How to Faux panel a door...deux...

I thought I would dig deep into the archives for this one. One of the most requested questions I receive  about a post I did on how I faux paneled my door. I thought this would be a good repost for anyone needing a good summer project. :)

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... 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...

After removing the mirror and filling the holes, I marked out where my panels would go.

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 you measure and cut you pieces lay 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.

Lay them out on the floor to make sure you have the right size pieces. I only mis-cut one piece. Using a molding that had a certain direction to it made it a little harder to. I actually had to back cut one side all of the time to make sure I had the right direction and angle.

I then.. glued them to the door with a mixture of wood glue and..um... yes, hot glue. I am sure it's not a carpenter's dream; but it's a hollow door so I didn't think nails would really help. And I'll tell you, that hot glue sticks fast and I couldn't pull it off, so I don't think it's going any where.

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 wood glue could cure.

And then I painted!~

For fun, I added an antique brass door tag I got in Kentucky.. It says "law offices". I thought that would be kind of funny for a bathroom. 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.

To figure out how much trim you need, pre-measure your 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.

 But it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. I would just recommend buying a little extra molding for mistakes and not doing it in the middle of your kitchen floor like I did. It makes a little bit of a saw dust mess . ;)

Other repost projects I thought you might like are:


How to decoupage fabric on a table top


putting an end to those useless ceramic tile holders in bathrooms


Making a painted pattern 101

~Jen