Craftiness ... {How-To} Paint Drawer Pulls for a More Updated Look

If you remember, I recently acquired a new-to-me desk from an estate sale.  I don't know exactly how old this desk is, but it's at least 40 years.
Not all of the drawer pulls had screws, but they were all still with the desk.  I spent some time looking for replacement pulls, because bronze colored pulls aren't really my style.  Due to the age of the desk, the drawer pulls were an awkward size. Apparently the standard now is 3", and these are 2 3/4". In order to buy brand new drawer pulls I was looking at about $7 a pull! WHOA! This was especially steep considering I paid $25 for the whole desk!
I knew there had to be a better way. I spent some time googling "how to paint drawer pulls," and got some inspiration from people who had painted all kinds of hardware in their house, including cabinet handles and door knobs!
Clearly a trip to one of my least favorite stores was in order - Home Depot.  Gals, this girl may be convinced. Home Depot is not the store I remember being trapped in as a child. They had an array of spray paint colors, along with different primers and clear coats. I had read that a self-etching primer would be best for painting metal. It was double the price of the paint, but rather than risk the paint chipping off, I went with it. I don't know whether the Boyfriend likes it or thinks I've totally lost my mind, but I went with Tiffany Blue. For the record, I think it's fantastic. {I also wish I had a better background for pictures, but when you're in a man's world, you just have to work with what he has in his shop.}
If you have a man around with an engineering brain, this process with probably go a lot faster (or if you have one of those brains yourself). I was going to lay them on a bunch of newspaper, but he took an old chunk of wood he had lying around, but it in a clamp-thing (sorry, I read legal opinions all day), and then used a power drill to drill 7 holes into it. Then he took nails and hung each pull on a nail. It made this entire process SO fast.  We generously sprayed the self-etching primer on the drawer pulls. After letting it dry for a few minutes, we prayed another coat.  Then we worked on a project he had done a few weeks ago - painting the picnic table he built.

This has nothing to do with drawer pulls. I'm just bragging on my man.

Thirty minutes later we sprayed the color onto the pulls. Again, after an hour or so, we sprayed another coat. Something I discovered when I went to get them the next day was that this method left the tops of the handles still a bit uncovered. While you paint, make sure to move the handle just a tad so that the color gets everywhere. 

This is actually the primer. Don't be worried. The paint covered it up perfectly.

I purchased the matted clear coat instead of glossy since the color was so bright. We waited to spray this on until after we'd painted the rest of the picnic table. Thus, the blue had a couple of hours to dry. I left the pulls in the shop for about 24 hours, and screwed them onto my desk the next night after work. A word to the wise, make sure you're screwing the pulls on in the right direction. I did the first one right, then the second one upside down. Oops. Then I put the fourth one on upside down, too. I swear I graduated from law school. All in all, I think the desk looks great! It's a fun pop of color that cheers me up in the mornings when I sit down to have my quiet time. It wasn't even a hard process, although I know the painting would have taken a lot longer if the Boyfriend hadn't shared some expertise. I have only spray painted one other time in my life, so you don't need any practice in painting to paint hardware in your house.
Hopefully these tips help you perk up an old item around your house!

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