Updating Hardware Without Spray Paint or Chemicals

Last Friday, I shared my grandfathers dresser makeover and today I'm sharing how I saved money by updating the original hardware.  I would have loved to go out and buy all new hardware, but that would have added a rather large expense to this makeover.  The dresser will eventually end up in our laundry room and since I'm probably the only one who's going to see it, I just couldn't justify the added expense.

I normally update hardware with spray paint, but this time I wanted to try something different.  I wanted the pulls to have a variation in color and knew I could achieve that look with regular old acrylic paint.

I started by first sanding the shiny gloss finish off the hardware with fine grit sandpaper.  Make sure you don't skimp on the sanding, it's very important if you want your paint to stick well.  I used a fine grit sanding block, which worked out great.

Next, it was time to paint.  I used metallic gray and metallic gold acrylic paint, first painting on the gray then adding the gold once the gray was almost dry.

It's very important not to let the gray dry before you add the gold.   If you let the paint dry you will essentially just be covering up the first coat of paint.  Adding the gold overtop while the gray paint is still wet allows the colors to blend nicely together.

Once the paint was dry I gave them a quick sanding before adding them to the dresser. 

I couldn't be happier with how they turned out and especially love that this project was totally free, which is way cheaper than going out and buying new hardware.