Whenever you are redecorating or making over a room there are little details that need attention to create the final polished look you want. The floor or wall HVAC vent cover often needs to be updated either by painting as we did in the kitchen make-over or simply replace them. There are benefits to doing both. If your vent covers are in good condition then a frugal choice is to paint them. This allows you to custom match the paint choice to the rest of the room as well. Even if your vent covers are in good condition you may want to replace them with wood covers if you installed wood flooring. If your vent covers are in need of replacement you have a few choices: metal, wood and plastic. All can be custom painted to match your decor if desired.
Before & After
Pictured is the old vent cover (top). It was metal in a brown painted finish accented with rust spots and paint splatters. It would have been easy to simply clean up this cover then spray paint it. However, this room is directly above the furnace room. The vent cover was not sealing out the heat as much as we would like. There is a damper in the vent going to that room a fair amount of heat gets through even with the damper closed. We decided to replace the vent cover with a plastic vent cover (bottom).
The plastic vent cover is nice, clean looking and rust proof. It also came in at $3.99, $3 less than the standard metal vent covers. I can remember first seeing the plastic vent covers thinking I wouldn't want to use them. However after owning 3 houses with HVAC vents I can honestly say I would choose either wood or plastic vent covers over the metal any day. The wood vent covers of course are based purely on aesthetics designed to match existing or new wood flooring. The plastic vent covers can easily be thoroughly cleaned without having to worry about rusting. The plastic vent covers also have a better control mechanism for air flow.
Garden Gnome
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