The Decoration

Remember way, way back, when I first posted about the awesome, old door that we found on the side of the road?

If not, I don't blame you. It was way back in March, but I'll give you a quick abbreviated rundown to catch you up...


Last March I was lucky enough to spot a "Free Stuff" pile just outside of our neighborhood. And in it, was a solid wood, 8 panel door.

I thought it was perfect.

Will thought I was crazy.

But he knew if he didn't help me load it into the car that I would do whatever it took to get it in there myself. So, reluctantly, he helped me load the door, and it became mine!

You can read all about it, along with my original plan for the door, here:
"Look What I Found"

But before I made any final decisions on how to transform it, I wanted to see what all of you thought about how the door should be used. You all are an opinionated bunch (which is exactly what I was hoping for) and, in the end, you made the decision an easy one for me!

You can read all about that here:
"Your Opinions On The Door"


So what did we end up doing with it?

Well, here she is...

Not only did we cut out the top four panels and replace them with glass, but we turned it into a Dutch Door and I could not be happier with the end result!


The process was a bit tricky. We weren't entirely sure how well the door would hold up to cutting out panels and sawing it in half, but luckily for us, it was in great condition.

The first step was to cut out the panels...

Next, we sawed the door in half to create our Dutch Door...



and added a new doorknob...


Then we added a ledge onto the bottom half of the door. The original door was a few inches shorter than the doors in our house, so we had to fill that gap. Nothing a simple 2x4 couldn't fix...


Originally, we thought we would use plexiglass to create the windows in the top half of the door. But the more we thought about it, the more we felt like it could (and should) be a bit classier, maybe a little more permanent than that. We knew that we could find a piece of glass that not only suited our aesthetic, but one that would make the door that much more unique.

We headed to Tacoma and found the coolest glass shop. Our heads were spinning with all of the ideas that were floating through our heads. They had glass in shades and textures that we never could have imagined. Beautiful!

My only requirements for the glass we chose were that it let every bit of possible light through, and that it would have texture so that the picture we saw in the laundry room would be scattered and diffused. No need for our guests to see "Mt. Laundrius", as the boys so affectionately call it!

We settled on a piece of glass called "Falling Rain". You get the picture - a little streaky and bubbly. But since I would rather think outside of the box than stay inside it, I decided to flip the glass sideways so that the streaks run from side to side, instead of top to bottom. I have to say, the little, old man at the glass shop looked at me like I was crazy, but...ultimately, the customer is always right. Right?

The glass fit perfectly and we held it in place with a bead of silicone...

Will cut strips of wood to frame in and secure the glass on the back side of the door...

The stain that we used for the glass trim is also what we ended up using for the ledge on the bottom half of the door...

We also repositioned a small piece of hardware that was on the door when we first picked it up. I have no idea what it was used for, but it's old and aged and I like it...


I was giddy when it was all said and done!

And 8 months later...I still am!


It lets light into our hallway, which was what I had always wanted. What is the point of having a window in a bright, light-filled laundry room if you never, ever see it anyway?

Now, we see the light!

I definitely owe Will a big, huge Thank You for helping me make this happen!

And, for the record, he loves it too. I knew he would!

:)


Have you found any cool "Free Stuff" lately?




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Sitting in someone's front yard in a pile of junk, marked with a

sign, was this...

An old, beat up, run down, solid wood, 8 panel door...

Will thought I was crazy for wanting to take it home with me, but that's to be expected. He thought the same thing when I brought home the ugly, old "Free Stuff" headboard (remember my Headboard Bench?), but look how great that turned out!

It's true that while we were loading the door into the back of the car, I didn't know exactly what I would be doing with it, but come on...you can't pass up a solid wood door.

At least, I can't pass up a solid wood door!

What happened next was something that I couldn't even have hoped for.

I don't ever get this lucky.

See that door way back there?

The one right there...

That's our laundry room door, and while I love that it easily conceals the massive piles of dirty clothes behind it (I'll admit it - laundry is my least favorite chore), what I don't love is that it also blocks off all the light that pours thorough the window that we have in our laundry room...

So, my solution was to search, and patiently wait, for a door with windows on Craigslist, or head to one of my absolute favorite spots, Second Use (a salvage yard) and buy a door that would fit to replace our current laundry room door. Adding a door with windows and flooding the hallway with light throughout the day would make a huge difference in how the space feels. Even Will couldn't deny the benefits. And living in the Pacific Northwest, the more natural light that you can squeeze into the house (especially on a cloudy day), the better!

