Old Door Re-do

Carl and I found this old door kind of by accident.  We were looking through my father-in-law's garage and workroom for something entirely different when we came across a multitude of old doors.  I was pretty stoked!  One phone call and the door was ours!  The door we picked was covered in about 10 layers of paint and shellac, but definitely had potential. 

Of course I forgot to get a picture before Carl started to strip and sand it, but this photo isn't too far off from the original condition.  It was basically covered in the dark brown shellac- including the hardware which was stripped down.

Next, the door was primed and painted with a white semi-gloss we had left over from other projects.

I then hand painted our last name and the year we were married with a black acrylic paint.  I'm pretty sure a vinyl decal would work just as well- I just haven't invested in an electronic vinyl cutter yet.

I used an electric hand sander to distress the door, taking the paint off mostly on the edges and a bit on the flat surfaces.  I started using just a piece of sand paper, but I realized it was going to take me forever-and-a-day to get anywhere, so I upgraded my tool!  

The last thing we did was put wood stain on to age it a bit.  We painted on Minwax Polyshades in Antique Walnut Gloss with a foam brush, let it set for about 2 minutes, then wiped the stain off with a rag.  We also tried to let the satin soak in a little more on the parts were wood was exposed.

 

  To hang it on the wall we, or maybe just Carl, hung a 2x2 on the studs that was about 6 inches shorter than the width of the door.  

We then placed the hinges of the door on top of the 2x2 and placed a screw on either side of the hinge into the 2x2 to hold the door in place.  Screws were also put in the hinges straight into the wall, but that was more for looks.  (Please excuse my flash-photography, it is quite a dreary day in Minnesota- so natural light is pretty terrible.)

-B