We are getting closer and closer to being finished with Phase One of the Kitchen/Family Room makeover! Pretty much all of the big projects are done now so I just have a few minor things left like installing two more light fixtures, sewing my roman shade for the window over the sink, finishing painting the rolling island cart and possibly recovering our ottoman (I am definitely planning on recovering it but if I haven’t found the right fabric by the time I finish up those other things I will just photograph the room with the ottoman as is.) I can’t wait to show you all. It’s starting to really feel like home – well, at least in this room! And Lillie and Lola’s room is really starting to come together too now that it’s painted and the wallpaper is up – I can’t wait to show you that as soon as I finish a few more minor projects in there!
For today I wanted to show you how we’ve been painting all of the trim and the door, as well as an inexpensive way to update your old brass doorknobs and switchplates.
We had five sets of these doors downstairs and then we’ve got a whole bunch of larger double doors upstairs for the closets, and then of course we have all of the regular sized doors going into each bedroom and bathroom. They pretty much all look like this – a dark wood, with brass doorknobs.
We are doing the doors room by room. So far we’ve done three sets of these smaller double doors downstairs along with a set of french doors (which my mother-in-law did for us which I am so grateful for – all those window dividers would have done me in!) and then one large set of double doors in Lillie and Lola’s bedroom as well as their main bedroom door.
The first thing we did is remove the doorknobs. Because we have learned that if you are continually turning a handle that you spray painted over and over and over the paint will wear off we went ahead and replaced the handles completely and bought real oil rubbed bronze doorknobs for all of the doors that we use on a regular basis (for instance in the kitchen we bought real oil rubbed bronze ones for the pantry doors as well as the french doors because we open and close those a million times a day). For doors we don’t open and close all that often we decided to save money and spray paint them. While I had the spray paint out I also went ahead and removed all of the various colored switchplates they had in the kitchen/family room and decided to spray paint those as well. The mix of brass, yellow, and off-white was driving me insane!
Here is the white we used for the switchplates. We used the same brand but in the Oil Rubbed Bronze finish for the doorknobs. We purchased the spray paint at Lowe’s.
Here you can see some of the brass and yellowed with age switchplates.
Yay – so much better now that they are uniform! I have to say I was really really pleased with the overall look of these. I have used similar paint before that didn’t turn out nearly as well!
Once that was done we started priming the doors. We used Zinsser Bull’s Eye 1-2-3 Primer. I used a brush to get in all of the more detailed areas then rolled on with a small foam roller all of the flat areas.
Then we used two coats of Benjamin Moore’s London Fog and added the doorknobs back on! The color looks off in this photo – London Fog is a light to medium gray and it looks kind of tan in this picture. =( This is the only room where the trim and doors are London Fog. I really wanted to do gray kitchen cabinets and I thought this would be the best way to make them work in this room because it is an open concept and it would have been hard to decide where to end the gray trim and switch to white. However, in the whole rest of the house we are painting the trim in Simply White and the doors Wrought Iron. It is finished now in Lillie and Lola’s room and I can’t believe how much more bright and airy their room feels. I cannot wait to do it in the rest of the house. Because I am doing it myself, though, it’s a LONG and SLOW process. As soon as I get caught up on my computer work I am starting on the dining room. I cant’ wait! And then the entry way and powder room!
(Sorry the color looks off in these photos) =(
Here are the knobs before we sprayed them:
And here they are after we spray-prainted them.
Over on the other side of this room we used real oil rubbed bronze on these two doors. The set on the left is the pantry and and the set on the right goes into the dining room. I plan on changing the hinges too at some point but I’ve got a million other projects ahead of that on my list so it will probably be quite a while before I get to that.
(The color of the gray trim looks more accurate in the bottom half of this photo)
I also wanted to let you know we our
Give Thanks pillow covers are back in stock! And we will have some Give Thanks placemats coming very soon – hopefully later this week. They are ready, I just need to photograph them.
I hope you all have a lovely week! I’ll be back next to show you some shelving and a clock we put up in our kitchen.
I cannot wait to see the rest of this house. You are so talented, you certainly can make a house a home.
We changed out our knobs and hinges to oil rubbed bronze (as well as our faucets in the sinks, but not the tubs and showers, because they were so much more money). I appreciate your recommendation on a brand of paint, because I've been thinking of painting them.
We bought our hinges on ebay from an ebay store for a LOT less than we could get at any hardware store. We purchased door stops that way as well for the back of the doors, but you could certainly paint those, as they are rarely handled.
