Door Chime Makeover

I have not written too much yet on my diy home adventures. I guess I was trying to wait until something was "finished" to write about it. That nasty "F" word anyway. So here is a little project that is actually finished...

This beauty, our 1970's fake wood grain and brass door chime was ready for an update. It still worked so I didn't want to trash it completely but it definitely needed an update. I decided to go with a black/silver scheme to match my stainless steel appliances.

First, I figured out which breaker runs the door chime and turned it off. The front plate pulls off pretty easily and the rest is wired in and hung on a screw. It was full of cobwebs so once I got it down I cleaned it up. The pipes unscrew from the main piece and then the chimes could be pulled off. There were little rubber washers that held the chimes onto the pipes so I was careful not to loose them.

I taped off the motif on the front plate and that was ready to paint. I spray painted the pipes and the motif with silver spray paint-2 coats. Then I painted over the wood grain with an acrylic enamel. I had never used this kind of paint before-it is very shiny and you really have to keep a wet edge or it shows. It dries very hard and looks kind of plasticky. I did 2 coats of this as well.

After it was all dry I put it back together and hooked it up. The spray paint was scratching off pretty easily but now that it is up there it won't be touched. It was a cheap update and looks way better-on to the next project!