When One Door Shuts, Another Opens

“Look on every exit as being an entrance somewhere else.”

― Tom Stoppard, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead

I live in a Colonial-style home that was built in 1925. The doors in my home are from the 20s with glass door knobs and heavy brass hinges. They are lovely—all except one door, that is.

The door leading to the basement/laundry area is the abnormal one. It is a hollow-core door with peeling laminate from decades gone by and I positively hate it. For a while now it has been my goal to one day change out this door to match the others in my home.

The door to the basement. YUCK!

One day, about a year ago, my neighbor (who had done extensive renovations on her home prior to moving in a few years ago) happened to mention that she had a door that matched mine laying in the rafters of her garage that I was welcome to have. I couldn't believe my luck! It was the perfect size! And it was already stripped of all of its years of paint! I rushed it home before she could change her mind! :)

The new old door! In this shot you can see I've been doing some repairs—wood glue here and there as well as wood filler in spots.

The door leaned against my kitchen wall for a year until I was finally ready to install it. I've never done this before! It took me a while to work up the nerve and sort out my plan as to how I was going to do this, after all, this was the only antique door I had on hand—no room for error!

In the meantime, I scoured antique stores looking for hinges that matched the ones throughout my house. I picked up these beauties for a couple of bucks! I also picked up a new antique-style doorknob set for the door at Lowes. Now I had all of my parts! Let's get to work!

The paint was on thick and cracked and came off without much encouragement.

Woohoo! A stripped hinge!

And... VOILA!! My new old door to the basement! I did it!! I am so pleased with it!! It even has a lock—THAT WORKS! So exciting... Now I just need to take it back down and get it painted.

My new old door to the basement with gorgeous glass door knobs and working lock!

For a future project, I've got that wretched paneling in my crosshairs... stay tuned...