Wow, what a difference! Great idea. I would have probably just bought new hardware. Your cabinets look much more modern now.

Wow is right. It must have been a lot of work taking them all down.

Fantastic!

Very nice results! What product did you use? I'm thinking a Rustoleum spray-on...please share. A friend of mine loves ORB and wants to redo her hardware on a budget. I've used their wrought iron and hammered finishes, but never the ORB.

Very nice!

Please share how you did this. Did you remove the hinges? I want to change out all the doorknobs in my home from shiny brass to polished nickel but I don't want to have to remove the hinges. If your technique will work on my hinges I will be a happy camper!

mrsmarv, I'm not sure what oceanna used, but I've used the Rustoleum ORB on my kitchen hardware and love it. It's a bit darker than a store-bought ORB finish, but it looks very realistic.

I have used the Sophisticated finishes also on the floorlamps I restored. I hadnot thought of using it for door hardware. Once again you are a mistress of creativity. I sure wish you were in the mood to travel to Alabama...c :)

That looks fantastic, what a great update!

Beautifully done!
Clever girl...

It makes it look like a whole new cabinet.

WOW what a difference a little change makes it looks like a totally different cabinet! Did you have to rough up the surface first and were the hinges hard to paint? Great Job!

I'm impressed! I had the same hardware and the white plastic centers had turned dingy yellow. I was lazy and bought all new oil rubbed bronze off ebay. In my case the shiny bronze had been on there 12 years and had faded the oak cabinetry underneath so I was limited in the replacement style. Really updated your cabinets!

Thanks! I love the difference, and I saved a lot of money.

I used Triangle Crafts Sophisticated Finishes - Blackened Bronze Metallic Surfacep (not a typo). I got a 4 oz. bottle from Michaels.

How to do it right: Remove hardware. Sand lightly. Spray with a primer. Paint. Re-attach hardware.

True confessions:
I didn't do it right. I cheated!! I didn't sand. I didn't prime. I didn't remove anything.

I painted the hinges in place with a small artist paint brush, using q-tips to clean up any booboos. I loosened the handles and slid a piece of junk mail under them so I could paint the "foot" without getting paint on the cabinet. Then I went over the dried pieces with a few coats of polyurethane. So I think it will stick just as well as the original surface stuck because of the poly. I can always do touchups, and if I need I can always buy new hardware. But for now, I turned cheap cheesy looking hardware into expensive looking hardware for about... I don't remember ... maybe $3-4.

This is the same thing I did on my worn out front door hardware that was peeling... well, I did take the handle off, sand and prime it, but not the deadbolt or peephole.

So now you know!

Very nice! Really changes the look in a good way!

Oceanna,

You are so clever, and your technique has given me inspiration to tackle something I've wanted to do for over a year now, but lacked the funds. We have brass hardware on all our interior doors. I've been longing to switch it all out to orb, and found a great deal on orb levers on ebay, but then realized that the hinges would all need replacing, too. Too costly on my budget to do this for 28 doors!!! Now I know what I CAN do!!! I'm so excited to try this for our door hardware. I'm not going to skip the priming step, though, because these doors get a lot of use. What would you suggest I use as a primer? I'm running out to Michaels right now to get the Triangle Crafts Sophisticated Finish. This is going to make me so happy!!!

Haha! I thought I would shock you all into silence by my audacious naughty shortcuts. But hey, polyurethane seals the whole thing just fine. I've painted a kazillion things and pretty well learned where I can and can't cut corners. The thing about my kitchen is some yahoo mounted all the handles in the centers of the doors, as you can see above. So I never touch the handles. The only ones I actually use are the ones on the drawers. And nobody ever touches hinges. But you know, factory finishes eventually wear out too. But if you can paint them yourself, then it's back in your control, right? The magic thing about paint is if you don't like it, you can always paint it again. More good news, with this paint I didn't get any bonding together of two moving parts. It's not thick like latex paint.

Sheesharee, thanks!

Nanny, thanks! Oh, yes, do your door knobs! Start with one in an out of the way area and see if you like it first. You're right, you should sand and prime because they get heavy use. Seal with Poly, too, just a can of the brush on stuff from the hardware store.

I got a spray primer meant for metals, in a grey color (grey is easier to cover than stark white). A light coat of primer will do, and sand lightly after priming. I back my car out of the garage, put down a cheapo plastic drop cloth, and close the garage door. If you keep the door open make sure to weight down the corners of the drop cloth so wind won't blow them up into your work, and don't do it with the door open when the cottonwoods are "spawning" - lol. The paint is kind of thin and not real inclined to show brush marks, but you want to brush it on evenly, and I brushed it in the direction that it would go if it were a brushed finish, just in case. You may need 2-3 coats but they go on fast and easy. One little bottle should last you a long time.

Take before and after pix for us please!

Oceanna,

They had every type of Sophisticated Finishes at our Michaels, "*except* the Blackened Bronze! I was so disappointed, and will now have to call Savannah to see if they have it in stock at the Savannah store, which is about 30 miles from here. Ah well, I guess that project will have to wait until the weekend before I can start. I looked at all the Rustoleum spray products at Lowes, to see if any of those would have the same type of finished look, and couldn't see one that would look the same. Any suggestions?

Nanny2a, as I mentioned above to mrsmarv, I used the Rustoleum ORB spray paint. I bought brand new pulls in bulk from eBay in a lovely copper color for our recent kitchen remodel; I knew the copper finish wouldn't work, so I sanded, primed, and painted them. I don't have a real close up, but here's the best photo I have. The finish looks almost black in the picture, but it's not quite that dark. The paint is holding up pretty well, but I should have used a poly coat on top as Oceanna did.

Sophisticated Finished makes a brush on primer and it really works well. I have used it now a couple times . As O says it all goes on really well and dries very fast . Clean up is with soap and water too. No spray is needed at all. So go for it a very cheap and wonderful fix. c

I'm bumping this back up.

Nanny - Please be sure to post some pics once you do your door knobs! I might consider doing this to mine. The brass never bothered me but I do agree the bronze knobs look much better. I never wanted to spend money but this appears to be a great, cheap fix.

Equest - They look good!

Equest, those look gret. You can still poly them right in place. Just use a small artist brush. If you need, stick a piece of junk mail right next to the foot to keep from getting the poly on the cab. If you need, use a q-tip to reach the backside of the handles. I use the water based poly. If you use the same shine as your cabs have, it won't even show if you get a little on your cabs. Really nothing to it, and it's a very quick job.

Nanny, did they have the ORB color in any other type of paint? I just asked the clerk for that color and she didn't know, but pointed me to the section that had that. I picked it pretty much just by the picture on the bottle.

But here is the exact stuff I used (link below).

Here is a link that might be useful: blackened bronze