I remembered reading somewhere about boiling paint off old hardware, so I Googled it to figure out what the actual directions were. Seems several other renovators have used this method and had relatively good things to say about it (paint removal kinda sucks, no matter what) Here's some directions from This Old House magazine.
Here's what I started off with:
I don't actually own an old crock pot, and wasn't about to make a trip to Goodwill. BUT I had just gone through my cabinets to finally throw out old mismatched pots I had from college... so I pulled one of those back out of the trash and used it. The other thing is that I didn't have enough patience to wait overnight to cook the stuff off. I'm not entirely sure it really needed it anyway.
Mmmm... yummy - door hardware soup in a lead paint broth - maybe an entry into next year's soup party??
And here's the final result for the backplates and the doorknobs:
Not too bad for paint removal... but not that exciting of a result. I suppose like most things Folk Victorian, it's pretty plain. The hinges are even less exciting.
The latest project house for TOH has some hardware pictures that are making me salivate...
My searching has me narrowing it down to something like these from House of Antique Hardware for the backplates (at around $30 each):
The dark one only comes in that finish, but I can get the brass one in other finishes... (I can't deal with shiny brass)
There's something wrong with the website right now, but I also found some neat backplates and hinges at Historic House Parts. I like some of the styles in their HHP classics collection...
Ah... I love hardware. Maybe I should take a trip to a few salvage yards while I'm off this week and see what they have... The only bad thing about that is that it's not likely that I'll find enough to have all the doors match. Then again, I'm not sure I really need all the doors to match.
2 comments:
I had done the same thing..., cleaned up all the old hardware, luckily in my old house that was one thing that wasn't painted over (with green)..., all the doors were. I think it's neat to use the old hardware. Great job!
I picked up a great tip from the Rejuvenation staff (www.rejuvenation.com). It's basically the same as what you read on TOH but they add a scoop of Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda. And I changed it up a bit because I didn't want paint vapors in my house so I boiled the water on the stove and then poured it into a pot outside. Added the soap and hardware and let sit until water was cool. I repeated step if needed. Love your blog!
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