ORB Hardware

About a month ago I broke down and painted all the hardware on my kitchen cabinets Oil Rubbed Bronze. Since that day I have become very excited about all the possibilities ORB has to offer. It is a very very dark brown so it almost appears black. It seems to defy the age old rule that black has to go with black and only brown can go with brown. ORB can do both, and look classy while it does it. Since then I have also painted a chandelier ORB for my foyer because it can be seen from both a brown accented room and a black accented room. When it came time to paint all the trim in that foyer and I had to remove all the doors and knobs and hinges to accomplish that task, I knew I wanted to make over the hardware. ORB seemed up for the job.

First I removed all the hardware from the doors.

Next I made sure to wash them carefully so that the spray paint would stick evenly to the metal. I made the mistake of attempting to wash the pins that go inside the hinges on the doors... turns out these are oily and gross for a reason... they are supposed to be so the door doesn't squeak! Now that I think of it, that makes so much sense. Anyway, they did not wash up well and made a big mess of my hand towels I was using to dry with.

To paint the hardware I just laid all the hinges out in a box. After a few coats on one side I stood them up and leaned them against the edges of my box lid to get at them from a different angle.

I used my trusty ol' ORB Spray paint to get the job done.

To spray all the screws (because they will show when I put them back in the hardware) I stuck them all in a piece of cardboard. This method actually works pretty well. I stuck the point in the cardboard and twisted it about a half turn to make sure it would stay. If possible, it is best to spray paint only the tops of the screws... you want to be careful not to get too much paint on the threads of the screws.

I also painted the doorknobs. Here is how they looked before, in all their golden glory:

I took them outside with the rest of the hardware and sprayed them with my ORB spray paint.  These did take a few extra coats because they have a few more angles than a flat piece of hardware. I had to make sure to get under the lock as well. Just keep rolling them to a new side and eventually they will all be covered. I wanted to show these outdoor pictures because they really pick up the brown tones in the ORB paint. The pictures inside all read as black instead.

 I ended up putting this painted doorknob on the pantry door because the other doors had not been painted white yet. I will post a picture of the ORB knob on the white doors when I do my door painting post.

Here is how some of the hardware looks put back up with my newly crisp white trim.

And now for some foreshadowing. Below is the current situation in my bedroom. The trim on the right belongs to the main door into the bedroom from the hallway - all the hallway trim is white, therefore so is the trim that is around the door that shares both the hallway and the bedroom. The trim on the left of the picture is representative of the rest of the room. It is unbelievable to me the difference the trim color makes here. The gray walls just look SO much better next to the white trim than the wood. Hmm... should I do something about this? I think I should. I am afraid the project will take quite a bit of time and patience on my part though. Maybe next summer!