Painting Over Brass with Rustoleum Oil-Rubbed Bronze Paint {a tutorial}

This post for Rustoleum Oil Rubbed Bronze Paint contains affiliate links. I make a small portion when these links are used, at no additional cost to you.

We've been wanting to replace our outdoor brass light fixtures for quite some time (we're talking years here). Instead of replacing them, we saved money by painting over them with Rustoleum Oil Rubbed Bronze Paint for a fresh new look. See the steps we used to make these last a long time below. 

Do you have a light fixture (or any type of brass hardware, really) that could use a budget-friendly update? Rustoleum Oil Rubbed Bronze Paint is our new best friend these days. It's easy to use for a quick update. But, we did take some extra steps to make sure our hard work on these fixtures lasted a long time. See this complete tutorial below.

Painting Over Brass

We have three of these light fixtures across the front of our home: two on either side of the garage and one by the front door.

When we started talking about replacing them, we priced them out around $150 each. I convinced my husband I could totally paint ours...he wasn't so sure I could pull this one off. So, in reality, this project was born out of the fact that I just had to prove him wrong. 

Using Rustoleum Oil Rubbed Bronze Paint

Besides the obvious spray paint, you'll need a few other items for this project, listed out below.

Project Supplies:

• Rustoleum Oil Rubbed Bronze Spray Paint (I used two cans for three light fixtures)
• spray paint primer
• clear spray paint sealer (I prefer a satin or matte finish)
• cleaning supplies
• multipurpose cleaner
• old toothbrush
• rags/paper towels 
• cardboard or drop cloth
• old styrofoam (optional, but handy for holding screws in place to paint them)

Directions:

• Before taking your fixtures a part and down, be sure to turn off the power source for your lights. If you don't have any prior experience with electrical connections, you may want to call someone who does.
• After removing your fixtures, you'll want to completely take them a part. It's a good idea to either take a video on your phone or lots of photos so you know exactly how to put them back together later. 
• We cleaned ours completely and removed all dust and dirt (and bugs!). This is where an old toothbrush and a good multi-purpose cleaner come in handy.

Please note, if you're wanting to use this technique on other brass items (like door knobs or towel bars), I would lightly sand (maybe just with steel wool) first. Since those are items that are physically touched and "dealt with" more, you want to treat them a bit differently to make sure your paint adheres properly.

But since I don't touch my light fixtures much (maybe once a year to change the bulbs and clean them), I didn't worry about the sanding on these. 

• I sprayed one coat of the primer on everything. I had to be pretty careful to turn pieces over to get every crevice, bar, and screw.

• After the primer completely dried, I busted out the ORB (Rustoleum Oil Rubbed Bronze) paint. This took about three very light coats. You don't want to spray it on too thick or you'll inevitably be dealing with drip marks.
• Use a consistent spraying motion to keep your coats even on all surfaces of the brass.

• For the bolts and screws, I popped them in some leftover styrofoam (I save styrofoam from packages just for these type of projects).
• I used the same "light strokes" painting technique on the bolts and screws.

• After the paint dried, I gave all of the pieces a good coat of the sealer. Then we let everything dry overnight.
• We reinstalled everything the next day and are super happy with the results. Remember to shut off the power to the source when working with wiring and light fixtures. If you don't have experience in this area, you may want to seriously consider calling someone who does. 

What would you redo using Oil Rubbed Bronze paint?

More Practical Painting Tutorials

• Be sure to check out my complete tutorial on How to Dye Grout (instead of replace it).
• And one of my readers' favorite tutorials is How to Paint Your Porch Floor so it never peels.
• If you love these kind of projects, you'll probably like the Door Knob Painting Video Tutorial over at Renovated Faith.
• And Unexpected Elegance shares a great technique on How to Paint Baseboards.