Cleaning and painting old kitchen and bathroom handles or knobs

My kitchen cabinets are old. Really old. Like, falling apart old In a previous post, I discussed how I used shelf paper to try and fix them up a bit. Then, one night, I grabbed a handle to open one of the cabinets and felt a gritty, nasty texture under my fingertips. I removed the handle to clean it with a sponge and was disgusted to find that the backside, which was solid black, was actually a brassy gold color once the black was scrubbed off. It was really, really gross.

I wanted to get all-new handles, but these cabinets are old enough that the handle screws are spaced 2.75" apart, while handles nowadays are 3". Either I could find handles spaced 2.75" apart, which is nearly impossible without paying way more than normal or using handles from equally-old cabinetry, or I could drill new holes in the cabinets, which is not only unattractive, but also not an option as I am renting. Plus, handles can be pricey to begin with and I had 16 to replace. So I decided to just clean up the current handles and repaint them.

First was the cleaning period. I looked up a lot of stuff on the internet and found that a lot of people use tarnish remover, with varying, sometimes disastrous results. I didn't want to go to the store, and I didn't want to risk ruining these handles altogether, so I decided to take a different route.

I mixed lemon juice and baking soda in a 2:1 solution (start with 2 tablespoons lemon juice to 1 tablespoon baking soda), and used both a rag and a kitchen sponge, dipping them in the solution and just using elbow grease to scrub scrub scrub. I'll warn you now, this method takes a long time.

I decided to also do my bathroom handles, and after some scrubbing (and only after scrubbing, the year was absolutely not present before scrubbing), I found that the knobs had a year of 1960 on them. Geez.

Once the knobs and handles were reasonably well-scrubbed (an evaluation that got more lax as time went on), it was time to paint. 

I got a can of gold Ace Metallic Spray Paint from the hardware store (I had a $10 off coupon to Ace Hardware in my USPS change of address kit, which was awesome). I didn't want to change the coloring too drastically so I just opted for a chrome-y gold. I wish it had been a bit more chrome-y than it ended up being though. I might have gone with something brighter and different if I hadn't been tired when I was at the store.

The spray paint was awesome. It was almost like magic. I'd do a quick spray, and all of a sudden, all of the handles were bright gold!

The paint said it was dry to the touch after one hour, and ready to go after 24 hours. I waited the full 24 hours before flipping each side over to spray a new coat.

Aren't they pretty? I did install a few handles, but the paint did not feel ready for strong gripping even after 48 hours, so I'll wait a few more days. The last thing I need is for the paint to get fingerprints on it while I'm trying to screw them on. But overall, I'm quite pleased with the project, and at least now I won't be getting 50 years' worth of grime and dirt on me whenever I touch them.