Project Show-and-Tell: Interior Door Decoupaged with Vintage Papers

door decoupaged with vintage papers

What do you do with a ratty old interior door, one that sports at least three different layers of peeling paint but that is otherwise a solid ole’ boy, one that you would like to look a lot less crappy but that you do NOT want to spend a weekend taking off its hinges, dragging outside, sanding, repainting, dragging back inside, and screwing back on its hinges?

Slap yet another layer of paint on it, that’s what! Oh, and cover the center panels with a decoupage consisting of vintage wallpaper samples, stash scrapbook paper, and nautical-themed sheet music. Yes, it’s a little more on the “shabby chic” side than I usually walk, but the point is that my solid-yet-ugly bathroom door now looks a whole lot nicer, and instead of a long weekend and some muscle power to make it happen, it only took a couple of hours, some stash supplies, and plenty of Mod Podge.

decoupaged doorFor the paint job, I used leftover paint from my daughters’ bedroom walls. The paint is pink, which isn’t my favorite color, but it DOES match the hallway, which is painted purple. I’ve since painted all the other doors that open off of the hallway in that same pink, although their center panels, which for some reason weren’t nearly as trashed as the center panels on this particular door, got to have black chalkboard paint instead of decoupage.

The center panel on this door, however…I don’t know, perhaps someone tested out their carving knife on it? Owned a very tall, very aggressive dog? Anyway, if I didn’t have the patience to sand all the old layers of paint off of the rest of the door, I sure as hell didn’t have the patience to sand old paint layers PLUS weird, deep scratches off of this part of it, nor did I want people to stand for ages in front of the door, attempting to decipher some cryptic message still visible under the fresh paint job.

A few years ago (yes, this door has looked ugly for years. I’m a lazy homeowner!), I had a lot of success in decoupaging vintage wallpaper samples over a built-in shelf in the living room, so I used the same tactic here. Using ample amounts of Mod Podge and a foam paintbrush, I decoupaged an assortment of vintage wallpaper samples, thrifted and found papers, stash scrapbook paper, and vintage sheet music over the door panel, covering the entire thing in several more layers of Mod Podge to seal it well.

The decoupaged door panel is sturdy and washable, and should stay sound throughout the life of the door (or until we finally move to that hobby farm out in the country, at which point the house’s new owners can haul it out into the backyard and sand it down for all I care). The painted sides of the door will likely peel again at some point, and if they do I’ll touch them up, or perhaps I’ll even have a less godawful color of paint on hand to repaint them by then.

Or I could just let them peel–that would look even more shabby chic, right?

 

1 thought on “Project Show-and-Tell: Interior Door Decoupaged with Vintage Papers”

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