Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Style Injection: Kitchen Door Before & After (Part One)




The Inspiration






The Reality (tip: the door is metal)








The Plan








Monday









Tuesday






Thursday





Friday









Saturday







Looking good, right?


WRONG.



Sunday Morning...


I don't have a photo, but trust me - it was sad :(


We woke up on Sunday morning to discover that the lovely door we had said "goodnight" to was not the same door we said "good morning" to. Several of the boards had buckled and nearly all of the corners had pulled away from the metal base. We think it was the cold. What now? We went to church and completely avoided the topic for two full days. Then...



The Second Monday (night)

We tried a nail gun. No dice. The nails went into the door, but they weren't strong enough to hold the lattice on. So...


The Second Tuesday

... Sam got a little extreme. But, really, what did we have to lose? He screwed the wood to the door. I'm cracking up looking at this photo.







But, it worked! I took this last photo this morning. The boards have been solidly attached for nearly 48 hours. Now the question is just whether or not we can sufficiently hide the screws ;)







26 comments:

Elisa @ What the Vita said...

WOW.. it looks really GREAT and looks exactly like the inspiration picture! No matter how you got there, you definitely got there! These screws shouldn't be too hard to cover up..?

Stephen and Larissa said...

Good job! I hate it when projects don't work out as I have planned. Way to stick with it. It looks good!

Sherry Petersik said...

AMAZING JOB! You're such an inspiration. Gotta love that never-quit attitude (screws solve a lot of problems around here). Great work!

xo,
Sherry (& John)

Grace @ Ruby Moon Designs said...

Looks like a winner...and I have no doubt that you'll be able to hide the screws. Looks great!

Thanks for stopping by my blog!

-Grace

Heather said...

Way to persevere! Perhaps you could affix some decorative wooden corner things to the screw spots?

Jacci said...

Hey, thanks, guys! :) You're all very encouraging.

I think we'll first try to see if wood putty and paint can do the trick. Sam is pretty good with that stuff. He'll be caulking the edges of the wood where they meet the chalkboard paint, too, so the chalk dust doesn't build up behind.

If the screws are still pretty noticeable, we'll have to brainstorm more. I'm not really wanting to go the "romantic" cottage look - so, nothing gingerbread-y. We're hoping to keep it looking simple.

I'll keep you all updated! We're hoping to have this all spiffed up and checked off our "to do" list by the end of the weekend :)

Jacci

Anonymous said...

you and your husband certainly are patient, hard workers. Nice job doing whatever you could to complete the task. It actually looks good enough, and for the screws, may be you can just attach some decorative items onto the wood panels for cover up, or for the simpliest method, you may even be able to just apply white paint over them. Great job, hooray!

JOSH AND LAURA said...

It looks AWESOME!!!! Fantastic job (looks JUST as good as your inspiration photo). I'm so glad you stuck with it even through the setback.

Natalie of TheBusyBudgetingMama.com said...

This looks great!! i came across your blog through paradise found.. so nice! i'm gonna be a follower for sure. you are seriously a do it all mama i'll be posting about your blog on mine soon! plus that cracks me up about the screws..my hubby would do the same thing. but desperate times call for desperate measures..or screws. :)

Maria | Vintage Simple said...

Great project with great results..! You guys did a fantastic job, Jacci. I'm sure your husband will be able to cover the screw heads with wood putty. So far, it really looks terrific.

xo,
-maria

Jacci said...

Thanks so much, everyone! :)

I think the screws are going to be a-okay. You can tell a **leeeetle** bit in one spot, but I think it's one of those things that no one else will ever notice.

The Liquid Nails might have worked from the beginning if we had taken the door off and had it horizontal with something to weigh the boards down as they dried. It's hard to say. As it was, though, this door was basically an exterior door and not one we could afford to have off its hinges for any length of time. Might work for someone else who can do the project with the door off, though.

So glad you all like the way it turned out! Sam's going to put a second coat of paint over the wood putty tonight, and hopefully I'll get finalized pic up before the weekend!!!

XO,
Jacci

Jacci said...

By the way, I think the inspiration image is from Country Living - or maybe Cottage Living?

Lovely Little Nest said...

Saw your blog on YHL and though I'd stop by ~ LOVE this door transformation! Ingenius :)

Roeshel said...

Popping over from YHL. Great job! I love it and it's so hard to
believe it's the same door!

Roeshel

m @ random musings said...

Fab job! I'm totally inspired

As a proud owner of a (ahem) vintage home w/ boring flat doors, I was wondering how thick was that lattice wood?...how much did it add to the depth of the door?

Thanks!

Christie said...

Nice project! I linked here from YHL. Are you Jacci from the Charlotte Mason blog from a few years ago? I saw some CM books on your shelves too, so I thought I'd ask. I used to blog and comment on your blog too.

Jacci said...

