We have slowly been updating small areas of our home month by month. Recently, we remade a pair of older shutters into new doors in this super easy DIY upgrade. Since we already had the wood scraps, glue, and paint, all we spent on this upgrade was the cost of new hardware!
(We will be replacing the trim work around the door, soon!)
I love repurposing things in our home in new ways, and this project was no different!
Originally we had intentions to completely rebuild these doors in our hallway from scratch, until this idea came to us. Knocking out the shutter slats and replacing them with solid wooden panes could not have been easier.
With a fresh coat of paint, new hinges and hardware, these doors look brand new! And I believe they are much more eye appealing than in their previous state!
The demolition of the shutter doors
To demo these doors, my husband simply cut through the shutter slats with an oscillating saw and they came right out.
That was the extent of the demolition! The actual frame of these doors was solid and only needed a few things tweaked to make them brand new!
The Rebuilding of the shutter doors to new and improved doors
Since the shutter slats were now gone, we had two open holes in each door. We began by placing a solid piece of wood on the back of the door. This was the exact same size as the door’s frame and would serve as the back panel.
After looking around for some scrap lumber in our barn, I found some old wooden shelves we had recently removed from our home. They were the PERFECT width to fit in our doors!
All my husband had to do was trim them to the correct length! Talk about repurposing at its finest!
We used wood glue to place the panels in the door and the build was complete!
Finishing out the doors
The new/reused panels had a slight beveled edge. So, when they were placed in the door frame, a small crack was left between the frame and the wood panel. This was nothing a little caulk couldn’t fix.
After a line of caulk all the way around and some minimal sanding they were ready for paint.
eXploring deeper paint colors
I have always been a “paint everything white” type of girl. However, recently I have been trying to branch out and experiment with more colors.
I have been loving deep blues mixed throughout our home and so far have used it on some doors, a mantle, and a mirror.
The color I have used on this door project is called Inkwell by Sherwin Williams. It is such a deep navy blue, it can almost appear black. It adds the perfect contrast with white!
tools & materials used to transform the doors
scrap wood
screws
Drill
Check out more home renovations from the Harris Homestead
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