What have I been doing... (Decorating/Home Improvement edition)...

So, I know all my faithful blog readers have been waiting with great anticipation to know what the big project is that I'm working on that requires many layers of spray paint.  We built our house 10 years ago and when we did that, everyone put in brass doorknobs and accessories.  Like those in the picture below... and they are ugly (in my opinion).  We priced out how much it would be to get all new door fixtures and with over 22 doors it was going to cost a lot!!  So I decided to spray paint them all!!!  It's actually a really easy process, there's just a lot of waiting time in between each layer and you have to completely take the entire door off the frame!!

Here are the steps to spray painting your doorknobs.
1.) Gather your supplies... screwdriver, hammer, sanding paper or pads, primer, paint, clear coat (optional), styrofoam, dowels boxes.  I am using the Rust-oleum Oil Rubbed Bronze paint with clean metal primer in white.

 2.) Remover the door from the frame, and remove all the hardware from the door.  If you've never removed a doorknob before, you may want to google "removing doorknob" because it can be a tiny bit tricky.  You also need to clean all the hardware after removing it from the door.  I usually have a bucket of soapy water and just toss each piece in as I remove it.  Let each piece dry completely.

 3.) You need to fully sand every area of each piece of hardware.  I use 150 grit sand paper or sanding pads.  You don't need to fully scratch off all the brass, you just need to rough up the surface so the spray paint will adhere.  You can see in this picture the difference between the sanded and the unsanded (sanded knob and hinge are on the left, unsanded on the right).

 4.) Now this is where technique can differ.  I usually save some styrofoam from packaging boxes and put all the screws upright in the styrofoam.  I also put dowels in and "hang" the doorknobs on the dowels, so if you do have any drips they will drip right off instead of staying on the knob.  I put on one coat of primer, follow the directions letting it dry then flip the hinges over and turn the knobs and put on a coat of primer onto the areas that didn't make the first pass through.

 5.) After the primer has dried (follow the directions on the spray paint), complete the same process with the your main paint color.  I usually do 2 total coats of the color so for 1 hinge it would be coat 1 side A, then coat 1 side B, then coat 2 side A, then coat 2 side B, being sure to let the paint dry as directed on the directions for the spray paint.

 6.) AFter this step, you can also add a clear coat if you want, on my first knob that I completed, I did put on the clear coat, but it dulled the colored finish so I don't think I'm going to put on the clear coat anymore.  Once everything is all dried, just reattach all the hardware back to the door and here's what you will end up with...