LOL - how crazy, CB!!! Yes, that's me! :) I post on Understanding Charlotte *very* rarely these days, but we're still schooling with CM. I totally remember you, though. Wild!

Jacci said...

Thanks for all the kind words, everyone :)

M - the lattice boards were about 1/4" thick, so they added just that much to the width of the door (we only put them on the kitchen side, not the garage side). We got them at a local lumberyard. They just **barely** come out past the jam - not enough for anyone to really notice.

Glad you all like the way it turned out!!!

Christie said...

How fun ... kind of like unexpectedly running into an old friend. :)

I love your house blog! You've done amazing updates.

jgm said...

Great job!! I LOVE this idea - and I plan on doing it in my house!! I am wondering about spray painting the door knob - what kind of spray paint should you use, and did you coat the spray paint with anything to prevent the paint from chipping or wearing off? (we have ugly brass doorknobs throughout our house, so I really want to spray paint them, but I'm a little nervous!)

JacciM said...

Thanks, everyone!

JGM - we didn't prime the knob set, but we did lightly sand it and clean it well. We were hoping to get the spray paint to last 1-2 years until we could buy a new set. I'm not sure I'd try it in my entire house without a plan to replace fairly soon afterward. Our knob lock (the little one in the middle) has worn the paint off just a bit all around the center. Nothing you would notice unless you were locking/unlocking the door, but still - makes me think I wouldn't want to try this everywhere. Maybe primer would've made a difference, but my gut is that all the twisting/friction that goes on with a doorknob is going to test the limits of any spraypaint.

Hope that helps!

graham said...

my wife saw your blackboard door project (very nice!) on YHL and talked me into attempting the same on our Kitchen to Garage door.

Three coats of paint are applied.
Mitred frame edges are cut.

I know we'll struggle with the liquid nails step as you did.

My big question relates to how you got the door hardware to fit through the added thickness of the frame. My first inclination was to use a hole saw for the frame edge that would let the hardware properly seat 'inside' but against the actual door itself. Turns out affordable hole saw sizes are 2.5 & 3" (which i have)...but we need 2.75". Am considering starting with 2 1/2" and maybe jig sawing the the extra 1/4". The other inclination was to use a standard 2.5" hole saw but rely on the screw length to yield a bigger than normal gap between the two halves of the hardware (kitchen side v. garage side). Any suggestions?

I hope this wasn't too much for a blog comment...i didn't see an email option. Thanks!
Graham & Jackie in Mckinney, Tx

Jacci said...

Hi Graham,
Thanks for the question. I wrestled with the same questions as you. My original thought was to make the holes big enough to fit the knob and lock to fit inside the frame (i.e. flush with the existing door surface). I decided against this for 2 reasons:
1) I figured out that the existing screws that I had would accommodate the extra 1/4" created by the lattice board
2) I didn't have the right-sized hole saw, and I could not make the jigsaw cut clean enough to look good

Ultimately, I think the "embedded" look would not have been what we wanted, as it called too much attention to the knob and just didn't look good. Once I decided to put the knob and lock on top of the frame, I planned to get as close to the exact size of the existing holes as possible. I realized, however that since the knob cover plate will cover the hole, the holes in the frame only needed to be big enough for the screws and knob/lock assembly to fit through. This was actually slightly smaller than the hole that was already in the door, so I was able to use one of my existing hole saws (I think it was 2" or 2.5", I don't remember exactly). Because it was slightly smaller than the hole in the door, I was able to clamp the lattice board to the door and drill through to get the hole positions exactly right.

Hope this answers your question...and I hope it goes well for you!

Sam

Unknown said...

Hi Jacci-
I was linked here from YoungHouseLove and I absolutely LOVE your door transformation, its just lovely!

Would you mind sharing your paint color on your kitchen walls? (I'm assuming the new color around your door is the same color in the kitchen too).

Love it! Our kitchen floor tiles are that terra cotta color too but ours are a bit more bold than yours are. I absolutely hate them (no offense if you like yours, they're just not my taste), but we don't have the budget to re-tile the kitchen right now. The wall color you used seems to tone them down a bit. Right now I have "blah beige" on our walls and it doesn't do anything to sort of detract attention to the tiles.

Thanks for your help! I'm a new fan of your blog!

Jacci said...

Well, Erica, aren't you sweet :) Thanks for all the sweet words, and - don't worry - I do *not* like the tile so there's no offense taken at all. I also don't really *hate* it, so it can wait until we have time & money to replace it :)

The kitchen wall color is Sherwin William's "Balanced Beige" in flat. I call it a "greige" - not really gray and not really beige, but a little of both. It more of a cool rather than a warm neutral.

So glad you like the blog! Hope to hear more from you :)

~Jacci

Jacci said...

Just as an update on the spray painted knob... we're all the way to February 2012 now with only a few minor scratches on the knob and lock. none of the paint has peeled off, even though this door gets opened probably a dozen times a day, at least. just wanted to let you know!