Hall Closet Door Make Over

I think sometime last Spring I snapped just a little bit.  I hadn't left the house for several weeks (even for a target visit!). I had lost the desire to even get up in the mornings.  I am pretty sure there was slight cloud of depression starting to hover over my heart and I needed something to get me up and give me a sense of purpose, so I sent my husband a text asking him if I could paint our inside doors.  This was not a project on our house goals for the year,  but it was something we had thought about at least once.  Surprisingly, he said yes.  

Are you familiar with the book, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, by Laura Numeroff?  Basically this story reads just like that.  If you give a gal permission to paint she will buy the most expensive paint with all of the coupons and a new paint brush.  Then she will ask her strong husband to take down the doors and help.  After most of the doors are finished, she will look at the remaining hall closet doors and decide she wants to do a statement door on the hall closet/pantry.  She will propose several ideas to her wonderful husband who will help her devise a plan that will work.  Some time will pass and they will cram large pieces of wood in the back of their car and enlist some really good friends help cutting the wood into strips. At this point, the gal just sort of watches as her husband cuts woods and glues offering help whenever its needed.  Then she paints the door and falls in love with her plan and is thankful her husband saw her vision and said yes.  

 

That's basically how it all went down in a nutshell.  We have one main hallway in our house that makes an L shape.  We painted all the doors with Sherwin Williams Iron Ore using their Snap Dry paint.  I am obsessed!  This paint applies so smooth and dries so quick that it doesn't take long to do a project.  Another plus, is that this paint is made specifically for doors and trim because it dries hard and doesn't leave a softer, rubber-like feel that latex paint often leaves.  Because of this, doors don't get stuck in the shut position!  They also look like we went out and bought black doors! That's a huge win!  

We painted them using a roller brush and then a Purdy brush for touch ups.  (I love me a good Purdy brush!).  The paint we bought directly from the Sherwin Williams store and were able to get it on sale and use a coupon . . . which is great because it's kind of pricey (but worth it!)  I don't think this particular paint is sold at Lowes, but really. . . Sherwin Williams has great sales and curbside pick up!  I love me some curbside pick up!!! Iron Ore is the perfect color of a dark gray/black although it had me wondering if it was too grey when I was painting it.  Once it dried and we moved it inside, it was so much darker.  A lot of paints are like that. . . misleading at first. 

For our closet/pantry doors, we decided to give it a little love.  They are overlapping sliding doors, which it's really hard to do stuff with.  We decided to go with a herringbone design with a modern knob to help making opening and closing easier.  We used some think particle board because it was inexpensive and thin.  We found some at Lowes.  Our friends have this really cool tool to help cut long, straight lines with a circular saw (this one here).  It was a lifesaver. . . so was their help!  From there, Jon was able to cut using his miter saw the specific angles and lengths. 

Before we painted the outside door, we measured the middle and drew a line down the middle for our guide.  Then we placed the wood pieces at the angle we wanted and started cutting and placing the wood where we wanted it.  We did all the pieces before we started gluing. 

 

We used Liquid Nails in a culking gun to glue the pieced down.  Then we laid all the heavy things we could find on top so they could dry and nothing would move.  Liquid Nails is really thick, so there isn't a ton of sliding and it's so strong.

 

This is what it looked like after the glue dried.  I love it!  Now, it was time to paint.  We used the same roller and paint as everything else, but we had to use the brush to do the grooves.  

 Once it dried, we hung it up and admired it.  Our hallway is narrow, so it's hard to get a good picture of just how cool it looks.  Now we just need to add a handle.

I bought an 8 inch metal rod handle at Lowes.  The only thing we did was buy some washers and longer screws to be able to go through the wood from the herringbone and the door itself.  It was pretty easy to do and made such a big impact.  I love the simplicity and how easy it is to open the sliding door with the handle.   

I am so glad we did this project.  Not only does it make me smile each time I gaze down our hallway, but it gave me something to focus on and get me through the slump of shelter in place.  It's amazing what just an opportunity to be creative can do for the soul.  I know that I've mentioned it before, but I firmly believe that God created us to be creative. . . and in times like this, it definitely was one of the best things that I could have done to get out of the funk I was in.