Last week both Zen-Den and I had bad head colds. Z-D soldiered on going to work with a determined attitude and a box of tissues by his side. I took the opposite route to renewed health and became a hermit at home, nesting with a book on the sofa in the TV room. With a box of tissues by my side, too, of course.
By the weekend we were on the rebound– moving slowly with stuffed-up noses, not tired enough to want to sleep through the day. We had some energy and the relaxed calm focus that comes from not hearing very clearly. We wanted to do something productive that wasn’t too mentally complex or socially interactive. So…
We decided to start replacing the handles and hinges on all our interior doors. Good-bye cheap shiny brass. Hello stylish satin nickel. This is a project that I’ve wanted us to do almost from the first day we moved into the house 13 years ago! I’m not a fan of shiny brass as the featured metal in northern homes; imho, it’s much more tasteful as an accent color here and there around the house.
Turns out that this project was easy enough for two sniffly, tissue-toting adults to do at their own speed without much need for thinking. It went smoothly and provided instant gratification– unlike so many home improvement projects that drag on for months. And the results of the transformation are stunning. Perfect, even.
Oddly enough we’ve never done this sort of hardware change before in any of our houses. Now that I’ve seen how much better everything in the house looks and how much calmer I feel with the proper color and style of hardware on our doors, I know that I’d do it again in a heartbeat if a new home didn’t have [in my opinion] the proper hardware on its doors. Happy is in the details. And blessed are they that make it so!
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Home Sweet Satin Nickel Home
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THE SPECTACLED BEAN 
It looks so nice in the pictures. So glad we have done this.
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Me too! Amazing how a small change like this can make everything look so much better. There’s a lesson in there somewhere, my dear!
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They are beautiful and elegant. Nice clean lines. I have your cold and am not enjoying it one bit.
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Margaret, thanks. The color, the clean lines, the fact that they have some weight to them… I can’t decide what I like best about them! Sorry about your cold. Everyone seems to have one this month.
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I really like your choice! It’s amazing the difference a small change can make. I would so love to get rid of the hardware in this house. I don’t even know how to describe it besides “really ugly.”
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Looks lovely! We put up a few fish / undersea wall stickers in my son’s room and it completely transformed it! Similar but not really on the subject, I was given hair straighteners for Christmas and I’m amazed by the difference they make to me. My hair is practically straight anyway, but that little change makes all the difference.
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It’s funny that you did this, because just yesterday, I was looking at our tarnished brass front door knob and thinking how ugly it looks! Now that I’ve seen the beautiful knobs on your doors, we must do something about ours!
Tim and I have been so lucky (knock on wood) to not have picked up colds on our visit to Ohio. Kris got one the weekend we left, too. Hope you and Denis are both doing much better.
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Zazzy, we lived in a house where “really ugly” described every bit of hardware as well as every lighting fixture. We didn’t change a thing while we lived there, but it left a lasting impression on my psyche. Probably explains why I’m so thrilled to have these new handles and hinges and door stops.
Polly Burns, small changes really do make for big rewards– whether it be doors, walls, hair! 😉
Beth, great minds & all that. Wait until you see all the door handle possibilities available! So many cool styles. You’re going to like it.
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Looking good. My dream is to replace all the hollow door in my house that a previous owner replaced the original doors with in a misguided attempt to “update” the house.
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Wow, it looks amazing! I don’t know how you were able to stand shiny brass…for how many years??!! I love satin nickel and when we built our house (in 2005) I requested it for every single fitting (and it was a fairly new finish back then). I even requested satin nickel for the edge between the rug and the fireplace tile! On a related note, in our second apartment, we actually bought and switched out every single switch/electrical outlet cover from icky beige plastic ones to the cool white metal ones. Even though it was a little expensive (at the time), it was so completely worth it and made the whole space feel a lot more zen. So there’s lots of us out there! 😉
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la p, the previous owners took out original old wonderful doors to put in hollow ones?!! Oh, that is so sad. Those hollow doors tend to open and shut of their own volition– as I recall from a previous home we had with that type of door. It was like having ghosts living with us.
Kristen, shiny brass was the only type of metal handle offered to us when we built this house in ’99. It wasn’t until many years later that I discovered that there were other finishes and styles available at Lowes and The Home Depot. Once I knew about satin nickel I was smitten!
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