Sometimes, I obsess about details until they look perfect. I want my earrings to match my outfit, or I break out the fancy dishes because a friend has brought over a fancy charcuterie platter. Maybe it’s a stereotypical Libra trait that I love to be surrounded by nice things and art, but sometimes fixing those details can improve something’s appearance. Doorknobs and cabinet hardware were some details that I had NEVER cared about in my entire life, until I had my house. Then, I was fixated on changing them.

Even before I bought the house, I had noticed that the kitchen cabinets had 5 different styles of knobs/drawer pulls, and they were worn away/old and grungy (original to the cabinets). My mom and I deep-cleaned the kitchen cabinets as I was unpacking my belongings, and we scrubbed off years of grease build-up and old cigarette tar. There was also a ridiculous amount of green tarnish on the ancient brass hardware. I could smell the years of grease and evil on these cabinets, and it was making me nauseous to be anywhere near the kitchen because despite our best efforts and degreasing cleaners, they still were not coming clean.

The idea of cooking in the kitchen with these icky cabinets horrified me, and I realized that I would need to redo the kitchen in the near future. But, for short-term use, I figured getting new kitchen hardware would be a good idea so I wasn’t touching the existing yucky cabinet knobs and drawer pulls ever again. When I started ordering housewares from the hardware store, I also threw a few random cabinet knobs in different finishes (brushed nickel, polished copper, antique copper, antique brass) into the order. I tried out some of those knobs on the cabinets, and didn’t like anything brushed nickel, copper, anything square, anything country or Colonial style in my kitchen.

Eventually, I settled on glossy antique brass knobs and drawer pulls in a transitional style (they looked both modern and classic, not trendy). I used a gift card to buy ALL the drawer pulls and cabinet knobs, and got a few extras just in case I needed them—with my luck, they would be discontinued soon. I spent one evening removing the old yucky kitchen hardware, and installing the new antique brass hardware. The kitchen and I felt better instantly!

Like the kitchen cabinet hardware, most of the interior doorknobs were cruddy and the metal finish was wearing away on them. I did a bit of research on how to change a doorknob, and discovered it was easy. So, I bought a bunch of curved door levers in the Schlage Flair line, to match the one for my home office door. But, I messed up slightly because I didn’t realize that Flair looked more detailed and fancier than the random-squiggle door lever already on my home office door.

The random squiggle door lever is unfortunately a locking door handle—I never realized that I didn’t have the key (thanks house sellers, SIGH). If it ever locks on me, I’ll need the locksmith AGAIN. I dream of one day replacing it with a Flair door lever. I’m starting to think that this house is controlling some of my dreams!

For my bedroom door, closet door, and the door to the basement, I bought the Flair door levers in aged bronze (which matched the home office door and the sunroom ceiling fan). For the double doors from the kitchen to the sunroom, I got the Flair door lever in antique brass to coordinate with the kitchen hardware.

Still, I kept window-shopping other fancier door locks, like the computerized Bluetooth ones that you could open with your mind (by actually remembering the code), cellphone app, or fingerprint. But those fancy door locks were out of my budget, and weren’t necessary since I had already paid for actual KEYS from the locksmith. I had to cheap out somewhere, so no fancy locks for me anytime soon (but they’re on my online shopping wishlists).

I learned to change the door levers by following the directions that were enclosed with them. Pretty proud of myself for figuring it out…. until I realized I had installed the bedroom closet door lever upside-down, so I had to redo that one. Otherwise, installing them was kind of fun, and it felt like a huge accomplishment that week in early January to be surrounded by all the shiny Flair door levers, cabinet knobs, and drawer pulls that I had installed myself.

Next week, please visit for a very fun post on what inspires my décor!