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!

The Electric Switch-eroo

A few weeks back I spray painted some new light switch covers which I was really excited about. When I put them up in my house though, they made me a little sad. They were so pretty but they did not look very nice with the ugly off white switches sticking out. Check out the post about them here.

 

When my dad was here last weekend I tapped his brain for some electrician knowledge. Turns out, changing light switches is pretty easy business. I was glad to have him here to walk me through it first though! So here are the pretty simple instructions. 

1. Go buy the replacements switches. I bought mine at Menards. Make sure you take time to look at all the options they have there. I originally bought this kind: 

This version (make sure it is a 1 way if your light/fan has only 1 switch that goes to it) was only $1.88. When my dad came we went back to Menards to check out what other options they had - the one above was a little wide for the hole they had to fit in - and ended up buying these switches instead:

These switches were only 49 cents! If you look closely you will see that the switch on the left has an extra screw on the left side. That switch is for a light that has two switches that control it (like my hallway chandelier). The one on the right is a regular one way switch. The width of these two are a lot closer to the switches the original builder installed in our home.

2. Step 2 is to unscrew the existing light switch covers and switches. This step is very easy and straightforward. I would head out to the garage (or wherever your circuit breaker is located) and switch off the power to the light switches first.

 

3. Once all the switches are unscrewed and pulled out of the wall, the wires have to be removed from the back of the original switches. This is where it becomes very important to have the power off. On the back of the switch, right next to where the wire goes in, is a small hole. Something small needs to be pushed down in the hole to release the wire. We used a nail held with a pair of needle nosed pliers (to ground myself - for safety). It is handy here to have two pairs of hands - one to push down the nail and the other to pull the wire out. 

4. Next, we had to put the wires back (in the same order/position) into the new switches. Some of the wires were a little too wide to fit back in the new holes on the back of the switch (which were a little smaller than the old switches) so dad taught me another way to connect the wires. The screws on the sides of the switches can be utilized too. I just had to bend the wire to fit around the screw with the needle nosed pliers, hook it around the screw and twist the screw down snug over the wire. 

5. Take a little rest outside... oh wait, I guess you don't have to do that....  But that is what dad did. :-)

6. Screw the new switches back to the wall, then put up the old (or buy new) switch covers and screw those into place as well.

7. Enjoy the crisp new switches! I think they look a million times better! 

Here's the before and after picture rundown:

An easy project that can make a big difference in the feel of your home! You could update yours today. To do the 4 switches I changed, it only cost $4! Room by room they will all be done eventually in my house. Oh, and here's that shortened list of steps again.

1. Go buy replacements switches.

2. Unscrew the existing light switch covers and switches.

3. Once all the switches are unscrewed and pulled out of the wall, the wires have to be removed from the back of the original switches.

4. Next, put the wires back (in the same order/position) into the new switches.

5. Screw the new switches back to the wall, then put up the old (or buy new) switch covers and screw those into place as well.

6. Enjoy the crisp new switches!

Fall has Fallen

Last week when I was out taking pictures of T.J.'s awesome new handmade outdoor furniture, I took a seat on the new bench. From there I had an awesome view of our backyard tree. I snapped its picture because I thought it was turning a beautiful yellow. The next day I noticed the color had pretty drastically changed to more of an orange. So I went out and took another picture thinking I'd put the two next to each other and compare. The following day it happened again, I was convinced the color was drastically different. So I did this for 4 days in a row from the same angle. I think somehow I was able to capture fall as it fell at our house. Check it out.

Here is another version so you can see the pictures a little bigger.

Can you believe that green-to-orange transformation happened in only 4 days? Sadly, one week later, almost all the leaves are on the ground instead of on the tree at all. I guess winter is coming...