2:07 PM

    Melanie- I have not found one single chip. I have been really surprised. Our children are hardly careful when it comes to the house but not one single chip so far.

Trackbacks

  1. 7 Tutorials: Easy DIY Weekend Projects | Kerry Angelos says:
    09/25/2015 at 12:36 AM

    […] […]

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

I'm Charlene- thank you for stopping by MY FRUGAL ADVENTURES! I am a Mom to two little girls living in gorgeous Northern California. This is a fun place to find simple & affordable inspiration for everything from gifts to home improvement to travel to children's crafts to what's for dinner tonight! READ MORE >>>

ABOUT | CONTACT
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Instagram YouTube Email

Search

Categories

Button

Connect

get free MyFrugalAdventures.com newsletters Contact My Frugal Adventures Follow MyFrugalAdventures.com on Facebook
Twitter You Tube Videos by MyFrugalAdventures.com Follow pinterest with MyFrugalAdventures.com
    Coupons freebies hot deals giveaways giveaways giveaways
Visit Charlene Haugsven (My Frugal Adventures)'s profile on Pinterest.

Follow Me on Instagram

[instagram-feed]

Copyright © 2023 · Web Design by Moritz Fine Designs LLC | Privacy