The Best High-Impact, Low-Budget Change

First, let me start by saying that I’m legitimately surprised by not only how substantial an impact this project made but also how it easy it was. I cannot overstate this fact that the enthusiasm behind words like “easy,” “inexpensive,” and “huge change” is all authentic.

I’ve been itching for a DIY project lately, but I didn’t want to do anything too large. It’s been a while since we did anything to the house and I didn’t want something that would take days of the house being in disarray. After doing some Pinterest-ing and looking around the house, I landed on something that has always bothered me.

Now, the next statement is not meant to inadvertently insult anyone. If the following design choice is your style, great for you. But it never has been nor will it ever be my style so… it needed to go.

Gold door handles.

They stand out in our decor choices. They always look dirty (especially the ones in our house that are covered in paint splashes of owner’s past.) I tend not to like reflective services that aren’t mirrors. All in all, not my thing. (“My” changes to “our” after my husband sees the difference. Up to the point of installation, he was indifferent to the door handles.)

As an alternative, with white and grey foundational design elements, I always wanted black hardware. I loved the images I found that the color combination looked sleek and clean.

I found simple black round door handles on Wayfair on clearance that we just loved. 12 handles for $170. (As my cousin pointed out, I now have a fun fact about my house knowing exactly how many doors I have.)

For some reason, changing door handles has always intimidated me. In the same way that changing a ceiling fan or air filter has – just have to do it once and it’s fairly straightforward, but until I do it, the unknown is intimidating.

Let’s just say, changing door handles is wildly easy. The most complicated part is ensuring you put the latch in the right way. Seriously – it’s only a few parts and a screwdriver.

So I dove right in. Changing out all the gold door handles for black ones, and the transformation was immediate. Even my two year old remarked, “Wooow!” and couldn’t stop touching them.

There were some bumps along the way. Usually putting the latch piece in the wrong way. For the record, the flat part goes toward the direction of the door swing. A super easy fix though.

Start to finish, with two little ones running around, and a few minor breaks along the way, I was able to replace all 12 door handles in under 3 hours. 3 hours! Can you believe that?!