Adding Trim to a Flat Door

On Saturday, my wonderful hubby took all the kids out for the day so I could have a free day to myself… do you think with all of that time I sat on the couch with bon-bon’s and a trashy romance novel? Oh no.. I finally decided to tackled a project that I had been dying to do for ages…adding trim to a flat door to create a faux panel door. For 8 year, I looked at this ugly door, not sure what to do with it… I finally decided a paneled door would be nice. Plus I had nightmares of this mirror falling off and reducing our income tax deductions by one.

I first removed the mirror and filled the holes on the door with wood putty. I then measured and marked out where my panels would go.

Measuring the trim

To figure out how much trim I needed, I pre-measured my panels. My panels were 37 x 17 1/2 and 23 x 17 1/2 and it took about 3 hours to measure, cut the trim and glue.I then cut my molding. I would recommend if you only have a regular miter box like I do, go with pine molding. Oak is impossible to cut and I would be lying if I didn’t tell you after cutting these 8 pieces, my arms was tired and I was sweating… I am so out of shape.

After I measured and cut the pieces to the right size, I laid them out. I found the trick to cutting the right length is to make sure that I am measuring from longest part of my 45 degree angle.I laid them out on first the floor to make sure I had the right size pieces. Luckily,  I only mis-cut one piece. Using a molding that had a certain direction to it made it a little harder to make sure i had the right side. I actually had to back cut one side all of the time to make sure I had the right direction and angle.

Gluing the Trim on the Door

I then glued them to the door with construction adhesive. I wasn’t sure nails would really help with a hollow core door.

I used a level to make sure they were on right as I put them on. After putting them on, I also put a wood embellishment at the top. And then I wood puttied any spot I had a huge gap like here (Let it dry and sand it smooth.). Once it was up, I let it dry for a day so the glue could cure.

Painting the Door

And then I painted the door a bright white color. it looked so fresh and clean!I thought that would be kind of funny for a bathroom. I added a brass plaque that said “law offices” I bought at the antique store. I wish I had found one that said “library.”

The project including trim and paint cost under $30.00 if you have none of the supplies (Not including a miter box, but they aren’t that much). I already had the paint and wood filler so all I needed was the trim.

I think I am going to age to door a little to make the molding pop a little. But it wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be. I would just recommend buying a little extra molding for mistakes. But I really love how the door turned out!