How To Prime & Paint Solid Wood Doors {and a FREE Printable!!}

Don't forget to look for the free HOW TO Printable at the end!

When we made our big to do list, we talked about adding doors to our Master Bedroom. (Yes, we bought a house without doors to our bedroom). I laugh because it has been 3 months and Ty and I have gotten use to having entire conversations from the living room to our bedroom with no problem. We are excited to have some privacy when guests come, and to stop tip toeing around in the morning when one of us gets up before the other. Because of the archway, these doors needed to be custom so we contacted a contractor in our area and had him come out to measure and create a template for the doors. 6 weeks later they arrived at our home to be installed. Our next step is to paint the doors. We did a similar door painting project on an exterior door in our last house, but this one is much easier since we have a fresh slab of wood rather than a door caked in years of paint. Here is how we painted our solid wood doors (and how you can do it too!).

How To Paint Solid Wood Doors

1// Remove door from frame. Remove all door hardware including hinges. This will give you a clear surface to paint and keep your hardware paint-free!

2// Lay your doors flat! This is key in avoiding drip marks during the painting process and while the doors dry.

3// Gather your supplies. We found that a foam roller brush gives the smoothest finish on doors and cabinets.You will also need a primer made for bare wood if your doors did not come primed. We chose Valspar bare wood. You will also need a foam sander block. This is essential for sanding between coats of primer. Depending on the finish of your doors you will need fine or a moderate grit sanding block. We bought both just in case. These are great for other sanding projects around the house too. Lastly, you will need a tack cloth to clean off the sanding debris, and your choice of paint for the door. 

4// Time to prime. Our doors were sanded well and smooth from the beginning so we did not sand prior to our first coat of primer. If your doors are uneven or have layers of paint, you will want to thoroughly sand them prior to priming. Using our foam roller we applied one coat of primer to each door and allowed it to dry for 2 hours  per the directions on the primer can.

5// Now that the primer is dried, its time to sand. We lightly sanded each door until the surface was smooth. Using a tack cloth, we then wiped the door of all sanding debris. This part is essential to keeping debris out of your paint and off of your roller.

6// (Optional) Depending on how well your primer went on and how porous your wood surface is, you may or may not want to coat with a second layer of primer. If so, repeat steps #4 & #5. We opted to move forward with painting at this point rather than a second coat of primer.

7// With the surface clean and dry, its time to paint. We really like Sherwin Williams ProClassic paint for trim and doors in our last house, so we went with it again. We also chose a semi-gloss finish in a custom white for the door. Using our foam rollers again, we rolled one coat of paint on to the door surface and allowed it to dry for 45 minutes.

8// Repeat step #7 until you have achieved an even coat throughout. We did three coats of paint total.

9// Once paint is completely dry, flip the doors and repeat steps 4-8.

10// Rehang newly painted doors. Replace hardware and hinges. Enjoy your newly painted wood doors!  (Before & After of our newly finished doors coming soon!)

Enjoy this FREE Printable:

Turning a Mirror into a Headboard

The office has been more of a storage room for the first couple of months in our new home. With the change in my job hours to nightshift, we bumped this room up on the list of to dos. This room will now serve the dual purpose of office & nightshift sleeping room. I am excited to have a cozy little nook to doze in during the day.

The walls are now painted a neutral grey rather than bright green. Last weekend we added roll down blackout shades and a light fixture that actually works. We finally sifted through and sold most of our excess furniture via Craigslist. And this weekend we readied the bed for all of my daytime sleeping by turning a mirror into a headboard (oh, and Ty's deer also found his place).

In our first house, this mirror was the perfect addition to our hallway. During Christmastime, we even used it to display all of our Christmas cards. In the second house, it was a great floor length mirror in our guest room. And in this house we are re-purposing it for a headboard.

The mirror already had the proper brackets in place which made this project super easy. I tied picture wire to the the brackets and it was ready to mount (the twine is just leftover from the card project!)

Then I placed the mirror behind the pillows to determine the correct height. I wanted the wood frame to sit above the pillows while the pillows covered the mirrored portion. Admittedly, I nailed three holes in the wall before I got the height just right. Maybe next time I will use a tape measure instead of eye balling it (duh!)

I love how it turned out. The room is small and so finding a way to have a headboard without making the bed stick out further into the room was essential. I love the contrast of the wood and the walls and the pillows. I also really like that this project was free and made use of a mirror that we really like but couldn't seem to find a place for.

This nightshift haven is coming together slowly but surely. We still need to install curtains, find a proper desk, mount the TV, and find some storage solutions for our office supplies. More to come in the next few weeks. 

Have you guys re-purposed any home items lately? What did you do?

The Lantern Light that Just Wasn't Right

You may have gleaned our lantern light when we were doing some front door rehab this past fall.

During all of that we also tried failed at hanging a new front porch fixture. This lantern had all the makings of a beautiful fixture....

In my head I had visions of our home looking like this...

Unfortunately, it turned out more like this...

The original fixture was a square flush-mount, so the off centered-ness did not have any impact on the appearance of the porch. When we installed this hanging lantern, it became all too obvious that the light fixture had been centered on the porch and not the front door. 

