DIY Closet Door Makeover

Here's an little and inexpensive makeover I did recently on the closet doors in my son Max's bedroom at our cottage in Nova Scotia, Beach Rose Cottage. The closet doors in Max's room had never been finished and the unpainted wood doors and knobs stuck out and drew your eye to them, in his all white and aqua color-schemed room. I found some "on sale" seafoam blue/green glass door knobs/pulls at the Anthropologie store a few blocks from our NYC apartment (anthropologie.com) that were a perfect darker hued color match for the seafoam blue/green painted floors. When you're thinking about these home projects in a more remote rural area it's often best to source decorative accents "from away" and bring them back. Often the local choices (Home Hardware anyone?) are very limited and you tend to see the same design and decorative accents in every home. So think ahead when you're traveling and keep eyes peeled for knobs and drawer pulls. It's nice to be different!

To begin, I unscrewed the doors and took them outside to our "folk art" garage to work on. I started with a light sanding to both sides of the doors with a piece of sandpaper with a medium grit to it. Then I applied two coats of white semi-gloss paint. Semi-gloss paint for surfaces like these, that get touched a lot is a better choice for easier soapy sponge clean-up.

Then I screwed in the door knobs and carried the doors back upstairs and with my husband Kerry's help, screwed them back in place.

Total cost $18 for the paint and the knobs were marked down to $7 each, for a total of approximately $32 in materials and less than 3 hours of labor.

Voila! A small job that made a big visual improvement impact in a cozy little room. We love the fresh look this very inexpensive project gave to Max's room. And, as you can see, he loved it too!