What's your DYI success - Home Reno

[momoftwins]

I hate my brass door knobs. I happened to be in Home Depot today and for the heck of it, checked prices on simple nickel doorknobs/hinges = yikes

So, I found online where brass can be painted silver color. Not so sure on that one (I have no spray can experience ).

What has your DYI success/failure been. I would love to see pics. Oh, and if anyone has painted their doorknobs and you are happy with the results - pics please!

Have a great day!

 

[wtrmlnlabs]

I hate my brass door knobs. I happened to be in Home Depot today and for the heck of it, checked prices on simple nickel doorknobs/hinges = yikes

So, I found online where brass can be painted silver color. Not so sure on that one (I have no spray can experience ).

What has your DYI success/failure been. I would love to see pics. Oh, and if anyone has painted their doorknobs and you are happy with the results - pics please!

Have a great day!

I can't begin to start listing all the DIY stuff we've done. We do about everything.

I wanted to let you know that the spray paint works beautifully so far. I painted stuff this week with oil rubbed bronze spray and it's so pretty. I'm new to spray paint, I primered two dressers recently but that's it. It did help me with learning how to keep the can moving and not get too close to avoid runs I think. I used the bronze on pieces for my Hoosier cabinet and it really turned out great. I want to do the handles on our french doors but haven't yet. I'm not sure how well the paint will hold up on heavily used handles. It looks fantastic though. The pieces really do look like they really are oil rubbed bronze! Maybe with a top coat of a sealant type spray it would have a better chance to withstand use.

I think you should go for it! It was easy!! Good luck!!!

 

[cobright]

I hate my brass door knobs. I happened to be in Home Depot today and for the heck of it, checked prices on simple nickel doorknobs/hinges = yikes

So, I found online where brass can be painted silver color. Not so sure on that one (I have no spray can experience ).

I would warn against spray painting brass doorknobs. If your knobs are good quality to begin with, as in worth keeping if not for the color, then there are some other options you might enjoy trying.

I do decorative metalwork semi-professionally, mostly oddball special requests but a look at some of my work may provide some bona fides for my advice.
http://artificermade.com/?page_id=6

A favorite of mine is refinishing brass with a decorative patina. This would mean soaking the knobs in acetone (nail polish remover) over night to remove any lacquer that may have been applied to them. Then run them through the dish washer a few times to clean and degrease them. Then soak them in a patina agent like liver of sulfer that you can get from many art and craft supply shops or any stained glass supply. This will darken and brown the brass. Other patinas can give a rich blend of colors and pattern.

Then give it a coat of clear coat and you're done.

 

[Colleen27]

We do a lot of DIY, but DH is a licensed builder so I'm cheating a bit when it comes to credentials and experience.

My happiest surprise success thus far has been painting the kitchen floor. The previous owners installed dollar store sticky-back tile when they were prepping this house as a rental and they were hideous and starting to come loose. But the full remodel of the kitchen will change some of the cabinets' footprint and add some built-ins, so we didn't want to do our long-term tile vision until we have those things in place. So we stripped it down to the subflooring, patched a section that had water damage from a leaky fridge, and used an outdoor patio/deck paint and two coats of clearcoat. Now our floor is a lovely dusty gray-blue color and it is holding up quite well. More than well enough to get through the couple-few years until we tackle the full kitchen remodel.

 

[Claire&TheBoys]

I used some of the metallic spray paint on my bathroom fixtures. When we moved in, everything was shiny brass, but we prefer the brushed nickel finish. Our master bath had 4 towel bars, 1 towel ring, 1 robe hook and a t.p. holder. I didn't want to #1, spend a lot of money to replace all those, nor #2, take time to pry out all the anchors, spackle and sand the holes, just to hang more fixtures. I bought some of the hobby craft paint at Hobby Lobby in the brushed nickel finish and gave each piece a couple of coats of paint a day or two apart. It has held up way better than I expected (3 yrs now) and really, if you didn't know I'd spray-painted them, you'd never know in passing. I was really pleased with how they turned out.

I haven't painted our door levers, but that is a thought. We have something like 15 doors that have shiny brass levers and I just can't see spending that much money to replace them.

 

[disneylove69]

I hate my brass door knobs. I happened to be in Home Depot today and for the heck of it, checked prices on simple nickel doorknobs/hinges = yikes

So, I found online where brass can be painted silver color. Not so sure on that one (I have no spray can experience ).

