Painting Hardware

Hardware is pricey, especially when you need more than just a few knobs or pulls.  Quite often the best thing to do is to paint the existing hardware.  There are always at least 4 steps to properly paint any hardware.  Rough it up with a 120 sandpaper, prime it with an oil-based primer, paint it, and apply a protective clear coat.

For the red dresser I knew I wanted gold pulls but I have serious issues with metallic spray paint.  I've tried every brand there is to try and it never looks authentic {except for oil-rubbed bronze - it looks alright}.  I finally figured out a  little trick that has helped me when I want a gold-colored finish:  don't buy the gold paint - buy the brass {Rustoleum is best}.  The lids are the same color so you'll have to look on the back to distinguish between the two.  After you spray the hardware you'll notice that it looks flat and oh-so-fake.  To age it a little and to give it some definition, I take brown acrylic paint and lightly dry brush it on making sure to get it in all the grooves.  The result is much more authentic-looking gold hardware.

*Don't over think the brown paint step - it doesn't need to look perfect.  If you enlarge the picture below you'll see the before and after and my brown paint doesn't look great, but on the finished piece it looks awesome.

This is how the hardware looked before.

 

And after.