Friday, February 7, 2014

Combating the Brass: Fireplace

This house came with a lot of brass--brass cabinet pulls, brass light fixtures, brass faucets--but we see those as relatively quick and affordable DIY opportunities.  While we would love to make those changes immediately, we are taking a room-by-room approach to most projects, focusing our funds and energy these days on our main living areas.

So far our interior brass doorknobs and the kitchen cabinet pulls have been replaced with oil-rubbed bronze.  Our bathroom faucets and our shower surround will have to wait until they climb up the priority list, however.  It could be a while.

Updating 1990's Brass

Happily some more brass did bite the dust this past weekend.  Our fireplace went from this:

Updating 1990's Brass

to this:

Updating 1990's Brass



Mike used a brush-on paint designed for high heat.  I took the doors off and cleaned them.  That was the extent of my contribution beyond the ideas and shopping I usually provide.  He then removed the glass from the frames, painted two coats on all of the visible edges, and re-installed it all.

We were unable to find new handles that fit the doors at our local hardware store, so Mike painted the brass parts of those as well.  We'll probably look into ordering some other ones later on.  We'll see.

Updating 1990's Brass

We're surrounded by future projects that will require a lot of time and money to take on.  Knowing how satisfying these smaller changes can be means all the brass tempts us to drop a little cash and put in the weekends sooner rather than later.  Still, we believe the impact will be more satisfying and the funds will grow faster if we hold off for the most part.

So I'll live with bits like this...
Updating 1990's Brass

...for now.  But I look forward to writing "Combating the Brass: Everything Else" one day.

Then I'll start the "Combating the 1990's Tile" series.

2 comments:

  1. Looks great! My husband quickly changed all the brass knobs and light fixtures when we moved in, but we haven't touched the fireplace yet (maybe you saw it in my Olympic Torch post on FB yesterday?). I have been daydreaming for six months if something like your makeover was possible. I showed my husband your success and he said he already bought high-heat black paint but got spray. That might be interesting. As for your other brass features, I am pretty sure the Jan/Feb Martha Stewart Living Mag had a tribute to brass including their own staff kitchen makeover to brass! Anytime you get annoyed by your remaining brass, just breathe deeply and repeat: "It's a good thing." :) -- Nika

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    1. Nika, the idea of the spray was what kept us from taking this on sooner, but I've seen it done successfully on other blogs! Thanks for the Martha Stewart encouragement. I'll have to look up that issue to give me some comfort!

      Sorry for the delay in posting this comment. I didn't see it until now for some reason!

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