The Art of Faux : The Complete Sourcebook of Decorative Painted Finishes

How to Make Rustic Garden Furniture

• Plain brass or silver-colored ovoid doorknob sets, with both sides, plates and mechanism. 

• Trusty hot glue gun, preferably a mini-glue gun.

• Metallic gold or silver glue sticks (depending on your knob color)

• Metal jewelry and craft "findings" or flat buttons from a craft store.  The flatter, thinner, and easier to bend and trim to shape the better. Make sure to pick a central motif that will fit on the knob dead center, and that does not have sharp edges. Findings come in a large variety of shapes, and sell for 50c-$2.

• Tin Snips or wire cutters.

• A screwdriver.

The Mosaic Book : Ideas, Projects and Techniques

Stenciling on a Grand Scale : Using Simple Stencils to Create Visual Magic

Debbie Travis' Painted House: Stenciling Made Easy Pad: The Guide to Ultra-Living (My favorite decorating book)

Stained Glass For Beginners

Mosaics : Inspiration and Original Projects for Interiors and Exteriors

Instructions:  Using the snips/cutters, cut and bend the findings into shapes that wrap around the door plate.  Glue these in place with the glue gun.  Glue the central motif to the knob.  Repeat process on other side of knob.  Disassemble your new knob with a screwdriver.  Use the screwdriver to remove the old knob from the door.  Put the pieces of the new knob together in the door and screw into place.

Knob with star shaped buttons on the plate

What you need for decoupage doorknobs:

• Plain brass or silver-colored ovoid doorknob sets, with both sides, plates and mechanism. 

• Small & tiny colored stickers of paper.

• Clear lacquer

• Paintbrush

Instructions:  Clean knob thoroughly.  Stick on tiny stickers in a ring on door plate, and a small sticker onto the knob.  Repeat on other side.  Paint 4-5 thin coats of clear lacquer over the knob and plate.   Avoid getting lacquer in the mechanism.  Dry thoroughly between coats.   Disassemble your new knob with a screwdriver.  Use the screwdriver to remove the old knob from the door.  Put the pieces of the new knob together in the door and screw into place.

What you need for hand painted china doorknobs:

• Plain china doorknob sets, with both sides, plates and mechanism

• Pebeo Porcelaine 150 thermo hardening water based color (oven hardening china paints, available at Michael's, about $5 a bottle)

• Small paintbrush

• Ordinary home oven

Instructions:  Clean knob thoroughly. Using one or more colors of  Pebeo Porcelaine 150 and the brush, paint a design on the china portions of the knob.  Allow to dry 24 hours.  Bake at 300-325F in your oven for 35 minutes.  Cool. Disassemble your new knob with a screwdriver.  Use the screwdriver to remove the old knob from the door.  Put the pieces of the new knob together in the door and screw into place.

Once you are comfortable replacing doorknobs, you can also keep your eyes peeled for that rare nice old dumpster doorknob or discount doorknob, and just buy it and stick it in.  Here is a glass knob got from Fred's for cheap, because the package was damaged. 

Even if you are a renter, changing out a few internal doorknobs is not a big problem.  Doorknobs break down and reassemble quickly, and you can move your nice knobs along with you if you remember to save and insert the old rental ones before you go.   Doorknobs are a small, cheap portable item that quickly make a place look more expensive than it is.