That Time Ellie Put A Hole in Our Door...And How We Fixed It...

You guys!!!!!!! Can I tell you I never really thought I'd be excited about a door?  Well, umm...I am.  We have old hollow core plain doors in our house.  I never really liked them, and we've talked about upgrading them at some point, but truthfully it wasn't high on our priority list.

And then this happened.   A particular little person decided to go all Tarzan on the closet door in our entry...swinging on it back and forth, and somehow this happened.  No bueno. Let's just say I was not happy.


  It turned out to be a complete blessing in disguise though.  We thought we'd have to replace the door... until I realized that I could upgrade the door by adding trim (and thus covering up the hole!)

It is such a huge improvement that I had to share it here.

This door makeover was so simple (and cheap!) that I'm moving on now to upgrade some of the other doors in our house now.  Closet and garage doors are the easiest because you only need to do one side of the door, so we're sticking to these doors to upgrade for right now.   It's amazing how much a "new" door adds to the space!

Alright, who is ready for more details?

Supplies:

• A sheet of plywood cut into 6" strips (the guy at home depot did this for us)
• An orbital sander
• A saw for a few quick cuts (or measure before you go to the hardware store and ask them to cut for you).
• construction adhesive
• nail gun
• clamps
• wood putty to cover up the nail holes and seams
• wood trim caulking 
• A drill with an attachment to cut circles
• paint (and primer) for your door, along with painting supplies

 We either had (or were able to borrow) most of the stuff for this project, so our only main expense was the plywood ($22 for a sheet, which was enough for 3 door "fronts").  What a deal for a "new" door, right?

We cut our pieces to fit around the door and double checked to make sure that they fit nicely around the door. (especially since they had to sit right next to the hinges).

Then I marked the position of the door handle hole on the plywood.

We cut out the hole, and then I sanded down all the trim pieces and the door itself.

We added construction adhesive to the trim and then placed it on the door, using clamps to hold it securely down.

Then we took a staple gun and stabled around the edges, about every 12 inches or so.

After this I was able to prime the door.

We added caulking around the edges to make everything look smoother and fill any gaps.

After that it was a simple as painting it (I used a furniture "roller" since we didn't have a spray painter...and I think it turned out pretty well!) and waiting for it to dry.  Then we hung the door up again.  It makes our entry look so much nicer!  I love it!  

Who knew fixing a door would be so satisfying!