We are very excited to have closed and moved into our “new” MCM home. The first thing I love about the house is the original lighting and door knobs. This door knob rocks. Has anyone refinished one of these backplates and if so how and are they copper? This is two blocks from beach so given it’s age I think it has held up well.”
Members of our facebook group for midcentury home owners were happy to help.
Below are some examples of members thoughts on the topic. These are only a few of the thousands of tips that are shared in our exclusive Facebook Group dedicated to midcentury modern home owners. If you own a midcentury house and are not already a member, join us now!
- “I live in humid southern Virginia, along a river. My house was built in the early 1970’s. I tackled these exterior doorknobs with a product called The Pink Stuff. I think you can find it in some hardware stores, or Wal-Mart, but I ordered from Amazon. It still takes some elbow grease on something this bad, but I was truly astonished by the results.“
- “Man that whitewash is criminal, hope it strips off well for you. I’d hazard a guess that the fixtures are brass.”
- “The starburst looks like copper and knob/spy portal looks like brass. You could easily polish each back to its original brightness and then lacquer to protect it from tarnishing. But, that copper(?) patina is amazing and not replicable by anything but time. Maybe stripping and refinishing the door, then polishing up the brass, but keeping the copper patina would be cool?”
- “I would not touch the hardware the natural patina is beautiful and intentional on both..… I think the brass is actually bronze hence the deep dark color instead of yellow tone”
- “I’d strip the door first. You may find you like the patinated door hardware with the walnut, and while you can always polish the hardware later if you change your mind, you can’t restore the patina! “
- “I have that exact knob and it’s brass. The inside one is super shiny and my outside has one is considerably darker. Different weather will tarnish brass differently. If you’re near water, the moist air most definitely can do that. My guess is yours might be not copper either but I could be wrong. Copper typically turns green here but I’m in the middle of frigid Canada and not near water and my brass knobs aren’t that tarnished.“
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