In the vein of playing catch up, today I’m sharing one of my favorite projects that I worked on this summer: this closet door makeover with Apartment Therapy.
When I last left off, I shared our stair makeover with a new runner. I talked about how I had a goal at the beginning of the year to work my way from the foyer, to the stairs, and up to the second-floor landing/hallway.
Well, one of the first things in this hallway that I wanted to focus on was the hall closet.
It was kinda dingy, and to be honest we didn’t use it. In the corner of the closet, there’s an HVAC pipe that comes up through the floor and goes up to the attic, which wasn’t sealed off, so it was pretty smelly and just, well—icky. I mentioned when we bought this house, that there was a major mouse problem, so it was apparent to us that this was one of their favorite hangouts 🤢.
And while we were able to handle the mouse situation pretty early on, and we cleaned the closet, we were still kinda grossed out by it.
And then of course the louvered doors were the perfect dust collectors, so I needed to remedy them fast.
I removed the doors and got to work . . .
repurposing them, by removing the slats . . .
inserting plywood panels, and . . .
Adding trim and painting them.
I also added trim to the closet’s surround, making this eyesore look like a custom built-in.
And this is what it looks like now, it’s come quite a long way for sure.
Not only is it much prettier to look at, but it will also be much more functional to use, now that the doors are hinged. It currently holds tools, for when I’m working on projects upstairs, but eventually, I’d like to make better use of it.
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I shared this project as a member of the DIY Collective with Apartment Therapy. You can check out the process and my full tutorial for this project on Apartment Therapy.com
Looks great. I wondered about taking the slats out but every other redo I saw just went over them. I like your way. Looks great and love the color.
Author
Thanks so much!
How did you hold your wood panels in place? Nailed through the side?
Author
Hi Hannah, there was a bit of a “cleat” inside each door opening, whih made it possible for the panels to rest inside, than adding the additional trim, made it even more secure.
Thank you!
Hi Carli! Love how this project came out! What is the paint color you used in this project on the doors and trim? It is gorgeous! I am renovating a 1960s home and would love to use this color and door idea!
Author
Hi Christyn, thanks so much! The paint color is Smoked Tan by Behr! Best of luck with your renovationđź’“
I have a door with slats (louvers) in the top half that I wanted to save and upcycle with a frosted glass panel and this is exactly the instructional I was looking for, thank you!
Author
Yay! So glad! Hope you it works out for youđź’“