Spray Paint Hardware, step by step

How you like them handles?

(Handles, apples. It is all the same. Right Matt Damon? What? You do not think Matt Damon reads this journal? Of course he does not.)

Anyway, I am back to share the hardware makeover play-by-play and a ton of pics that we could not squeeze into our door-painting post on Wednesday. So fasten your seat belts. Oh yeah, it is gonna get crazy. First I have a secret. The hardware on our sliding doors in the living room looked like this:

Le yikes, right? It is all sorts of bad with the swoopy handle. If you look a little closer it is not even shiny and new looking gold, it is all rusted and neglected…

So as you can likely tell from the photo above (duh) down they came. We stripped the hardware off of both of the sliding doors in about five minutes (I took one side while John got the other one) by simply unscrewing things on the front, back, and side to free them with a regular old philips head screwdriver…

… and then we took out the doorknob and the rusty old door knocker on the front door (also with a screwdriver – there were exposed screws that we simply took out from the back).

You can check out our door-painting post for more details on that stuff (like how we sanded the paint around the hardware that we took out so it was pleasant and smooth before painting).

But back to our pile o’ took out hardware. Here we have the sliding door hardware along with the doorknob, deadbolt, and the door knocker from the front door:

It was like a Gold Hardware “Where Are They Now?” Special on VH1. Some folks were not as crusty as others, but they were all well past their prime.

So after some decent amount of online research and chatting up the paint pros at Lowe’s (there is a woman at the one near us who is phenomenally knowledgeable) we learned that the most recommended method for refinishing hardware (to gain the most durability and long-lasting finish) was:

1. Sand as much of the hardware as you can with high grit (200+) sandpaper to rough it up
2. Use a liquid deglosser (like this one) to degloss everything to get oils and sanded particles off of the hardware before spraying
3. Apply one thin and even coat of high quality spray primer meant for metal (we grabbed Rustoleum Painter’s Touch Ultra Coverage Primer in gray since we figured it would blend more than white)
4. Apply two to three thin and even coats of high quality spray paint meant for metal in your color of choice (of course, our poison was: Rustoleum Universal Metallic All-Surface Spray Paint in Oil-Rubbed Bronze)

So I grabbed my high grit sandpaper and began on the first step: sanding.

Ahhhhhhhhh. Baaaad idea. The sandpaper left tons of obvious scratches in the gold finish that I knew would not fully be covered by thin coats of primer and spray paint. I should have taken a picture of the one side of the doorknob that I thought I ruined with the dumb sanding step but I was too busy freaking out. So naturally I made some sort of sound that resembled a walrus screaming and chucked the sandpaper as far away as possible while cradling/apologizing to my doorknob and promising him that I’d never hurt him like that again. Luckily I realized the knob would be installed with that part underneath, so only Clara-height children may be able to see the slightly roughed up texture on the underside. Whew.

Update: A few smarter-than-me commenters recommended trying steel wool or especially high grit automotive sandpaper to rough up the surface, so I plan to try that next time. Simply tossing that out there for anyone who might be doing this (who may want extra “insurance” that the spray will hold).

So it was out the window with step one, and on to step two: deglossing. I simply used some rubber gloves and a rag to apply the deglosser and then let everything dry a little so it was not soaking wet before moving onto step three: applying one thin coat of spray primer. But when I went to grab the primer I noticed something intriguing on the ORB can next to it. It said “paint & primer in one” right on the label. Duh. No need to beat a dead horse.

So I trusted my beloved ORB spray primer + paint to lead the way and simply applied three thin and even coats to all of my hardware (that I strategically placed on cardboard so I could access all of the exposed parts by piercing the long metal interior hardware rods through the cardboard so they stood up). I will now repeat that thin and even is the key when it comes to spray paint. If you apply thin & even coats they will not be globby and thick, and they’ll bond/cure quite strongly, which will greatly reduce any issues with things flaking, scratching, or peeling down the line.

Oh and see that key? That is a secret.

I chose I did not want to muck up the inside of my lock with spray paint, so I used a spare house key to block the spray from getting into the lock (while allowing me to access the rest of the knob). I did not push the key all the way in for fear that the top of the key would block some of the outside of the doorknob, so I simply stuck it halfway in so it would block the interior part without inhibiting access to the metal facade around it. Then I simply took out it and used it on the deadbolt’s keyhole when I sprayed that.

