Ugly Brass BEGONE!!

I feel a little like Samantha Stevens from Bewitched when I say that but unfortunately unlike her I couldn’t just wiggle my nose and make the brass disappear… what I could do was patiently replace all of it door by door, so much fun

Now I know you all know what brass I’m talking about, but what is a post without a few pictures right? Pictured below is our foyer coat closet, it is pretty much the first thing you see when you walk in the door… brass… brass… and more brass..

My reluctance to get this project started was because we have so many doors, 32 or so, and I wanted to change both the hinges and knobs. Not only did I assume that it would be very expensive to do, but I also thought it would take me FOR-EV-ER…

I took a trip to Home Depot and bought a value pack of 12 hinges for $23, which comes to about $6 a door (I’ve got serious math skilz right?). I also picked up the door knobs for $10 each. The knobs are Defiant brand and they looked just like another name brand knob that was priced at $20… I have no why such a price difference but I am happy with the ones I chose.

The first knob I replaced took about 8 minutes, mainly because I didn’t know what I was doing, but the rest of the knobs took about 3 minutes to replace! It’s a simple process, unscrew all of the knob pieces then put the new knob pieces back in the same place. All of the holes lined up perfectly for me, whew! The knobs seem well made and I like the way they look.

(Yup, another super awesome visual)

I also replaced the door hinges at the same time as the knob. At first I thought I would have to remove the door to do this, but I didn’t! I just unscrewed and replaced one hinge at a time with the door still in its jamb. I did not remove the pin, I screwed the hinge on with both sides still together. The hinges are Everbilt brand and seem strong, the screws are well made and slightly longer than the original screws which allowed them to catch the wood well. The whole process for both hinges and knobs took me just under 10 minutes per door. I did use my screwgun, but you could totally do it with a screwdriver it just would take a lot longer.

The worst part about this project for me was getting all of the grime on my hands…

(my visuals are just getting better and better)

I just hate getting this grime on me, but I can’t wear gloves when dealing with little screws…

So for $16 a door I feel like my house is slowly but surely being brought up to date. Yes, I could have painted the original brass knobs and hinges, but to me it was worth the money to just have it DONE! I swear this one small change makes such a huge difference and helps this house feel more like OUR home.

PS It helps to have awesome music jamming in your headphones while doing this very boring project…just saying!

Thanks as always for stopping by!

Until next time…