I almost didn't even bother measuring my new Free Stuff door to see if it would fit the opening, because...really, how often do things happen that perfectly?

I was shocked!

It fits our laundry room!

So we propped it up into place to get a good look at it...

and I LOVE it!

It looks so good!

I love, Love the juxtaposition of the old, worn paint and beat up wood against the crisp white, tailored wainscotting and trim.

So my new plan (since I no longer had to worry about waiting on Craigslist, or driving out to Second Use) was to turn our "new" old door into a Dutch Door.

Finally, I would be able to have a Dutch Door!

Because it is solid wood we can cut it through the middle, and using simple guidelines that I have found online, we should be able to make the change relatively easily...

But,

(are you thinking what I'm thinking?)

a Dutch Door doesn't make for a very good way of concealing all of those mountains of laundry.

So, (light bulb moment) why not just cut out the top two panels and insert plexiglass in them? Then I can frost the plexiglass so that we are unable to actually see the mess behind it. We will get all the benefits of sunlight pouring through while still keeping the door closed when we need to...

Sounds like a good, reasonable plan, right?

It does to me.

But the more that Will and I talked about it, the further he strayed from my turn-the-free-stuff-door-into-our-new-dutch-door-with-windows plan.

So I'm asking your opinion.

What do you think?

What you should know is that the length of the door, after being hung, would come up a bit short. We would hang it at the right height on top, but there would be a gap at the bottom. Not a huge one, but a bit bigger than normal.

I have other ideas rolling around my head just in case this plan doesn't end up happening, but I'm really, really hoping that with your help, we can convince Will that this is a great idea!

(Like how I brought you guys in to this?)

:)

But, I want your honest opinions.

I'm all ears...

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Saturday Nite Special

I am so happy to be able to say that this project is complete!

But, if I said that the painting portion was "easy", I would be lying.

Nothing easy or quick about it, but in the end, totally and completely worth it.


Let's go back to the beginning and remember where this project started...

In my never ending desire for change, I needed to find an answer for where I could use the top of my hutch that previously sat in my kitchen. After owning it for 10 years, I decided that I wanted to use the base as a stand-alone sideboard between our family room and kitchen.

The answer came in the form of creating an armoire in Ellison's room, using her existing dresser as the base and placing the top of my hutch on her dresser.

The look of the two pieces together certainly wasn't pretty, but I couldn't beat the functionality of the overall piece...

Originally, the hutch came with glass doors. Perfect for displaying all of our stemware and dishes in our kitchen, but not so pretty when I turned it into my "linen closet"...

I'm sure that eventually this will hold more of Ellison's ever growing wardrobe, but for now, all of the kids' clean bedding is in one out of the way and easy to store space. I just needed a way to conceal it all from view...

The glass in the doors was held in place by these...

and I noticed that the thickness of the glass seemed pretty close to the thickness of beaded board. Lucky for me, we had just enough beaded board (left over from a previous project out in the garage) to cut and place in each door of the hutch, and insert into the door of the existing dresser.

Seriously - I love it when that happens!

We measured and cut the beaded board using the glass as our template...

and then put each panel into place.

This part was easy!

Perfect!

Everything tucked away behind closed doors.



On to the painting...

I put two coats of primer on the hutch and one coat on the dresser. I figured that the closer the two pieces were to having the same color of base coat, the easier it would be to paint the whole piece overall. It was definitely the right choice. I let the primer coats dry overnight before moving onto painting.

The first coat of paint took 3 solid hours to put on. There are so many nooks and crannies, angles and grooves that it just made for a long process. There was no way around it.

The second coat took two hours and I was hoping (*hoping-hoping*) that I wouldn't have to do a third.

Will and I took a good, hard look at it after the second coat had dried and were pleased with the results!

Out of two old pieces of furniture, we now have one brand new piece of furniture...

We removed the original hardware from the hutch doors and added the same knobs that were on the dresser. We sprayed all of the knobs and pulls with a few coats of "Candy Pink" spray paint and now this "new" piece of furniture feels right at home in our little girl's room...

I love the idea of Ellison having a vanity in her bedroom. A spot where she can look in the mirror, brush her hair, put in her clips and bows and be a girly-girl. I think the space between the hutch and the dresser makes for a perfect vanity...

We are so happy that:

1. The project was a success.
(We both had our fair share of doubt)

2. We were able to save a piece that was no longer usable for us in the way that it had been intended, and instead of getting rid of it, fashioned it into something new that we will be able to use for many years to come.

Like I said, it was a lot of work in the painting department, but absolutely worth it.

Sometimes thinking outside of the box can result in some of your best project ideas!


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