Vent Covers Unlimited is where we found ours. They are unfinished so you can match your wood floor stain.

For metal i found a huge selection at Pacific Register Company.

Buy ones made out of wood! I have them and they go well with my wood floors.

Did anyone suggest signaturehardware.com, yet? Sturdy & attractive register covers.

American wood vents. They can match any wood and make any size. We had them make a blond hickory for our floors. When the building inspector came to inspect our remodel, it's the first thing he commented on. It makes the house look finished. We also had them make a custom size mahogany grill for our deck floor for a shower.

www.americanwoodvents.com; www.ventcoversunlimited.com; and even amazon has floor registers. I have oak vents to match my floors; the house came with the painted metal ones, but I liked the look of wood.

I took my registers and had them powder coated black...they had been painted before and the paint chips off...powder coating should be more durable given that they are walked on....so far after more than a year of wear and tear they still look great.

Super inexpensive to pick a paint color and spray paint them. I've done that and they look great. If you don't like the color, for another $2 you can paint them again. Looks great!

I would paint them a dark bronze color (period- appropriate color for the age of your house). Clean, sand, prime then paint.

We tried and could not find new covers that fit properly. Our house was built in 1903 and had later had a furnace added in the 1920s. I hated the chipped paint on the old covers, so as a temporary fix, I lightly sanded and then spray painted with Rustoleum's colour Oiled Bronze. It didn't match the floor, but it did match all the hardware in our house. They turned out perfect, didn't stand out and looked clean again all for a reasonable price and three years later still look good.

I would paint them with Rustoleum using a paint color that disappears and blends with the wood color so you don't notice them. If you can't match perfectly go with slightly darker. I believe you can match Rustoleum colors now- so bring the wood color using the darker section. Take them outside - put them on a drop cloth and paint away.

If you like the basic design then go ahead and paint. However I just bought some beautiful new registers on line from Houzz. Price was reasonable too.

Home Depot carries many sizes and colours. I used to have the wood which worked well, but changed to a bronze and they look much better.

When we replaced our flooring with maple hardwood, I spray painted our registers with Rust-o-leum Painter's Choice in a color called gloss Khaki. It's not a very expensive mistake if you don't end up liking it after trying one register...

Reggio Registers has a myriad of options. Have used them on two homes. Great product.

If you are refinishing your floors soon, I always recommend my clients to use flush wooden grates which are installed before the sanding process and later stained to blend with the floor. Otherwise, the dark decorative metal ones are the nicest.

Get wood ones. I love mine!

If you change them -- take note of the free area. The inexpensive wood vents have wide vanes and can restrict air flow -- causing HVAC problems and more noise at the vents. The recessed wood are nice -- not normally a DIY project. Older vents are normally of higher quality and are well worth cleaning and painting if not damaged -- paint a gray/brown color.

May I recommend a faux finish? Our company offers finishes that exactly blend your floor boards in color and grain to registers, electrical plates, light switches, etc. Unless you drag a very heavy object across the register, the finish will stand the test of time and not chip easily. All in all, the registers will fascinate you and your guests and are works of art in little doses! www.apfauxsplasters.com

I matched my registers to the brushed nickel door knobs and light switches in all of my rooms. You can't beat Signature hardware quality.

I have spray painted ours before and they look brand new. I also replaced some that were going onto wood floors to make them blend in better than the metal floor register.

They look like someone already painted them (badly).I spray painted mine but, with the color of your floor ,replace.

get some spray paint take vents outside place them over news paper and spray paint them

I would spray paint them a lighter color if I didn't want to spend much. Maybe a light satin metallic?

What about dark bronze?

Used copper/bronze on bamboo floor. Check online, your best bet.

Yesterday I saw the neighborhood kids spray painting their scooters. Nice, but as the old retired painter I think of the mood swings this stuff produces. Europhia and the depression. I always beat up on myself when I did this without an organic vapor mask. It was not during the application but later, the down side, when I knew I made aa mistake. Point: think.

Safe yourself a lot of Aggravation Take one out , and go to HOMEDEPOT and choose you will safe $$$$ monthly remove dust and spray Lysol for Mold control but also have your HAVC clean the Duct work

they do sell floor register that are different colors, such as brown which goes pretty well with floor colors.they are made of steel which is really good and a plus is that they are actually engineered with the airflow in mind, they're made by HVAC engineers. a lot of these otherones might look very nice but they are just made for looks not for the design in mind, so if you cover the air flow that will be an impact on your electric bill as well as it will cut the life of your HVAC system. be really careful with those metal or wood ones that cover too much, wood as well expands and contracts with humidity so another reason why it's not a good idea to have as a register for HVAC

BEFORE I SOLD MY HOUSE IN SAN FOSE CA, I SPRAYED PAINTED THE BASE OF A LAMP WITH GOLD PAINT. SEEING AS HOW I HAD REPLACED ALL THE DOORKNOBS WITH BRASS LEVERS AS WELL AS TOOK PAINTED HINGES AND REPLACED WITH NEW BRASS ONES AND HAD THE PAINT LEFT OVER I DID SPRAY THE FLOOR REGISTER IN THE HOUSE. THE FIRST PERSON THAT LOOKED AT THE HOUSE BOUGHT IT.

