In a recent post, I introduced you all to our new old house that Tom and I just bought. I didn’t go into a ton of detail about the house but I mentioned there were several projects I’ve planned for our home. I’ll be sharing those with you all here on the blog as they happen. Among the many projects, I have planned, restoring all of the original antique hardware is one of the smaller tasks. As I’ve started on this task, in this post, I’ll walk you through exactly how to restore antique hardware.
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In addition to all of our beautiful original wood windows in need of restoration that has been sealed shut inside and out, all of the hardware was also painted in the house.
This included all the door handles, knobs on the cupboards, keyhole hardware, everything. I guess the previous owners decided it wasn’t worth the hassle to remove everything when painting.
Instead, they decided just to spray over it all.
Well I decided to tackle this for one of my first home improvement projects and thought it would be helpful to anyone else who may be facing this same predicament.
In another post I shared the absolute best way to remove paint from wood or furniture. While both projects involve removing paint from hardware and restoring it is an entirely different process.
If you’re curious I did try to use citristrip to strip some of the hardware at first. It just wasn’t the most practical approach when doing large amounts of hardware stripping and sometimes didn’t work at all.
The process I’m going to show you is great because it doesn’t require you to use a chemical stripper. And you’ll likely have everything you’ll need on hand already in your home.
As I said you’ll likely have everything you need for this project on hand. But like most projects you will need a couple things.
What You Need to Restore Antique Hardware
- An old pot or crockpot you don’t plan to cook in anymore
- Steel wool sponge (preferably 2 different grits)
- Steel scrub brush (optional)
- Dish soap
- Bar Keepers Friend Cleanser (optional)
- Pair of old cleaning gloves (optional)
Ok, so now that you have everything you need to restore your antique hardware, go around and remove all the hardware from your doors. Or whatever it is you’re restoring and put it all in your old pot.
I used a pot because I still don’t have a crockpot. But if you have an old crockpot you’re willing to designate for things like this then that works too!
NOTE: If you don’t have paint you are stripping off your hardware first you can skip this step.
Fill Your Pot with Water and Soap
Once you’ve removed all the hardware and collected it into your pot, fill the pot with water.
Next, squirt several ounces of dish soap in it.
Let Your Antique Hardware Soak and Simmer
Put your filled pot on the stove and let the hardware simmer in the soapy water for several hours.
I don’t have an exact time for this, I found some batches were done faster than others.
However, it will likely need to simmer for at least a couple of hours.
Check Your Soaking Hardware
You’ll know when to take it off when you check your hardware and notice the paint peeling off on its own. Or you can take most of it off with your fingers easily.
There will be those stubborn pieces where the paint doesn’t want to come off that easily. However, overall the paint should come off with ease.
Take your water off the heat and let it cool enough but do not dump out the water. Let your hardware soak in the water.
Piece by piece take your hardware out and remove the paint first with your fingers. This is where I recommend the gloves. You’ll be working with the hardware a lot. I personally prefer to keep my hands as protected as possible with this step.
If a little more is required use your tougher grit steel wool sponge or brush and scrub the paint free. Discard all the paint gunk in a grocery bag.
Cleaning Stubborn Hardware
When the paint has been removed from the hardware take your finer steel wool and polish your hardware.
I used a very fine 0000 grit wool.
For additional polishing
If you’re hardware is particularly tarnished and you want that really shiny look use the optional Bar Keepers Friend Cleanser.
I’ve used this stuff in the past when I had a pair of candlesticks that I thought were beyond saving and it did wonders when a bunch of other recommendations failed!
Once you’ve gone through all your hardware you’re done and you can reinstall everything!
So there you go, that’s how to restore antique hardware.
Pretty simple.
In all honesty the worst part for me at least was taking everything off and then having to put it all back on again.
I’d be lying if I said I reinstalled everything right away or even in a reasonable amount of time. In fact the restored hardware sat in a box in our butlers pantry for weeks before I finally got around to reinstalling everything.
I hope you found this post helpful and if you have any questions about the process please feel free to leave a comment or reach out to me by email, Pinterest or Instagram.
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