This past weekend I decided to jazz up our otherwise brown and boring sliding door to our bedroom. Made of two hollow core doors, the idea was to eventually cover it in leather, stainless steel, and glass. However, since we are on a tight budget, and I couldn't bear to look at the drab brown anymore, I decided to do a little DIY paintwork instead. Im loving the outcome!
Before
We picked these hollow core doors up from our local Habitat for Humanity restore for a wopping......$3 each! If you plan on painting them they are so easy to work with. Its like a blank canvas. And you cant beat the price.
1. First, I painted the doors with 2 coats of left over paint from our bedroom. I did not prime the doors.
2. Then, I made a template of the squares that I wanted to make. The picture above looks super complicated, but believe me, an idiot could pull this project off. I used 11"x17" squares. At the corner of each square I punched a hole in the cardboard so I could mark where my next square would begin.
3. The key is getting the first 3 squares made. After that, I used a level and drew lines all over the door and followed my template.
4. After I was done taping (it took a good 6 hours), I painted over the paint with regular white paint.
5. Then, after only about 5 minutes after I was done painting over the tape I started to peel the tape off. Peeling while the paint isn't completely dry keeps the painters tape from sticking and also keeps the paint from running.
Project Recap:
4 rolls painters tape $0 (already owned)
leftover paint from recent projects $0
hollow core doors $6 (Habitat for Humanity Restore)
paintbruses, rollers, etc $0 (already owned)
Essentially, this project did not cost me a dime. But, if you have none of the supplies you can see this project can still be done on a tight budget.
