Nutty For New Knobs

My home’s interior doorknobs are one of those things that have fallen by the wayside during this 3-year home makeover. There’s a pleasant range between matte brass to shiny brass, to knobs that were swatted with a paint roller and knobs that have never actually worked, and I think I’ve mentioned it before without a whole lot of follow through, I’d love to update them someday to be more coordinating. When you’re talking about as many doorknobs as I am (six) it’s neither penny change or totally expensive depending on how you price shop, so I’m committing to getting on that this month.

The mismatched doors themselves are another issue, and how about this, only just last week I noticed that the bottom of my own solid hardwood bedroom door (the only “good” door of the bedroom doors) had been chiseled at mercilessly. I could only find existing evidence of it from this photo taken in January 2010, and I’m amazed it’s not something I’ve ever noticed before. What gives, and why did they need to hack off two extra inches anyways? Plush carpet isn’t even that thick.

Back to the offending knobs. One’s shown in that above picture, and the rest look just about as jolly. I’ve been shopping around for different options and finding that the pricing and style can vary immensely from brand to brand; it’s an unusual phenomenon that the basic bed/bath knobs that I like the most are also attached to the lowest price point. (I browsed Gate House at Lowe’s, Defiant at Home Depot, and other assorted off-brand sounding products like ShlickSet and QuickLock at the Mr. Seconds of the world and although those were inexpensive, they were most often what I was trying to avoid, as in, they were the brassiest of the brassy brass).

Side note: If you’re looking mid-range and brand label for your knobs, the KwikSet options seemed durable and not heinous, but a little more traditional-home-decorish for this place

Side note #2: Schlage’s options were totally not my style, mostly levers instead of knobs, and priced nearly 4x that of the inexpensive, clean-lined knobs I’ve already picked out.

But back to the knobs I bought. El Cheaparundo. Considering that indoor door security isn’t of high concern, especially when the only doorknob that ever gets closed is the bathroom door, I didn’t have a problem choosing these $8 knobs that were the most simplified and clean-lined of all of the affordable options.

I hope a full-on tutorial for how to replace a doorknob isn’t necessary here. Even if you’ve never done it before, you probably won’t need to follow the instructions. I don’t want to come across as too presumptuous, but I swear now, as soon as you take a screw driver to your offending or broken knob, you will understand how a doorknob works, and how the new one needs to fit in assuming that you’re not trying to add a totally different type of lock (like converting from traditional knob to mortice lock, come on).

Easy peasy, as shown on the updated basement door.

Let uniformity in the world of doorknobs commence.