Updating Our Home With Spectrum Brands

Are you in need of some quick updates that pack a punch in your home? Well, you have stumbled on the right blog post, my friend. We have partnered with not one, not two, but THREE, amazing companies to update some builder-grade features throughout our home. For these updates, we have partnered with Pfister Faucets, Kwikset, and National Hardware, which are all “sister companies” and a part of Spectrum Brands.

For some reason, builders LOVE brushed nickel hardware, and they also LOVE not giving us the option to change that before building. This keeps things inexpensive for them and easier, which I can appreciate, but from a design stand point, doesn’t always fit in with your style! And for us, that was exactly the case. We wanted to update all of our brushed nickel door hardware in our home, along with our builder-grade kitchen faucet. Let’s get into the details one brand at a time, shall we?

Pfister Faucets

Is it weird to have a kitchen faucet of your dreams? No? Ok, good. Because I totally do. And it is the Zuri 1-Handle Pull-Down Kitchen Faucet from Pfister Faucets. Literally since I got into home decor and design before we built our home, I fell in love with this style faucet and wanted one so badly. When I pictured “modern farmhouse kitchen” in my mind, this faucet was IT. But, unfortunately, our builder didn’t have this as an option, so I settled for their run of the mill, basic faucet. But man, did I think about the Zuri faucet all the time. Now two years later here we are, and finally installing my DREAM kitchen faucet! You know you’re adulting right when you get excited over a kitchen faucet.

There are two finishes of the Zuri 1-Handle Pull-Down Kitchen Faucet to choose from, polished chrome and stainless steel-which we chose. The Zuri faucet is a part of their pro-grade collection and perfect for culinary enthusiasts! The combination of industrial spiral spring and docking bridge allows for precise lateral movement and maximum clearance and reach. You can reach all corners of your sink with the pull-down spray head, and it makes a gorgeous statement piece with the high arc spout of the faucet.

Pfister Faucets are seriously THE EASIEST faucets to ever install. I will say it louder for those in the back… THE EASIEST EVER. We have them in every bathroom, and now our kitchen, and every time we are just so amazed at how little time the install takes. I seriously don’t know why every brand doesn’t take notes from Pfister (I mean I’m sure they are at this point). All of their faucets include their patented Pforever Seal technology that guarantees no leaks. This means their faucets do NOT have to be caulked, sealed, or glued to the countertop in any way, they utilize a ceramic disc valve technology as the alternative. The Zuri faucet also features their EZ Clean finish, which makes it easier to wipe away mineral deposits and fingerprints, which helps keep the faucet looking brand new. The faucet also comes with an optional faceplate if your countertop has three holes cut into it from a previous two handle faucet, and you need to cover them. Pfister Faucets has seriously thought of everything and are in my opinion, setting the bar high for other faucet brands.

When I tell you it took Ryan 10 minutes to install this faucet, I’m not kidding. And half of that time was spent taking out the old faucet. Pfister provides detailed instructions as well as their convenient Quick Install Tool. Those two things combined helped speed up the installation process, and all Ryan had to do was connect the waterlines, screw on the spray head, and we were in business with a brand new faucet! I’m seriously so in love with how the Zuri faucet looks in our space and how well it compliments our appliances and our stainless steel cabinet handles. This is definitely the kitchen I was envisioning-now all we need is a farmhouse sink 😉

Pfister Faucets has so many other gorgeous faucets to choose from for kitchens and bathrooms, so be sure to remember them for your next project. They also have other products such as towel bars, toilet paper holders and other accessories. You can read more about their other products in some of our previous blog posts, or go to their website and check them out for yourself!

Kwikset

Interior Doors

If you’ve been following us for awhile, and saw our two bathroom renovations, then you remember we changed out the door handles in those spaces to some of Kwikset’s Round Milan Levers in matte black finish. I always said I was going to eventually get around to changing out all of the handles in our home to these same levers, and it was finally time! I think black hardware on doors just makes any door look more sleek and modern, and that is the look I was going for. We have a lot of other matte black elements in our home like light fixtures, some faucets, and other decor items, and I knew changing the door hardware to matte black as well would really help tie everything together.

First of all, narrowing down which handle or lever to pick for our interior doors throughout our home was probably the hardest decision ever, because Kwikset has SO MANY good options to choose from! We knew we wanted matte black, so we started our search there. Surprisingly, Kwikset does have a lot of matte black options, but the Round Milan Levers stuck out to us because of their modern rounded look.

