Wednesday, January 23, 2013

DIY Mini French Doors

Our Mini French Doors Reveal

I'm super excited to FINALLY be doing this. Our bedroom is a long long way from done. But the doors are finally done. Ok, they've BEEN done, I'm just lazy sometimes. Plus I'm super nervous about posting photos of our bedroom.
When we moved in the bedroom was HORRIFYING. I wont scare you with before photos. Because it was so bad we instantly started changing it. It's come a long way and since it IS a rental we've slacked off. We realized we wont be here much longer and that just makes sense.
For the doors though that HAD to change. Our closet is teeny tiny, and the door to it was full size. When we moved in it swung in and ate up a huge chunk of closet space. So we took a few weekends and reversed it. So it swung out. Then it hit the damn nightstand and we had to step around it. This is an old house and the door was just way to big for the bedroom. Replacing it wouldn't work either. The door frame is actually crooked. And to high for a standard door. Damn again.
So one day I was sitting on the bed and I had a light bulb moment. Why not CUT IT IN HALF!?
After that we embarked on this huge adventure. It took foooooreeeeeverrrrrr. Mostly because we were winging it. Because we had NO CLUE what we were doing. Only what we wanted it to look like. And in the middle we actually just got so sick and tired of the home improvement stores that we took a break.
Now you're asking why we didn't just leave the door off....
Well. I'm a messy person and I tend to cram shit in my closet. and we don't have any pretty boxes for me to cram said crap into and keep it looking pretty.
And there was NO WAY I was going to lay in bed and look into the closet. friken creepy. uhg.

And So Finally. TADA!

Such pretty handles and I scored them ON SALE. I'm so awesome.
And the top right photo... Those are cabinet magnets. Imagine trying to explain to the old guy at the hardware store what you're trying to do. We looked at every option to keep them closed. This was the best idea. Trust me. Because of the nature of these old doors locking handles were NOT an option. We had to attach strips to the edges to make them look clean. They are flat on two sides and curved on the other. Difficult.
Eric spent three weekends hanging them.
Not only is the door crooked. The stupid frame was too. Ah.. old houses.


So Steps to DIY-ing it.

  1. Cut your door as straight as you can.
  2. Sand the crap out of it.
  3. Fill all the holes with putty.
  4. Sand it some more.
  5. Attach the strips to the inside of the door.
  6. This will make you trip 1/4 of an inch off the inside of each door.
  7. Reattach the strips.
  8. Putty the seams. Don't use putty with sand. Trust me.
  9. Clean your door.
  10. Paint it!
  11. Attach pretty new handles.
  12. Attach the hinges. measure CAREFULLY.
  13. Hang the hinges on the frame.
  14. Hang the door! Carefully, watch those fingers.



1 comment:

Pamela Bates said...

love that idea. I actually use curtains on our bedroom closets so that we have the most room possible. Works for me, but that was a really good idea!