Weekend house love

Remember I told you about adding brackets and a shelf, along with hooks, to the wall in the hallway? Here's the picture to jog your memory:

Anyway. What I didn't show you was that next to the shelf and benches, right out of sight in the photo, are two closet doors where we hide all manner of household odds and ends: paint cans and rollers, drills, random screws and nails, hammers, cleaning supplies, stacks of toilet paper (Bill thinks I have a problem hoarding paper goods), boxes of movies in VHS that belong to Bill (I think Bill has a problem hoarding everything, but nevermindthat), the odd box of old clothes that don't fit Noah anymore (but we'll take to the Goodwill - eventually)... in other words, this space holds a lot of our stuff. But it's stuff that needs to be in a closet, behind closed doors, at least until we get around to using it or appropriately disposing of it.

So back to the point of this post. Those closet doors in question? Horrid bifold little numbers. I think I abhor bifold doors almost as much as I dislike wall-to-wall carpet. They just grate on my aesthetic sensibilities or something. Plus they're awkward and dated. So down they came.

We decided to glue and nail beadboard to the space where the horizontal slats were,

then added trim around to hide the gaps on the edges,

and most importantly, we re-hung them as little french doors instead of bifolds. We put a piece of trim along the length of one of the doors to hold the other one in place and we installed a little magnet latch at the top.

We then spot-primed the knots with a shellac base primer and then applied a solid coat of regular primer to the bare wood...

Finally, we gave them a coat of bluish paint that was leftover from Noah's room (Silver Sea, you can get it at Lowe's), and there you have it! We also ordered a couple of glass knobs for each door from Anthropologie, but they're on backorder, so it'll be a little while before they get here. They're the prism knob, in clear:

One little house project finished: check. And on to the next..!

(**To see the finished project, with glass knobs and all, click here and here.**)

Comments

  1. AAAH - GREAT WORK! Love it!

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  2. you guys never stop! these look great.

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  3. I am so impressed! Seriously - what a great job you did, very clever using what you already had. Brilliant!!!And it looks GREAT!

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  4. oh wow!!! those doors look awesome! much better than anything you'd find at a home store! love the paint color, too!

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  5. i agree completely about the bifold doors, but i never thought of re-doing them like this. they look amazing in their new life as french doors. great job!

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  6. Amazing that you came up with such a fabulous way to repurpose what you already had waiting in the wings. They look beautiful. I love the concept of making them french doors and that color is sublime! And since your shelf, benches, and hooks are new to me as well- Bravo! A beautiful, stylish, functional, and welcoming space. What more could you ask for!

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  7. WOW, what a change! Brilliant. I am thoroughly impressed. The glass knobs will finish out the project perfectly.

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  8. You are my hero. I too hate bifold doors. But I usually hate before and afters too. Especially when contact paper or crocheting is involved. This is wonderful.

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  9. i swear, you are brilliant!

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  10. I absolutely LOVE everything you have done with this house!! I really want to have one like this one day...so cozy, rustic, and so much charm!! Well done!

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  11. AAAAAHHHH! This is an amazing improvement. We have sliding doors in the bedrooms and I've been obsessed with turning them into bifolds because it's so annoying to me not being able to see the closet's contents all at once. This looks so much better, tho! Totally going to copy this.

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  12. What a great little makeover! Your doors look amazing. That color is so serene.

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  13. The tapes are mostly Beta, not vhs. Which makes me an antique too I guess. Nice carpentry work by the way! Love Bill

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  14. what a fantastic redo.......love the look and the color!

    woo hoo!......

    and love hubby's comment above...:) so fun....

    xoox

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  15. Aw, thanks to all for the kind comments..! And thanks to Bill, a.k.a. vintage husband, carpenter extraordinaire.
    -maria

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  16. are you kidding? you guys are brilliant...I need to hold you up in my house for awhile...you think of things that would never cross my mind and it's perfect! xo t

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  17. Wow what a serious transformation! I love the end results...and it's not even the end yet! Those knobs are going to just be the icing on the yummy cake! (Love the shade of blue too, by the way!)

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  18. You did a great job! I love the knobs!!

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  19. Amazing! Such a great color paint on the beadboard. And using what was already there and making it magnificent is super inspiring!

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  20. Oh my goodness! What a GREAT idea!!

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  21. This really is such a fabulous idea. Did you dig it up somewhere or just out of your own genius brain?

    This is the real source of why your son is going to be an astrophysicist. You are constantly inventing, creating, seeing things afresh.

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  23. Hello Maria,
    I am so glad I found your site. I can't wait to add you to my blog roll. You are so creative. I love all your colors. I just love all the bead board. I just love what you did to these bifold doors. Love how the blue looks against your other paint colors. Can't wait for your next post.
    Take Care,
    Maria

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  24. I have those same doors in my sons room, and I dislike them as well. Awesome idea! Thank you so much!
    Jill@The Virginia House

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  25. this is seriously STUNNING! I absolutely love it! And the color & THOSE knobs - get out of here!

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  26. I saw you featured at Funky Junk interiors. You have done a wonderful job. I am in awe of your writing skills, photography, and of course your decorating. It has been a pleasure to spend time here today.