We needed 15 levers to change out all of our interior doors, and that’s not including the four we already changed out during our two bathroom renovations. We got the levers in a variety of functions including privacy levers, passage levers, dummy levers, and one keyed lever for our door connecting our garage to the house. For all of the bedrooms and bathrooms we used the privacy levers that lock, for all of the closets and the laundry room we used passage levers, and for our guest bedroom closet and office doors, we used dummy levers. Dummy levers do not have any sort of locking mechanism or latch, they are just there to pull doors open and close, they don’t turn or move. We used these because this is also what our builder installed in each space.

Who knew installing new door handles was this easy? I did every single handle on my own, with no help from Ryan! Once I read the instructions for the first one, and got that installed, the rest were a breeze and I didn’t need any instructions. All you need is a screwdriver or drill, and everything else you need is included. I started out by doing all of the first level door levers first, then made my way upstairs a couple days later. It’s a very repetitive process, especially because I was changing out all of the hinges and door stops at the same time, so I’m glad I broke up this project over a few days.

Front Door

You didn’t think we were going to leave our front door hardware did you? Thats the star of the show! Ryan did have to help me when it came to the front door handle and lock though. We also wanted to switch these out to match the matte black theme we had going on, so we settled on the San Clemente Handle with Round Halifax Lever in Matte Black and the Kwikset Premis Contemporary Touchscreen Smart Lock in Matte Black. The door handle and level are so sleek and really change the way our front door looks, a total upgrade from the set our builders installed. For the Smart Lock, I did a lot of research on best ones out there in terms of functionality and security, and I kept ending up back at the Kwikset Premis, so it was a no-brainer we would choose that one!

Premis is a touchscreen smart lock that works with Apple HomeKit for smarter home management. This smart lock can be remotely controlled via Siri if the Premis lock is connected to an Apple TV, HomePod, or stationary iPad. We can now enter our home with the convenience of keyless entry by using Siri voice command, the Premis App, or with our personalized codes. Also when it comes to the codes, we can create custom codes for guests, cleaning services, or house sitters, and can control when their code is active and look back at lock/unlock history to monitor activity. This is great for us so we don’t have to give keys to every family member or friend who watches our home while we’re away, or takes care of our cat. Also, I’m a very forgetful person sometimes, and often forget to lock the front door when we leave, or when I go to sleep, so now we can check to see if its locked, and do so remotely via the Kwikset Premis app on our phones, which is a huge plus for us! And if thats not enough, we have it set up so the door automatically locks on its own after 30 seconds, so I am always positive the door gets locked now, even if I forget!

Paired together, this handle and Smart Lock look great, fit in more with our style, are amazing quality, and makes our lives so much easier with the functionality and user friendly aspects they offer. If you are in need of a new front door set, go check out all of the amazing options Kwikset offers!

National Hardware

We couldn’t update our door handles without also changing out the hinges and door stops, right?! RIGHT! When our builder built our home and installed the hinges, they painted over them, beat them up, and just didn’t care what they looked like, so they didn’t look good from day one of us living here and needed this update. We needed to install the same size hinges the builder did so we wouldn’t need to notch out the door frame or door frames, so we used these Matte Black 3.5 inch hinges with a 5/8 inch radius. These also came with black screws so everything blended in and was seamless. For our front door and garage entry door, we did use these Matte Black 4 inch security stud hinges so they were a little more rigid and provided more security on our entry doors. We also wanted to change out our doorstops so everything matched, but National Hardware doesn’t yet have a matte black option (they will Summer 2021), but don’t fear! Their Oil Rubbed Bronze version looks almost identical to the matte black door hinges and you can’t tell a difference, so we went ahead with switching them out! Our doors had two different styles of door stops installed, so we replaced them with the same. We used these Pin Door Stops and these Spring Door Stops.

Replacing door hinges and door stops is definitely a tedious and repetitive process, we had over 50 hinges to replace and 20 door stops, but the impact this simple change has is AMAZING. I did all of these on my own as well, and I didn’t need to remove any doors. As long as you replace one hinge on a door at a time, you can keep it attached to the door frame and there is no need to remove each door. This makes replacing the hinges pretty easy and quick. Once I got in the groove of replacing the hinges, it was a breeze. On Instagram I even challenged my followers to guess how long it would take me to switch out the hinges on FIVE doors. Any guesses how long it took? Only 22 minutes! I did break a sweat, but it was so quick! The matte black hardware really makes our doors “Pop!” and the hardware stands out beautifully and upgrades the look of the doors.

The Finished Product

Overall, these simple changes have really elevated the look of our home and made it feel more modern and custom to our style. That is what we’re all about. Creating a space that feels like us, and represents our style and who we are. You don’t need to do large updates, or spend a lot of money to achieve the look you want. The little things add up, and together can create a big impact on your home. If you are needing to update your home in any of these ways, be sure to go check out Pfister Faucets, Kwikset and National Hardware for your next project, you won’t be disappointed!