How do you like those handles?
(Handles, apples — same thing, right Matt Damon? What, you don’t think Matt Damon reads this blog? Of course he doesn’t.)
I’m back with a hardware makeover play-by-play and plenty of photos we didn’t fit into our door-painting post earlier this week. So buckle up — this one has a few twists. First, here’s the before shot of our sliding door hardware in the living room:
Yikes. The swoopy handle was past its prime and, on closer look, it wasn’t even shiny new gold — it was rusty and neglected.
We removed the hardware from both sliding doors in about five minutes — one of us did each door — using a regular Philips head screwdriver to take out the exposed screws on the front, back, and side.
We also removed the doorknob and the rusty door knocker on the front door the same way, by taking out the screws from the back.
For more on prepping around removed hardware and painting the door, check out our door-painting post. Once everything was off, this was our pile of hardware — sliding door handles, doorknob, deadbolt, and knocker:
Some pieces weren’t as crusty as others, but none of them were in great shape. After researching options and talking with paint pros at our local Lowe’s, we learned the most recommended method for refinishing hardware when durability matters was to:
- Rough the surface with high-grit sandpaper (200+ grit).
- Use a liquid deglosser to remove oils and sanding residue before painting.
- Apply one thin, even coat of metal primer.
- Finish with two to three thin, even coats of spray paint designed for metal.
I started with sanding. Rookie mistake: the sandpaper left visible scratches in the finish that I worried thin coats of primer and paint wouldn’t hide. I panicked, tossed the sandpaper, and decided to skip aggressive sanding for most pieces. Note: several commenters later recommended steel wool or very high-grit automotive sandpaper if you want extra assurance that the paint will adhere without leaving obvious scratches.
Next was deglossing. Wearing gloves, I wiped each piece with a deglosser and let them dry slightly before painting. When I reached for primer, I noticed the oil-rubbed bronze spray can we’d chosen was labeled “paint & primer in one,” so I used that instead of a separate primer.
I applied three thin, even coats of the paint-and-primer spray. To make spraying easier and ensure all sides were covered, I stood parts up by piercing long interior rods and screws through cardboard so they were accessible from all angles. Thin, even coats are the key — they help avoid a globby finish and improve adhesion and curing, which reduces flaking and chipping later.
I didn’t want paint inside the locks, so I used a spare house key partially inserted into each keyhole to block the spray while leaving the outside of the knob accessible. That worked well and kept the interior mechanism clean.
Another helpful tip: put screws back into their hardware and pierce the screw heads through the cardboard so they get painted too. Move latches and bolts between coats so each side gets even coverage.
About an hour after the last coat — allowing roughly 20 minutes between coats — the hardware looked like this:
I waited about six full hours after the final coat before reinstalling everything to ensure a good cure and avoid dings while handling. It’s only been a couple of days, so I can’t yet speak to long-term durability, but reinstalling was smooth and everything works as it did before with no visible damage.
We’ll update once the hardware has seen more real-world wear (our dog goes in and out all day), but so far it’s holding up and clearly beats replacing every piece. The oil-rubbed bronze finish can look almost black in some photos, but in person it’s a rich metallic chocolate tone — the exterior shots show the color more accurately.
One fun outcome: a style quiz we took flagged a white door with dark hardware as my favorite look. Now that’s exactly what we have. I love how it pairs with our oil-rubbed bronze curtain rods and dark ceiling beams — John likes it too, even if he wouldn’t use the word “delish.”
And here are the freshly sprayed front door pieces again for good measure:
To summarize my approach: use a liquid deglosser (or consider steel wool/high-grit sandpaper if you want extra adhesion), arrange pieces upright on cardboard so they’re accessible from all angles, insert a key halfway into keyholes to protect interiors, spray three thin coats about 20 minutes apart, move latches between coats, and allow several hours to cure before reinstalling.
The total cost for our project was about $6 for the spray paint — I returned an unopened primer can and already had the deglosser and sandpaper on hand. Buying all new hardware for these doors would have run roughly $200, so this was a great budget-friendly solution. We’ll report back on long-term wear, but if these perform anything like our spray-painted sofa legs (still looking great after five months), we’ll be thrilled.
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