Cleaning up old knobs

One of my favorite things about old houses are the (heavy!) glass doorknobs. When we first toured our house I was thrilled that all of the doors had either glass or brass knobs.

However, I wasn't thrilled that they'd been painted a few times and ended up looking more shabby than chic. Easy fix.

Step 1: Secure old crock-pot from Goodwill. (Trust me..these old houses are full of lead paint so do not use anything you plan to eat out of. Buy a cheapo.)

Step 2: Remove knobs from doors. You may need to grab an old knife to scape out paint from the hardware. I'd also suggest that while you're removing, you take a minute to learn how it all goes together so you're not guessing which screw goes where when putting back on.

Step 3: Soak hardware for a couple hours in the crock-pot (on low). Self explanatory. I think I soaked for about 4-6 hours my first round of hardware.

Step 4: Scrape off paint and polish the brass. I found that most of the paint peeled right off the hardware, though there were some spots that required a little more finesse. Using mineral spirits and steel wool (get #0000 grit for removing/polishing) I was able to easily remove all the paint. Once it was removed, I scrubbed each piece with a little more mineral spirits, dried, then buffed/polished with the steel wool. There are a number of natural and store bought solutions that will help polish old hardware. My favorite resource here.

Step 5: Put it back together. Ahhhhh, the sweet success of almost-instant gratification. One of the reasons I love this little fix is that it only takes a day to see your pretty final results. So great.

Porch Progress

It seems fitting that the first room to feel *sorta* done is the porch - the entry to our home. I'm finally happy to say that with some minor updates, it's feeling quite cozy these days. When we looked at the house I knew I wanted to make it a sunny little reading and storage nook - useful for tucking away shoes and hanging jackets as well as being able to use the space beyond just storage.

After taking down what felt like a bazillion curtains, its much more light and airy.

My initial plan was to paint the porch a shade darker than the living room, because my logic said that more windows = more light = can handle dark colors. It looked ok going on...but ended up a gray/slate blue/purple color that I didn't like (but tried to convince myself to like).

I repainted the entire room the same color as our living room/dining room - a beige/gray shade called Windrush by Behr. Much happier.