We used an interior/exterior paint on both sides in a black semi-gloss latex {from Dulux}, the shine definitely added a glamorous effect:
So .. did you spot my new best friend?? The lovely bronze lion head door knocker is my favorite recent addition ... Hollywood glam or what? And for a mere $39.99 from Lee Valley Tools, I am in love!
This may look like it was a tiny job, but a fair bit of elbow grease went into it, what with the sanding, and taping, and painting etc etc ... uughh. Another detail we wanted to address was the hardware currently on the door. Though it was all bronze, it was dingy and quite oxidized and we needed it to have a similar finish to the lion head knocker. We contemplated replacing the handle with something shiny and new, but then thought, ugh, an additional cost we didn't anticipate ... total "reno snow-ball effect" as I call it, one thing always leads to another!
But here's where the real elbow grease came in: instead of going out and buying something new, we brought our bronze hardware to life with simple metal polish!! This stuff works miracles, check it out! You can see on the left we just began to put on the cream polish, and on the right, ALL NEW!
Can you see that around the handle above was left white by the previous owners? And believe it or not I'm pretty sure a Sharpie marker was used to conceal that as much as possible {oh dear}. The polish makes a bit of mess, so it may be wise to take the hardware off the door, but since we were painting it didn't really matter.
I had never tried this stuff before, but if you've got exposed bronze that has tarnished I would definitely give it a try! {Autosol Metal Polish, approx. $8.00}.
So here is a view of the interior of the door before and after getting a coat of fabulous black:
YUM! All in all, I am quite happy with the results :) And the grand total for all supplies was: $40 black paint + $40 for the lion head knocker + $8 for the bronze polish + some sweat = $88 for a brand new glam door! You can't beat that!!
Any summer projects you have been working on lately? I've got more up my sleeve that I'll be sharing with you soon!