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  27. Love it love it love it and post this in my blog. Glad to find you blog, will check on you regularly.

    Happy Valentine's Day

    Eva

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  28. That is AMAZING! We have those stupid doors in all the bedrooms and I hate, Hate, HATE them! Guess what my husband is going to be doing soon?? Thanks!

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  29. I love this idea and your home is gorgeous! I'm so glad I found you through Funky Junk. I'll be waiting to see what else you have to share...

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  30. Looks like I was so excited to find this link that I forgot to comment, but rather feature you instead. :)

    Feature is here:

    http://funkyjunkinteriors.blogspot.com/2010/02/sns-17-brings-you-happy-valentines-day.html

    Thanks for allowing me to nab it to share. Your idea is an absolute HIT! Which I knew it would be. :) Awesome!

    Funky Junk Donna

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  31. THIS is exactly what I need....I bow to you!

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  32. These are beautiful! Unfortunately in my bedroom I have DOUBLE bi-fold doors in the same door frame... so there would be nothing to mount the inside doors to -- I'm sitting here racking my brain trying to think of a way to make this work for me. What a GREAT idea!

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  33. Anna - just join two doors on each side (with a piece of wood or metal L bracket on the inside-facing side of the doors); you'll end up with two *wide* french doors.

    Make sense?

    -maria

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  34. Yes that makes sense, thanks so much! :)

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  35. Maria this project is AWESOME! Thank you so much for posting!

    I'm about to try this myself and have a couple of questions. What kind of beadboard did you use? Specific brand or anything? I'm trying to get the measurements just right with the plank size, etc...

    Same question for the trim you used. Anything specific?

    Thanks so much!

    Erin

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  36. Hi Erin,

    We just used beadboard and trim we got at Home Depot... I don't remember the brand, but it's pine and comes in 8' lengths. Bill made all the cuts so tat they'd fit in the places with the slats - which will vary in size depending on the doors you have. And just choose trim that will cover the edge between the beadboard and the door frame, and then a wider trim to make one door overlap slightly over the other one.

    I hope that helps!
    -maria

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    1. Could you tell me what type and size trim you used,please? My husband is driving himself crazy. Your doors are beautiful.

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    2. Could you tell me what type and size trim you used,please? My husband is driving himself crazy. Your doors are beautiful.

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  37. Thank you, Maria!

    I think I may keep the doors as bi-folds so they won't hit the wall when we open them, but add the trim at the center (where yours latch)and knobs to both sides so they look like french doors.

    Have you had issues with your left door (by the wall) hitting the wall?

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  38. Erin - no, not really. I mean, we're careful, I guess, but it hasn't really been an issue for us.

    -maria

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  39. wow, my mom has a whole wall full of these doors on one side of her kitchen, they hide the washer/dryer, hot water heater etc....she just redid the kitchen and they look worse than ever and we have been wondering how to make them look better....ours are metal, not wood, and beadboard would not go with the new kitchen...but possibly we could use wood to make them match the new cabinets raised panel style - thanks so much for the idea!

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  40. Oh, I'm so glad you found inspiration here..!

    I think you have a great idea by using the wood to mimic the existing panels on the cabinets. (Liquid Nails is your friend.) Maybe even just simply give them a fresh coat of paint with a wonderful color - that might do the trick, too.

    Good luck, and thanks for stopping by and leaving a kind note.

    best,
    -maria

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  41. ....I believe there are choruses of happiness going up all over the world with this project!......great inspiration!...
    Thanks for sharing.......Colleen

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  42. Oh so lovely. I just found your blog because I googled vinatge bi-fold door uses. I found two sets of vintage fabulous bifold doors with the most wondefrul patina yesterday. The search in a hot, chigger infested barn was worth it. When I saw them I knew they were perfect for replacing the boring builder Master Bath Linen Closet door. I wasn't sure how to rework them as french doors and voila I found your blog.
    Thank you.Thank you Thank you

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  43. Those are just awesome! Way to class up some very UNclassy doors! I love it!

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  44. beautiful! you've just saved me from bifold door depression. thanks for sharing

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  45. Lovely, lovely, lovely! I liked your transformation and I linked this to my project 'doors" post too! That is just too good!

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  46. Fantastic! We had a door come down and are heading out to replace it. Now I will just find the bead board and re-purpose the door - we even have a bag full of glass knobs from our renovation- SO perfect!

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  47. Yes this post is quite good. It will help me to do my project
    http://www.sliding-bifold-doors.co.uk/

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  48. I do like that idea and they turned out beautiful too! I have this linked to my closet doors post as well today, nice job!

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  49. i have bifold doors that i am converting. I put mending braces on them to not fold, now they swing. My question is about your hinges... did you chisel out on the sides of your doors or just screw them on to the door and frame? Thanks for the inspiration!!!

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  50. can I see a photo of them open? you lost me at 'French doors'.

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  51. Hi, silly question, did you do this on both sides of the door? Absolutely beautiful!

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  52. I have bi fold doors I would love to do this to, but mine are metal. We’re yours it’s hard to tell from the pics? Any suggestions to do it on metal?

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