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Monday, April 16, 2012

Oil Rubbed Bronze Glass Door Knobs for Less



I don’t know about you, but I love the look of oil rubbed bronze glass door knobs! They add so much character to a space, and in my opinion, they look a lot better than the builder-grade brass door knobs that most houses come with. 

When it came to our master suite, I knew I wanted glass door knobs, but glass door knobs are EXPENSIVE!  I couldn’t find any oil rubbed bronze glass door knobs online for less than $25, and I needed six sets of door knobs!  One for the master bathroom off of the bedroom, one for the door that leads to the separate toilet area, one for the master closet off of the bathroom, one for the linen closet just off of the master bedroom, and two for the French doors as you enter the master bedroom.  One of those French doors has a dummy door knob, so I actually needed five door knobs and one dummy door knob.  Yep, this was going to be expensive unless I came up with a plan. 

Well, I did come up with a plan.  While shopping around for glass door knobs, I noticed that the brass glass door knobs were a fraction of the price of the oil rubbed bronze ones.  I also remembered my ORB door knob project that I did a few months ago.  Are you putting two and two together yet?  If you keep up with my blog, you know several months ago, I redid our builder-grade brass door knobs by spray painting them oil rubbed bronze.  It was a very successful project!  You can find that post here.  Basically, my plan was to buy brass glass door knobs and spray paint them ORB. 

It sounded like a fabulous and simple plan in my head.  I wish I could say that this project was a cinch, but there were a lot of unexpected problems that I came across as I worked on this project.  Live and learn I guess.  Here’s how I managed to pull this project off……



I bought five of these  glass door knobs on Amazon for $8 each.....






.....one of these glass door knobs for $5 to replace the dummy door knob on one of our French doors...


…..and one $8can of ORB spray paint from Lowe’s. 

Quick Side Note:  By switching out the builder-grade door knobs to these glass door knobs I forfeited having locks on the new door knobs.  It’s hard to find locks on any glass door knob, and the cost is much greater for glass knobs with locks. 


I set out all of the brass pieces of the door knobs that needed to be painted on a large piece of cardboard.


I spray painted the caps of the door knobs.


Then I taped the glass knobs with painters tape…..


…..and painted the brass part of the knob.


When the paint dried, I took off the tape and it looked like this. 

FYI:  Some people prefer to use a spray primer before they apply the ORB spray paint. I didn’t use any primer, and our door knobs that we painted several months ago are holding up well. My husband and I live alone though. If you have kids and your house gets more wear and tear, you may want to try the primer before applying the ORB.

The door knobs that I bought off of Amazon came with these…..


…..but they were sized a little bit different than the ones from my original brass door knobs.  I painted my original ones ORB and used them instead of the new ones, since the original ones already fit perfectly into the door frame.


Now for the first real problems that I ran into with this door knob project.  My new knobs came with these.  I discovered that in order to make them work in my door, my husband needs to carve out a piece of the door to give them the perfect fit and make them functional with the rest of the new door knobs.  We have the tools to do this from all of the doors we replaced in our last house, but the hubs is not fond of home improvement projects.  Since I had him updating our guest bathroom this weekend, I didn’t have the heart to make him do all six of these doors too.  We will need to do it some point and time, and when we do I'll give these a coat of ORB paint before they go in the doors.


In the meantime, I am using the original piece that came with our builder-grade door knobs.  It’s actually a little loose with my new knobs. It does work, but the problem is that we can only turn the new door knobs one way with this original piece.  For now, this is just a quick fix….it’s not a long term solution.  When the hubs carves out all the doors, this problems will be solved.  Unfortunately, I know my husband, and it could be a year before that happens;)

The second problem that I ran into was with the dummy door knob for my French door.  I thought that the builder-grade dummy door knob came apart into several pieces, and I had planned on using the plate from my builder-grade dummy door knob to put on my knew glass door knob …..however, the plate did not detach from the knob.  To fix this little problem, I had to go to Lowe’s and buy a set of door knob plates for $2.50.


The next problem that I ran into was once again with the dummy door knob. There was no way for ther plates that I bought from Lowe's to screw onto the glass door knob.  This was an easy fix though. I attached the plate to the knob with some epoxy glue that I had on hand.  Problem solved;)


What was supposed to be a one hour project ended up consuming most of my Saturday.  But I have to say that it was totally worth it!  I LOVE the character that these glass door knobs give our master bedroom!  And I LOVE the price that I paid for all six of them!  The lesson to be learned here is "if at first you don't succeed, try and try again":) 

Let’s total up the cost of this project: $40 for 5 brass glass door knobs, $5 for one glass dummy door knob, $8 for one can of oil rubbed bronze spray paint and $2.50  for a set of door knob plates.  That brings the total cost of this project to about $60!   Yes, $60 for 6 glass door knobs is a lot better than paying $25-$50 for one oil rubbed bronze glass door knob! 




Another home project complete!  Only a bazillion more to go…...or at least it feels that way to me;)




I'm linking to these parites this week:)





47 comments:

  1. I love how you used the glass door knobs for this. I've been thinking about spraying my knobs. Good to know that yours are still holding up. I've nominated you for the Versatile Blog Award. Come by my blog to check out the details. http://www.lovebugliving.com/2012/04/versatile-blog-award.html Congrats!
    Melissa

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  2. Thanks for sharing--those knobs are beautiful!