I thought about hanging an iron pendant to balance the doorway....

I thought about putting a planter to balance the doorway distract from the off centered lantern 

(I DID in fact buy a plant for the porch it died)

I tried to ignore that it was off center. I EVEN took photos to make it appear centered. 

But in the end, I just could not get over the off centered light. 

Ultimately, I think I would like to have a wall lantern installed to the left of the front door (like the one below!) and completely remove the overhead light.

But for now our lop-sided lantern must come down!

Although that piece of our front door rehab was a major fail, 

we have been waiting to share our spring surprise with you guys for quite awhile....

stay tuned!

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How To Repair a Broken Blind

This broken blind has been staring glaring at us since we moved in. We finally got tired of its dirty looks, and set out to repair it. {Little did we know, those looks could have been avoided had we taken 10 minutes to repair it} Here is HOW TO repair a broken blind.

1. Find the rubber stopper at the bottom of the each track of the blinds, and remove it.

2. Untie the knotted string found beneath the rubber stopper. {Depending on how many tracks your blinds have, you may have to do this 2, 3, or 4 times} We did this for both tracks.

3. Pull the string through each blind until you get to the broken individual blind. Remove broken blind.

4. Take an undamaged blind from the bottom row of the blinds. Insert the undamaged blind into the broken blind's spot.{move the broken blind to a bottom less-noticeable spot}

5. Thread the string through both tracks of the blinds until you reach the bottom. Retie the tie knot and replace the stopper.

BEFORE:

AFTER: 

How to turn a Basket into Art

Well, we are just about out of juice on the kitchen, so we are mixing it up a little this week with the latest work on our Guest Room: DIY Wall Art. My original design board (seen below) had hints of coral and brown to blend with the already Sea Salt Blue of the walls and white bedding, until... 

I stumbled upon these amazing Tahari baskets! I was instantly inspired to use them as wall art.

Here's HOW I made easy Basket Wall Art!
1) In order to hang them properly, I used kraft (is this spelled with a c or a k?! I'll never know!) paper to trace the outline of each basket.
2) I put my pencil through the center whole to mark the center of the tracing circle.
3) Cut out each tracing. 

4) Then using painter's tape I was able to adjust them on the wall until I found the perfect spot of each one. (some trial and error happened first!)

This also made it easy to hang each basket. 

5) Using tack nail, hammer the nail in at the spot previously marked (center of the circle) with the pencil. Leave the nail sticking out about a half of an inch. 

6) Tear off the craft paper from around the nail. 

7) Place basket on the nail by pushing the center of the basket on top of the nail. Then hammer the nail further into the wall to secure the basket fully.

TA-DAH! Easy DIY Wall Art

(AND The perfect reading nook for our guests!)

We put the finishing touches on the guest room next week! Stay tuned:)

Have any of you found any unique pieces for wall art inspiration lately?!

Tell us about them in the comments section below!

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Creating a Coat Rack

I'm Hooked.... well our coats are at least. 

We made a small but incredibly helpful addition to the room off the kitchen this week: A coat hook!

We found this old piece of wood in a pile of remnants from Ty's parents home which was built in the 1920s. Being sentimental (and thrifty) we made it into a shelf. If you remember seeing this previously, you have! We used it in the guest room at the Sloan Road House to display wedding photos in the guest room. See the original Sentimental Shelf Here!

I have wanted to use it again in our new home, but hadn't found the perfect place for it yet...until now! 

The shelf is a little too long for the space, but it is the perfect width to cover this GIANT hole (and the ridiculous number of face plates. Wood paneling doesn't lend itself to patching unfortunately.... 

and we are in need of a place to put our coats!

So I purchased three oil rubbed bronze hooks from Target for a total of $10. 

Then, I dismantled the top of the shelf from the bottom and used a skill saw to cut each piece to the appropriate size. I wish I had a picture of this but power tools and selfies are like texting and driving.. .just dumb. After I cut the pieces I found the center of the shelf, and placed my first hook. Next I measured equal distances on each side of the center hook, and screwed on the next two hooks.

I used brackets to place it on the wall so that the shelf remained flush and sturdy for all those winter coats.

And here is our finished product, just in time for the first cold snap!

How to Make a Custom Window Screen

We all Screen for a Window Screen! Ty made a window screen for the kitchen window this week. It is absolutely wonderful for letting the fall breeze (hah ok, more like snow these past few days) inside... not to mention, keeping the bugs outside and my precious kittens inside. We found this Window Screen Kit at Lowes for around $15, and it was money well spent.

First, Ty measured the window. 

Then, he used a hack saw to cut the metal frame for the screen. After cutting the frame he attached the each piece of the frame using these plastic elbows found in the kit.

We did a test run to make sure the frame was the correct size.

Next, he laid the screen over the frame and cut a piece much larger than the frame.

He used a special roller tool to roll the screen into the frame to secure the screen into the frame.

Finished Product:

We have been tackling these little projects over the last few weeks, while getting our kitchen ready for the FINAL BIG HUGE SPECTACULAR REVEAL! We can't wait to show you all that we've been doing, and to share our joy with you as we unveil our gorgeous new kitchen.

Have a great week!