Come and knock off my doors..I've been waiting for you

I LOVE OLD DOORS! So you can imagine my glee when Donna @ Funky Junk Interiors announced that her next Saturday Night Special link up would feature projects from old doors. I thought I would raid my pile of old dirty mangled doors and get busy creating door magic. That didn't happen. But.... I would like to share some projects that I have made in the past, and also why doors are so great!

So. Why do I love doors? Well, basically an old door is a big slab of wood. Very easy to work with. Very easy to find...cheap, or better yet free. They often have a lot of character and history (and sometimes cool doorknobs included). And.... the possibilities are endless.....


There actually are many different designs for doors, so that's usually my starting point otherwise I would get overwhelmed with ideas (either that, or my head my just explode!).

And I'm only talking about solid wood doors -- not screen doors or garage doors. Garage doors come in narrower panels, giving a whole other set of possibilities. But if narrow is what you're after, start with a door that has a center stile down the entire door and cut it in half. Then you could make something like this....

You just screw (and glue) the two halves together at a right angle, add some shelves and you have a great corner shelf unit. You can trim it out however much to like, making it from very fancy to very rustic. I love when the door is dirty and chippy, I know once I start sanding I'm going to find some interesting colors underneath .....

This is not from the same shelf above. But the colors were surprisingly similar -- must have been the popular colors of the day.

You wouldn't want to make something like that with a door that has glass. But if it's all glass, you could use it for displaying photos. OR, I like to make something like this.....

I used the legs from an old kitchen table, added rails for support, and added a big piece of glass for the top surface. A big piece of glass like that can be quite expensive so I took the junker's way -- I took apart an old sliding glass door and first cut the door to fit the glass (actually there're 2 pieces of glass inside).

If a door has/had glass just in the top portion of the door, I like to make one of these....

Cut a piece of mirror to fit the opening, add a seat and some hooks, and you have an awesome hall tree!

Using that same type of door, or any type of door really, you can do the same idea and stand up the door and add a table of sorts to the front. That's how I made one of my favorite projects...

This potting bench was a lot of fun! I loved the pale yellow paint on the door so I went with that. The front part I made from lumber but finished it to match the door.

Of course, a fun piece like that needs some fun doodads. So I cut a hole in the top and dropped in an enamel pan, added a rake shelf/hooks, a faucet head knob, and a vintage sprinkler hook.

Probably my biggest door project was this....

It was one of my first projects as a junker, and I wanted something BIG! So....I made a couch.

Many different door styles would work for a project like this as you can see. Again, I kept with the original finishes because I just loved the look.

I even added a little heat register detail on the side for holding magazines.

Okay, I admit the couch was a bit much. But a more practical projects would be....

A chair made out of a door is not too difficult. And it adds a lot of charm.

Now, if you have a 5-panel door (5 crossways sections), they make great headboards. This was another of my early projects -- so early, I didn't know I was supposed to take pictures! They also are great verically with shelves added or horizontally on a wall for displaying photos.

So I keep grabbing doors whenever possible -- on the curb, delivered to me, Craigslist, cheap auctions, or even Habitat. I only wish I could keep up! I continue to see cool ideas and am keeping a list of future projects -- kitchen island, room divider, arbor, desk, maybe even an armoire! AND the scraps from the projects make even more fun things! AARRGGHH. I wish I worked faster.

Okay, I've got to go -- I've babbled on long enough. Sorry. I just get a little excited on the subject of doors. It's definitely one of my favorite junk treasures.

Peace out!

Midge

I'm linking this up to http://funkyjunkinteriors.blogspot.com/2010/06/sns-36-brings-you-old-doors.html