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  3. So lovely! ... thanks for sharing :)
    Visiting from Feathered Nest Friday
    Greetings from Australia♥
    ~Pernilla

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  4. I need to do this with some of the brass/glass knobs our house came with. Never thought of it--great idea.

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  5. Thank you so much for sharing!! I've been obsessed with the beautiful door knobs like these that I always see in Anthropologie, but because I didn't have an extra $300 laying around, I thought it would never happen. Thank you for this brilliant solution!!

    ~Nicole @ www.shabbybeachnest.com

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  6. Great idea and they look wonderful! Thanks for sharing. Pinning for later!

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  7. What a great way to get some beautiful glass knobs with out the second mortgage. Thanks for a great tutorial!

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  8. There's ALWAYS another project, isn't there, Rachel...?? lol! I love your ingenuity with this project. Great job saving all that money - and they look fabulous! :)

    xoxo laurie

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  9. Wow! Very creative project and your perseverance certainly paid off with lovely, elegant door knobs at a great price ~thanks, namaste, ^_^

    ps ~ consider linking up with my Monday Blog Hope ~ Magical Monday Meme because you are so creative !

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  10. That's a great idea and they turned out wonderful!

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  11. I love that spray paint, however, I've always used it on making old things new again... never dawned on me to use it on new products to make them fit my decor! Genius! LOVE IT! I've always drooled over anything vintage - especially glass door knobs... these will definitely be a part of my remodel. Would love for you to share with my readers at my linky party! www.stringtownhome.blogspot.com... I just posted the linky tool!

    -heather

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  12. Looks very pretty! Some day I would love to change out all of my doors to solid wood with glass knobs :)

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  13. I love the glass door knobs. Great choice.

    I'm visiting from the Newlyweds linky party. I hope that you can stop by my blog as well. :)

    Thanks for sharing,
    Laura

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  14. Looks great! I think i have another project to add to my list now!

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  15. This is such a great idea! Thanks so much for sharing at Mix it up Monday :)

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  16. those knobs are gorgeous! really makes a big difference....its all in the details i guess. LOL

    Jennifer
    http://decoratedchaos.blogspot.com

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  17. These are gorgeous! I have always wanted glass doorknobs, now I want ORB glass doorknobs :) One project off your list, and one more added to mine, hahaha!

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  18. I love glass doorknobs too! Great project!

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  19. This is a wonderful idea - what a great way to save money! Love that!
    Thanks for linking up!
    Stacey of Embracing Change

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  20. Excellent information provide for us.....................

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  22. Wow, its really very nice collection about the glass door,i haven't see this type of models,all are very attractive,keep updating.

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  23. Such an outstanding DIY guide and pictures. By the way, Have you used enamel or acrylic based paint?

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  24. I also painted one of my door knobs as a trial to save money and save myself the trouble of new door knob sets not fitting properly. I will def do the rest with this DIY! Soo easy...

    I love your glass door knobs!!! My boyfriend wouldn't even let me get the glass knobs for our cabinets so glass door knobs are out of the question. You're so lucky your husband didn't object :)

    I think the oil rubbed bronze color looks A LOT more classy than the brassy color. And it looks more unique. You definitely had to go through a few hiccups but it turned out beautifully.

    Thanks for sharing,

    Judy

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  25. Great idea and they look wonderful! Thanks for sharing. Doors of glass

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  26. I learned a lot from this DIY pictures and I'll use it for my
    Interior Glass Doors in my pantry.

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  27. Lever knobs are very easy for young children to work. In fact, I have even seen some cats and dogs manage to open doors with lever knobs.

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  28. This is a wonderful post, i'm terribly inquisitive about reading this.. Excellent stuff with wonderful information! I'm new here and loving the post! Thanks for sharing this great info!interior glass doors

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  29. wow, I wanna have that door knob glass also and I was looking for this at a near hardware here in our place but I couldn't see anything like this, so I need to go to another city to find something like this and thanks for commercial glass replacement Canada for having some photos and suggestions on what style or design will I choose :)

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  30. I have been searching for door knobs for my home decoration. This is such a better idea. Thank for sharing !!
    From,
    Cabinet Door Knobs

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  31. So beautiful, thank you for providing such guide

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  32. If I want to do this with some old, dirty hardware, do you think I need to clean it super well before painting? Or could i skip cleaning, just do primer and paint?

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    Replies
    1. I would probably clean them well first. But as long as the surface is smooth, spray paint should coat it evenly.

      Delete
  33. Wonderful blog & good post.Its really helpful for me, awaiting for more new post. Keep Blogging!

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  34. I actually enjoyed reading through this posting.Many thanks...

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  35. Love this, this is the tutorial I'm looking for, thanks for such info.

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  36. This is certainly a great way to match up your knob’s colors with your current door! At least you don’t have to worry about not getting the right match, since now you can do it yourself. Thanks for sharing!

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  37. Awesome ! i really found very informative article here and bookmarked this blog. Thank you.

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  38. Very creative and resourceful. My door would look so much better with that knob. Thanks for the DIY tutorial.

    Patrick Tan

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