Refurbishing An Old Door

Here we go again, into our basement stash of goodies to reuse and repurpose to some extent, a door!

Our older home has a crazy number of original hardwood 5-panel doors in it. Most have remained in place, while some have made their way to our stockpile as we’ve renovated over the years.

We recently saw our master bathroom project come to fruition. We were after 'vintage charm' so set out to achieve that look with a glassless shower, new claw foot tub, and a handcrafted double sink vanity.

The one thing that had me sitting on the fence for 2 years however, once on its way to being pulled together with finishing touches, was in deciding what I wanted for a door.

I hummed and hawed. Appliance placement in that room would need to be strategic. There would only be so much room for a door to safely operate where we wouldn’t be running into it everywhere we turned. We struggled to adequately achieve the clearance for a door swing into the bathroom. And knew we also couldn’t go with a bi-fold or shutter type door as they would interfere with the limited floor space.

Off To The Basement Again!

That’s when I went to our basement stockpile of doors in search of one for the purpose. Rather than have it swing into the room tho, it would need to be on a sliding track in order to solve our clearance issue.

Our bathroom had a distressed rug with touches of midnight blue, slate blue and grey on an off-white background. Whatever I decided upon would need to blend with that as well. And I knew I wanted a darker door for contrast and interest, but not a plain flat black.

An Old Door Gets Older

I had Joe place the door on a table in the basement for me and I washed it down with dish soap and hot water. The door was a beige color originally as in the first photo. I also had a spray-painted message on the other side of it which I can’t really repeat here! Not being up to the goopy mess of removing the painted finish with a stripper, I instead opted to repaint the door. But it would have to suit the vintage old-world charm of the finished bathroom. I could not WAIT for the end result!

I gave the door a basecoat of an off-white in an interior latex paint, eggshell finish. Once dried, I rubbed burned down candles I had been saving for distressing techniques, to areas of the door where I wanted the base coat to show through.

Once I finished applying the candle wax, I applied a coat of a light blue, interior latex, eggshell finish.

Again, once dried, I applied more candle wax in the areas I would want the light blue or the off white, or both to be revealed in the distressing.

I then applied the final paint coat which was a midnight black in an interior latex paint, eggshell finish – leftover from our double vanity.

When the black paint dried, I began removing paint here and there with steel wool and a paint scraper.

When satisfied with the amount of distressing and the amount of the base coats revealed, we lightly sanded the entire surface with a fine sand paper so as to remove any lifting paint remnants for a smooth surface.

And applied a white finishing wax to the door with a clean cloth, making sure to get it into the nooks of the panels and buffed all with a clean cloth. This would give the door a tinge of a softer dark blue.

The Sliding Track

Joe then purchased a number of materials needed to construct the sliding track for a total of $55. I believe he used clothesline pulleys for this track (he’s made 3 or 4 others in the house). He spray-painted all pieces in a flat black before starting the build.

Guess Where To Again!

Once the track was up and the door installed, I had to find a knob that would work. It couldn’t be too deep of a knob on the wall side if we wanted the door to hang correctly AND not have the knob mark up the wall or trim with constant movement. I wasn’t able to find anything new that would be suitable.

Again to the basement saved treasures! And there it was - just begging to be used!!

I found 2 completely different knobs, but close in size in our stash of goodies. I also found a slightly rusted key plate that I thought would finish off the vintage look that I was after.

Joe installed all - and we LOVE it!

It's Got To Be Vintage

Our door is original to our house - fully functional and without obstruction in its movement. I had bought a huge ornate baroque wall mirror locally via Facebook Marketplace for $25. It was trimmed with an antique gold frame in its vintage look. We had to also keep the thickness of that in mind when Joe built the track brackets which would extend out from the wall.

His having provided for that extra depth allowed us to mount the mirror on the chosen wall without it interfering with the sliding function of the door, and adding yet more vintage charm to our space.

And Mission Accomplished!

We were a little concerned when looking at our floor plan for a master bathroom of 8' x 8'. It would need to accommodate a double vanity, toilet, and clawfoot tub. As well as a larger glassless shower as we wanted, and floor space still for a stool and laundry hamper. And the two of sharing the bathroom at the same time!

Thanks to our antique door with a modern day twist in how it functioned, we were able to keep the bathroom plan just as we had imagined it.