When I spray painted my vents I hung them up with fishing line from the branch of a tree. That way I could walk around it and paint all sides at one time.

I painted all mine with rustoleum hammered bronze. They look great and it saved me about $500. 6 years later and no chips.

I spray painted all of ours. HD has appliance spray paint. Clean and Dry them really good and then just spray one side let it dry then flip them over and spray the other. The spray paint is epoxy and self leveling. It will hide everything! They will look brand new!

I would think spray painting would be a waste of time and chip. For an older home with character I would invest in nicer covers that have a decorative flair. I would check Build.com or google decorative air vent covers.

Regarding floor registers - we are having to change out our very nice, inlaid wooden floor registers because they block up to 50% of the air movement. That said, Reggio Registers - online - have both handsome wood and metal ones that won't scratch. They even have louvers you can buy to install below the registers to easily adjust airflow - Check them out!

we live in 100yr+ home the vents are not normal size. To replace them it would have cost $60-70. We used Appliance spray paint. they came out looking brand new. We've had them in place for over a year,and they still look brand new .

I don't think floor or wall registers should be highlighted or stand out. Therefore I always either buy new or paint to closely match the surface they are on so they blend in.

If you’re concerned about large openings in floor vents, cut a piece of screen to fit inside, and hot glue it in place. My cat constantly pushed her toys threw a large vent opening, we found a pile when we cleaned the vents. The screening prevented her from depositing her “savings" in her "vault".

1938 Cod- this is what I decided on

Painting all mine black with Rustoleum, and it's help up beautifully. There are a few wood grates over the cold air returns, but after nearly 100 years, they look pretty bad. Replaced one with basic metal, and it's good enough. I've otherwise restored this 1923 house and I'm d-o-n-e.

Metal covers are readily available at Home Depot or Lowes, some sizes/finishes need to be special ordered. In most cases they order free into store and at a certain dollar amount free to your home. One caution despite what looks like a nice initial finish, I have found these are rather delicate ( finish only ), do not expect the finish to last if they are walked/stepped on or in damp areas ( in bathroom or near sink ). I purchased a matte silver one for my bathroom and just the humidity caused it to rust.

It is best to buy new as paint will chip off of these again, I live in a mobile home and have these on the floor but heat comes through these not A/C one of mine got rusted for some reason and I painted it now it is chipped and scratched so I will be replacing them next year paint is no good unless it is sealed with poly and these registers get bent and everything from furniture to walking on them buy those ornate type registers you will enjoy their beauty and they are a thicker type of metal than the kind you and me have.

The vent covers usually aren’t worth the effort to be repainted.
However if you should decide to replace altogether and you get wood vent covers since the wood is newer than your floorboards even if stained the same color they will initially be lighter in contrast to your floors. Since your floors are old enough to patina with age.

Why, oh why do builders install floor vents? I'd think that installing them at the base of the wall, just above the baseboards should be a much better solution.

We've had a flood caused by a faulty washing machine on our ground floor laundry room and gallons and gallons of water poured straight down to the basement through the damn floor register before we realized what was happening. Big water damage down below, thankfully covered by our insurance.

Had that register been installed on the wall we'd not have all the water damage we had. Not to mention that if the building code had required a floor drain as would be logical to have in any bathroom, laundry room or kitchen, we'd have had no water damage at all. If we ever get to build a new house, those going to be main requirements: floor drains in all rooms with water and vertically installed registers everywhere.

One further wish would be to have separate ducts for heat (set low on walls) and for AC (set high on or near the ceiling). We didn't think it through initially and also thought we'd save material and labor, but we surely din't save anything on efficiency of the AC system: freeze below and still sweat above.

Oh and in the basement we have ceiling registers that keep falling off because it appears the builder used floor registers instead of whatever would be appropriate for ceilings. We've been meaning to somehow fix that but haven't found the appropriate ceiling registers yet. In the meanwhile we have to stick them up with silly putty for lack of a better solution.

No need to paint or anything else. Remove them, repair the wood flooring, get a boiler and some antique cast iron radiators. Find a good Plumbing and heating company to install you new heat that is the best. Forced air heat is the worst invention of mankind, wall to wall carpet 2nd worst. Both dirty and unhealthy even in the cleanest of homes.

Faux paint to closely match color or replace with wood/wood-look vents.

There is a company called Van Dyke's Restorers that have supplies for woodworkers, antique restorers and period homes. They have a variety of wood heat and metal registers for about $25-50. If you want them to blend in use the wood or make a statement do the metal.

Dark, color.

Dark if you want contrast or similar color to blend in.

Have wood ones made to match or buy them and stain them to match.