What has your DYI success/failure been. I would love to see pics. Oh, and if anyone has painted their doorknobs and you are happy with the results - pics please!

Have a great day!

I painted mine years ago and they looked ok but now I have to redo them. They didn't look as good as the pretty ones at lowes.

 

[hsmamato2]

I do just about everything myself,or DH does it.... spray paint is a fave with me, but i would research that spray for doorknobs a LOT before trying, since doorknobs get such heavy use, it would have to be really good to not rub off quickly...that would make me hesitate..my local Home depot has brushed nickel doorknobs for 8.47....seems like a bargain to me! I just replaced one on my bathroom.....easy and less than 10 bucks. My last redo was my livingroom, new furntiure, then I made some pillows, painted a couple of end tables,and we painted the walls for a whole new color/feel. One thing I love is those little 3.00 paint color sample jars I can buy...I used up one in my fave accent color on an end table,plus numerous room accents.....

 

[goodfood4ursoul]

We do a lot of DIY, but DH is a licensed builder so I'm cheating a bit when it comes to credentials and experience.

My happiest surprise success thus far has been painting the kitchen floor. The previous owners installed dollar store sticky-back tile when they were prepping this house as a rental and they were hideous and starting to come loose. But the full remodel of the kitchen will change some of the cabinets' footprint and add some built-ins, so we didn't want to do our long-term tile vision until we have those things in place. So we stripped it down to the subflooring, patched a section that had water damage from a leaky fridge, and used an outdoor patio/deck paint and two coats of clearcoat. Now our floor is a lovely dusty gray-blue color and it is holding up quite well. More than well enough to get through the couple-few years until we tackle the full kitchen remodel.

We had those nasty cheap tiles on our kitchen floor too.
Took us 5 years to decide to finally do something.
We pried them off, found nice hard wood floors, scraped the glue off, rented a sander and sanded and re-finished the floor ourselves.
We also put in a brick floor and wall around our wood stove in the kitchen.
That really warmed up the kitchen- pretty honey colored wood floors and warm temps in the winter.

We also stripped the ugly blue paint off our kitchen drawers, painted white over the blue on the cabinets and replaced the ugly chrome pulls with antique brass.
Love my simple farmhouse kitchen.

This spring and summer we transplanted about 200 sq. feet of perrennials out from in front of our farm house, dug out a nice base, installed landscape cloth, gravel and sand for the foundation, then laid our brick terrace.
Looks like half a million bucks!

We've done lots of painting and decorative finishes in different rooms.

Our next inside project will be a bathroom remodel upstairs, probably in another year as right now we are focused on outside projects.

We did a barn makeover this weekend- transformed our 40' x 15' tractor shed from barn red to white with green roof.

You can see pictures of some of those projects at www.virginiapecans.com

Look in About for the pre on the barn and in Farm photos for brickwork and the after on the barn and the kitchen.

 

[aaarcher86]

I feel like we do everything in our house. If I can, I will lol. We put up our 6ft privacy fence. That was a big one. I think our most intricate was replacing our front door, trim, and moldings. Looks great though!

 

[maplevale]

We did a barn makeover this weekend- transformed our 40' x 15' tractor shed from barn red to white with green roof.

You can see pictures of some of those projects at www.virginiapecans.com

Look in About for the pre on the barn and in Farm photos for brickwork and the after on the barn and the kitchen.

I can't wait to spend some time on your site!


We have a 200 year old farmhouse - 80% of the work we have done is DIY. Most of it isn't 'pretty' (as in ripping out lathe and plaster and insulating and drywall) however our home is perfectly livable and OURS!

I would be a little hesitant about painting handles because I think they would rub off over time. Maybe start with the 4 most obvious doors and replace the hardware on them? No one will really notice if the entire house isn't the same (I should know - we have all kinds of stuff still!)

 

[DawnM]

My husband does very quality work and gutted our last house completely and even built the Maple cabinets himself for the kitchen.

In this house he has gutted and redone two bathrooms, put in over 1,000 sq. ft of hardwood flooring, completely finished 1,000 sq. ft. of and unfinished basement (including framing, insulation, drywalling, light fixtures and laid tile flooring).

He is a perfectionist too and whatever isn't done perfectly he rips out. Even the realtor who was interested in selling this house commented that his work is better than most contractors out there.

But his time is limited these days so we may be hiring out to do some of the rest of the work.