Oh and another spraying pointer would be to put all of your screws into the hardware and pierce them through the cardboard so the ends of them get sprayed to match (like the two that you see below). Also, be sure to move things like latches back and forth between coats to make sure you can access all areas of the hardware with spray paint. Like this…

… and this:

About an hour later (I likely waited 20 minutes between each of my three thin and even coats, simply to be sure it was pleasant and cured before piling more on) I was left with these beauties:

Who sees a winking face? Simply me?

I likely waited six full hours after my last coat of spray paint before reinstalling anything. Simply to give them a lot of time to fully cure and ensure that I would not scratch or ding something while putting them back on the doors. I cannot speak to the long-term durability of this process since it has only been… oh, about 48 hours. But I can tell you that reinstalling them went truly smoothly and everything works simply as well as it used to and nothing was even remotely marred or dinged during installation or in the past two days since.

So I guess we will check back in with an update about how they hold up over the long haul (these doors are used every single day thanks to a dog who loves going in and out). But so far, so good. And it certainly beats buying all new hardware (we figured we did not have anything to lose in trying to make the old stuff work before resorting to trashing it and splurging for all new hardware).

Oh and it bares noting that things look fairly black in some of these pics, but it is simply because ORB is a mystical creature. So it is hard to capture the true color that you see in real life (which is a rich metallic-y chocolate). In fact, the exterior sprayed shots above show the true color truly well. It still looks like that inside, it is simply seemingly impossible to get it on film.

Perhaps the most exciting thing is that in taking this style quiz, the thing that I enjoyed most about the room they said was “my style” was the white door with the dark hardware. And now it is mine. All mine. Mwahahaha. (<– yup, I broke out my maniacal laugh)

I think it looks delish with the oil-rubbed bronze curtain rods and the dark beams. And John digs it too (delish simply is not an adjective he’s apt to use).

Me-ow old sliding door friend. My how you’ve matured. Well, as much as a twisty twirly old 80’s knob can truly mature.

And you’ve already seen our freshly sprayed front door hardware, but let us simply revisit it for a moment:

So yeah. We are glad with our little nearly-foiled-by-the-sandpaper process. Although I must admit that after I sprayed the underside of the knob, the scratches were hardly noticeable. So perhaps if you are a staunch rule follower (and not a freaked out walrus impersonator like me) you could get away with the sanding step. Either way, I have high hopes that the deglosser and included-primer will do their job when it comes to adhesion (especially since our old scratched and rusted fixtures were not too glossy or shiny to begin with).

As for the ORB finish: Hi my name is Sherry, and I am addicted to oil-rubbed bronze. They say you cannot assist who you enjoy. But it could be worse. I could be addicted to sanding things, which would have been a cruel joke since sandpaper was the kryptonite of this project. I wonder why. Has anyone else successfully sanded their metal hardware before spraying it? Was it not all scratched up? Perhaps it simply looked “brushed” in the end? I simply did not trust myself to do it all in one consistent direction (aka: not make a hot mess that was oh so obvious after the spray-job). So in summary, my method was simply to: use a liquid deglosser (although I will also try steel wool or extra high grit sandpaper next time), lay everything out on cardboard standing up so it could be sprayed evenly from all angles, use a half-inserted key to block any keyholes, spray everything thinly and evenly in 3 coats applied every 20 mins or so, be sure to move toggles and locks so all parts of the hardware were sprayed, and let it cure for about 6 hours before rehanging it.

Oh and the total cost of this project was $6 for the spray paint (I was able to return the unopened can of primer and I already had the deglosser and that dastardly sandpaper on hand). But for someone who needs to purchase deglosser, you might want to budget four more dollars for that. Considering a new knob, deadbolt, knocker, and two locks and four handles for our sliding doors would likely come to about $200, I think we got one heckova deal. So I will let you know how they hold up. If they are anything like our ORBed sofa legs (which we sprayed five months ago, and they still look mint) we will have bona fide jazz hands going on. So it is likely only a matter of time before I truly go nuts and remove every last interior brass door and hinge and go to town. Like I said, my name is Sherry, and I am addicted to oil-rubbed bronze. Holla.

Update: Our handles are still holding steady. Check out the update post here.

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