How to change out your door knobs

Don’t forget to come link up your door projects, bedroom door, front doors, door decor, closet door, cabinet door???

I had grand plans to PAINT my “front” door (since we’re in a basement our “front” door leads to the back yard…) but the weather has been so so SO cold here in UT (negative digits for weeks, then freak freezing rain) it just didn’t work out.

But the knob on our “front” door lost one screw and the other one was constantly loose and we often couldn’t even get it opened. That during the remodel we replaced most of the doors and most of the hardware to brushed steel. The brass had to go!

Now you can always PAINT your knobs, but these were dented, scratched and with the missing screws practically useless. So I decided to replace it! And I thought I’d show you how!

First unscrew and take off the first knob (make sure you open the door first so your not stuck inside) then take the knob off the other side!  You’ll see the inner workings of your deadlatch.

Make sure you keep track of the screws you get with your kit, there will be 6, 2 for each item, the strikeplate, deadlatch and knobs (the knobs are the long ones, pretty easy!

The strikeplate is called that because the deadlatch STRIKES the plate when it closes!  pretty smart huh?  You can leave on the old strikeplate if it’s in good shape.  My old one had paint on it, was super ugly so it had to go!

Now for the deadlatch.  This is the trickiest part of the whole assembly.  Unscrew and pull out!  Okay, THIS part wasn’t hard, but the deadlatch itself)

First, is your knob hole further from the door edge or closer.  It’s an easy switch from one to the other.  Pull down, slide over, let it pop into place!

Depending on what your deadlatch was before you might have to switch out the plate.  It’s also an easy fix.  1. slide the flathead between the plates, twist and they’ll separate (you might have to do it on both sides.  2. see, they just pop apart! 3. slide both plates off and 4. slide the round piece into place.

Slide it into place!  Make sure you face it the right way, or the door wont close, this seems obvious, but worth mentioning!

AND screw it into place, nice and tight!

Depending on what door your doing you might have a lock, or not, or key hole, etc… this is where you make sure that each knob is on the side you want it on.  if you want to lock your kid out of your room, or into there’s (not suggested use of the locks btw, but sometimes…. tempting!)

to get the spindle of the knob to easily fit through the hole you need to press on the latch and the hole will open wider and you can slide the spindle in.

This is what it looks like on the other side!

Line up the holds and screw in just enough to make sure you caught them both.  you don’t want to screw one side in far and not be able to find the other hole blindly.

Once they are both caught tighten the screws and your finished!!!

I also replaced my french closet door knobs…

And the vintage door knob to our itty bitty bedroom!  This more vintage knob is actually really really fun, but it didn’t match the rest of the knobs or style at all.  I think I’m going to keep it, how awesome would it be to find more of them for my next house???