Dawn

 

[luvmy3]

My favorite DIY project was our bathroom renovation. Everything in our house is DIY, dh does not trust anyone to do the job as meticulous as he does. Unfortunately that means alot of projects get put on a list that seems to never get shorter, only longer.
My next project is painting the living room. Dh is supposed to be making me a new fireplace surround and mantel that will hold the TV. I've already prepped the walls so hopefully it will all be done within the month.
Then onto the kitchen. I purchased the Rustoleum cabinet transformations so I can paint my golden oak ones. Luckily I don't need to rely on dh do do anything in there

 

[RitaE]

I learned how to repair drywall and it turns out I have a bit of a knack for Drywall installation. I figure I can always use it as a fall back career.

 

[bjscheel]

Oh, I'm getting really tired of DIY, it never ends! I really don't enjoy it but it's nice when it's done. Over the past 17 years in this house windows, siding, sanding hardwood, painting, expanding a bathroom, adding a bathroom, then in 2011 ramped it up with a complete kitchen tear-out. NOW this summer we added on a master bedroom and expanded the living room- by far the biggest. We had someone else pour the foundation and frame it up but the rest from drywall to siding to electric to plumbing has been DH (and me). Next step when that is finished is moving DD12 into our old bedroom and turning her little room into 2 closets for the girls. Now that the downstairs is nearly done I just hate to think of doing more drywall upstairs.

When this is done though, there shouldn't be any more major projects that I can think of! DH has been stressed out this summer by our huge project and I really want to get past that and just enjoy our house! He is really amazingly handy. In some things he is not super perfectionist but we don't sweat a few little things that you only notice on close inspection.

 

[StephMK]

I learned how to repair drywall and it turns out I have a bit of a knack for Drywall installation. I figure I can always use it as a fall back career.

Ah, I wish I could learn drywall. I stink at it and we have several areas in the basement that need repair after minor basement flooding in the spring.

I can change lighting fixtures, bathroom faucets, and paint often. My biggest and best project was installing laminate hardwood floors in two rooms. I plan to do more next summer. While I would love true hardwood, laminate works better for our dogs and budget at this point. DH is not all handy or interested in learning so it falls to me. I like doing it and would love to learn to tile next.

 

[Colleen27]

We had those nasty cheap tiles on our kitchen floor too.
Took us 5 years to decide to finally do something.
We pried them off, found nice hard wood floors, scraped the glue off, rented a sander and sanded and re-finished the floor ourselves.

So jealous! Our kitchen is the only room in our house that doesn't have hardwood underneath, at least so far. The upstairs has that fabulous old-fashioned wide-plank tongue and groove subflooring, so as I pull up the carpet one room at a time we're sanding and whitewashing it. With three kids, two dogs, and two rabbits I'm on a quest to eradicate carpet entirely and just put down throw rugs and runners in places we want a little softness.

 

[momoftwins]

Pics, if anyone cares to share. Cobright, I loved the look of patina. So pretty.

I will be curious on the Rustoleum cabinet makeover. We have builder grade American Woodmark cabinets. I hate that they are what I call a "flat finish" I think they are the "Ashland" cabinet and are in cherry.

I like cabinets that have a nice, rich shine to them. I was wondering what a glaze would do to them??

Anyone ever glaze their cabinets?

Thanks for the feedback everyone.

 

[mrsabbott]

I've never spray painted door knobs, but I spray painted my brass cabinet pulls a brushed nickel! It was super easy!! Took them off and cleaned them. Let them dry! Spray painted them the nickel color. Let them dry. Spray painted them with a clear coat!

They looked really nice and have lasted at least a year now, although I'm starting to see a smidgeon of the brass showing through on the ones that are used the most often!

 

[wtrmlnlabs]

Ah, I wish I could learn drywall. I stink at it and we have several areas in the basement that need repair after minor basement flooding in the spring.

Same here. It's the one thing neither DH nor I can do.

 

[pampam]

My favourite project was redoing the kitchen floor. It had on cushion floor that was dead. I mean completely lifeless. The shine and vitality disappeared years ago. I tried refreshers, waxes, everything on the market. They would last 2 or 3 days then back to completely dull again. So, I bit the bullet and put polyurathane on it. Everyone told me not to, that it would damage the cushion floor, it was not made for vinyl flooring, etc, but I figured I needed a new floor anyway, what could I lose. I liked the pattern on the floor, just wanted a floor that was easier to clean and showed some shine. I carefully cleaned it stripped it etc, then put on 5 coats of Varathane high gloss water based for hardwood floors. I love it, and would do it again in a heartbeat.