We have noticed that our most used door handles are still rubbing off. The black tends to come off of the door handles and they are a shiny copper color underneath. Be aware that you may still see some change in your most used door handles.
It is looking really nice! All the details really do make a difference. I can't wait to see finished rooms. 🙂
Good Job!! Love the "new" doors. Evelyne
Jennifer, I have enjoyed your blog for many months. I look at other bloggers, but you have such talent for decorating, I always prefer your site.
Just a suggestion for saving money regarding your door hinges- use the same oil rubbed bronze spray paint on the hinges. The best way to do this is to take the top hinge off of several doors at the same time, suspend them from wire so you can spray all sides. When they are dry, attach them back on the doors and take the middle hinges off, repeat the process with them and finally the bottom hinges. By the end of the day, you will have completed all the hinges on several doors while maintaining the doors in place.
Oh that's a brilliant idea, Marcia! Thanks so much for sharing it. I would not have thought to do that. I will definitely give it a try when I finally get around to attacking the hinges!
Hi Jennifer, your house is looking more like your style, I love everything you have done. I was planning on sewing a roman blind for my kitchen window this week so now can't wait to see yours. I agree with Marcia, we did our hinges exactly the same way one year ago and they look great and we saved money too.
Thank you guys! I would never have thought to do that!!! I will definitely try doing it that way when I get around to it!
You have transformed the new place so quickly. Well, it seems that way. You are putting in a lot if sweat equity, but it's paid off. You have a great eye for decorating, choosing colors and setting up vignettes. Always live stopping by your blog.
Jen, you are putting a lot of sweat equity into this house and it looks fabulous. Love your style. Always live stopping by your blog. Full of inspiration. You have an eye for color, placement and vignettes.
The colour of the doors is gorgeous, and they look so much better with the new door knobs. What a huge difference a small change makes…xv
http://vickiarcher.com
Would love for you to do a roman shade tutorial!
Looks absolutely lovely! It seems so easy to do.
Your choices for paint and hardware are wonderful … oh, to have your sense of style! I am contemplating making roman shades for a set of double french doors that lead outside. Thinking about doing a fixed "cheater's version" though and putting pull down shades behind them that will stay up during the day time. While I do sew, I am a little intimidated by the thought of trying roman shades since, to me, they seem quite complicated. Maybe I just need to wait and perhaps you will give us a tutorial on how you do yours (hint, hint).
Diane
Thank you, Diane. I am definitely doing a cheaters version too! Haha! I am not a good enough sewer to attempt real working ones – haha! Plus where our window is I wouldn't ever had a need to have it down – it's purely decorative.
Such a simple and easy to make a big impact. Well done!
Hi Jennifer! Been a huge fan of your blog for years. The new house looks great, can't wait to see more. Did you put a sealer on the doors/trim after you painted them??
Thanks, Jennifer! No, we just left them as is.
I love this! I spray painted my doorknobs, too. Great idea on painting the light switch plates. What did you do with the switches and outlets? Did you replace them? Did the spray painted plates match? I'd love your input!!
Thanks!
I actually lightly painted over the outlets which is probably not the best idea but the dirty yellowish color was driving me insane. I plan on replacing them all with nice white switches and outlets eventually but again that might be a little further down the road because there are so many other projects ahead of that…
Your trim is London fog but what color are your walls?
Unfortunately I have no idea. This room and the dining room were already white when we moved in (the rest of the rooms were either wallpapered or peach). I haven't been able to match it yet. I asked our realtor a while ago if she could find out from the previous owners but have never heard back.
I sprayed the ORB paint in a cup and then used a small paintbrush to paint them while still on the doors. They are holding up pretty good.
That's a great idea!
Dear Lillie,
Would you please share the paint finish you used on the doors and trim? Love your home. I always enjoy your blog.
Thank you! I used semi-gloss and have been really happy with it so far!
That seems the one thing that is forgotten at the time of a backsplash or kitchen design is the switch plates and hardware in the room. Very neat idea, always like finding interesting ideas on recycling old material!
Question? Are your windows also the dark stain and are you painting them? I've been painting our trim and doors but wasn't sure what to do about the windows. Love to know what you do! Really love what you've done and your style! Thanks for sharing.
Question? Are your window trimmed in the dark stain and are you painting them? I've started the process of painting my trim and doors white but wasn't sure about the window panes & trim. Curious if you have run into the same situation and what you do? Love the house, looks terrific! Thanks for sharing!
Thank you! And yes, the windows and the pane dividers are all dark wood and yes we are painting them – it's taking FOREVER! Ugh!