blog/ october 11
Antique inspired doors
I love experimenting...and really wanted to give our doors a makeover but desperately wanted to keep an antique look to them. Buying all new doors just wasn't in the budget, and it sounded like a headache to find ones that were the correct size from facebook marketplace. So, painting was our only option! The door hardware was a huge part in creating the look that I wanted. I absolutely love new york style plates​ but they are ridiculously expensive anywhere I looked. I ended up finding similar ones in matte black but because they didn't come in the finish I wanted (antique bronze/gold) I decided to spray paint them before installing. Redoing these was definitely very time consuming (especially if you have a lot of doors in your house) but, at the end of the day it was SO worth it to me!
How to ::
Painting the doors ::
1. Prep the surface you plan to paint as you please. I first cleaned the doors with krud kutter to clean off all stains/ junk. Our doors were stained by the previous owners so I had to sand all of them with a 220 sand paper then wipe off all the dust.
2. Paint 2/3 coats of chalk paint on the surface, I tinted mine with quail egg by sherwin williams. Let each coat fully dry before painting the next.
3. Paint your glaze! The thicker you paint the glaze on, the thicker/larger the cracks will be.
*wait for the glaze to fully dry before moving on to the next step. I let mine dry for about 4 hours.*
4. Paint the final coat of your chalky paint. You want to do this relatively fast before the paint starts to react to the glaze. Try not to paint multiple strokes over one area, it’s a little tricky but if you keep working into the area the paint starts to crumble a little.
5. Now all you have to do is watch your project transform and crackle!
6. Once everything dries, go back and do any detailing. I waited a while to do this step since I didn’t want to mess up the cracks!
Painting the hardware ::
1. Remove any existing hardware that you plan to re-paint. We ended up doing all of our knobs, latches, and hinges.
2. Prep all materials by sanding them with a 220 grit sand paper. I used our palm sander for this step. This is very important to rough up the surface so the slick metal adheres to the paint.
3. Wipe down/ clean the surface of any existing imperfections/ dust.
4. Set out all hardware that is going to be painted in an area that is taped off and has airflow to prevent any person/ animals from consuming the chemicals. I set out all of our hardware in our basement on plastic tarp and stuck all nails/ screws in cardboard so that they stayed in place.
5. Spray paint a light coat with the automative primer and let fully dry.
6. Spray paint an even, light coat of your spray paint of choosing. We went with Champagne bronze. (don't expect it to be fully covered on the first coat - if you spray to closely it can cause dripping paint). Let the first coat fully dry.
7. Spray paint a second coat and let it fully dry.
8. If needed, do a third coat to ensure all areas of the hardware are covered.
9. Install the hardware as directed!
