Spray painted door knobs – the result

Helloooooo. WHOOT for Friday! I’ve got a fun weekend planned and I’m stoked about it. The weather is supposed to stink so I’m crossing my fingers that everything goes as planned.

I wanted to do a quick update on the door knobs I spray painted a few months ago. I’m pretty sure I did this back in October – I shared how I did it here but the gist of it is that I primed the knobs with spray primer then did a couple coats of oil rubbed bronze spray paint:

They looked great! This one was on the back door that we’ve since replaced, but I also did the knob on our mud room door and the result…well, it isn’t good. :)

Pretty much immediately we noticed the keyhole area was going to be an issue (which didn’t surprise me at all) and it went downhill fast:

But honestly most of the wear is just from our hands, which did surprise me. The area around the edge of the knob is totally worn:

OK, what’s interesting is I swear I primed both of these with black primer, at least I’m pretty sure I did? Maybe I did one with white? I don’t know because the worn parts are white. (Yes, I did start using white on one of them. The primer I love to hate.) So, if you do try this at home maybe use black primer only, that might help. 

The inside of the door where there’s no keyhole has faired a bit better – the edges aren’t as worn but the lock is:

This is after three months of use and honestly it started wearing off almost immediately – I’d say within a couple weeks. So, ultimately I didn’t have great success with it. This knob is staying till I want to spend on a new one because it’s functioning just fine.

Things that may help – sanding them down will help the spray paint adhesion. I didn’t try that cause I thought it would be a pain, but honestly just sanding the edges may help. Also, I didn’t do a clear coat to protect it when I was done. I’ve never done that on anything I’ve spray painted and it’s held up fine, but not much gets this kind of use. That may help (but I still think that would wear off after awhile too.)

So there are the results of my spray paint experiment. :) I know some of you have painted your door knobs – did it work for you? If so what did you do differently?

Have a GREAT weekend!!