Operation Restoration Hardware: Part I

And I'm not talking about the overpriced home store...no siree. Stuart and I have been "restoring" the hardware in our guest bedroom. Many times we had talked about how to remove the paint that the previous owners applied to all the window and door hardware throughout the house. However, neither of us had ever attempted stripping paint from hardware. So we decided our guest bedroom would be the perfect place to practice a somewhat hairbrained how to on paint removal. Hairbrained, you say? Yes--we definitely doubted the ingredients that were involved and didn't have high hopes for stripping the paint off our original door knobs and window sash locks. Here is the before picture of all the hardware from this one room:

There were multiple layers of paint on some pieces, so that made us even more doubtful of our recipe for paint removal. Get ready for it...all you need to remove this paint is a crockpot, enough water to cover all the pieces in the crock pot, and a cup of laundry detergent. No joke. We used Tide detergent, but you can use whatever you have on hand. Turn the crockpot and and let things "cook" overnight.

Here is a picture of our hardware "cooking":

Yuuum, right? And in the morning, your hardware will look like this...

Ta dah!!! Once the hardware simmered overnight, it was very easy to remove the paint off each piece with a brillo pad and a screwdriver (for scraping). We didn't even polish these--this is exactly how they looked once the paint came off. Pretty amazing, huh?

And why is this Part I, you might ask? Because while the brass is nice, I wanted a copper and have been spray painting each piece. So stay tuned for Part II and the finished product!