Retiring NuTone, Replacing with Atomic

Happy New Year, friends! I suspect that my Mom’s going to be most excited to see the newly installed new doorbell chimes in our home, and the rest of you might bug out over the fact that I got rid of something that was truly original and authentic to our 1950’s abode… hear me out.

Those old NuTone door chimes? Beautiful things, but broken in numerous ways. The clock on the face wasn’t working when we bought the house, and these days only two of the chimes sounded off. And the dog went manic anytime his tail thwapped the metal, but that was always good for a laugh as long as it didn’t happen while a kid was napping, or in the middle of the night.

Time for an update.

I turned to Rejuvenation for a new doorbell during the spring (the mid-century chime doorbell button), and noticed at that time that they had some nice chime options too.

The button, that never actually got installed because notice how much wider the hardware is compared to my old doorbell above? There wasn’t enough space between the standard bell hole and the storm door trim to accommodate, so I resorted to a basic white faceplate, and all’s well. After that experience I actually expected replacing the door chimes to be more troublesome, but they ended up being a piece of cake.

I started by taking a few photos of the existing unit, mostly to understand how it was wired in case I needed to reinstall, or needed to help future buyers understand how to install it.

From there, I unscrewed it from the wall, and sized the new door chime (the atomic age doorbell chime in brushed nickel) against the footprint of the old product. I love knowing that the hallway was once a shade of my all-time favorite green color. The new box was a bit narrower, so I knew I would have to do a bit of wall patching and painting to update before installing.

Once the paint dried, I positioned and leveled the new door chime, marking where wall anchors would have to be placed to secure the unit.

I wired the product, tested to make sure that it worked on both the front and back door (first try, high-five), and then secured it to the wall.

The faceplate to the new door chime attached separately, and my only complaint with this is that the set screws were positioned so close to the wall that it was almost impossible to get a screwdriver flush enough to the wall without damaging the paint with the rotating handle.

We love it. The entrance to the hallway feels wider and lighter, while it still feels appropriate for our home. Most places I’ve lived have only had plastic, less attractive chimes, so here’s a friendly reminder than you can update them with ease!