Doors have got to be THE perfect way to add some custom character to your home, but, man, doors can be expensive. I’m sure others have done something similar to this, but I came up with this idea for super easy DIY custom interior doors that I plan to use in several areas of our home because you can totally come up with any design you want.
The design I’m showing you today I’ve used for two doors – our pantry and shoe closet doors (see our little shoe/mud closet reveal here!) which are both in our kitchen. I have plans to do my laundry bifold doors as well. I have to remind myself to keep these custom doors an accent piece and reign in the desire to turn my home into crazy door land – it’s hard once you start browsing shapes and designs, you’ll see.
Alright, let’s get to it!
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Step 1: Select your door
I decided to go with this door, an unfinished hollow core door with no raised surfaces. I really think you could use any door (better yet if you’re just modifying your current door) – you may just have to think about your design a bit more if you have parts of the surface raised.
Step 2: Choose your design
At the end of this post, I’ll include some suggested options, but have fun and make this door yours! Just search something like “laser cut wood shapes” on Etsy and dream up your cool little door. I decided to have mine go top to bottom and to have all of the wood shapes touch each other, so I had to pay more attention to dimensions of my door to get it right. Luckily, a lot of the wood shapes on Etsy are offered in a variety of sizes. I chose this arabesque shape in the 16″ size which meant I needed 5 of them for my 80″ door. However, I also plan to space my shapes out for my laundry room doors, and I think that is a fine way to go too. I’ll share that little project when it’s complete, but I plan to use these Swiss cross style shapes for that one.
Step 3: Prepare door for hanging
If you are just modifying your current door, you’re set, but if you need to make cuts for a doorknob, hinges, etc. you’ll want to do that first. There are lot’s of tutorials online for this, but hit me up with a comment if you need some help here. Basically, you want your door completely ready to rehang except keep all of the hardware off until the end. Our house is a bit wonky and the door frames aren’t as, oh, I don’t know, straight as you’d like? I often have to sand edges to keep new doors from rubbing the frames. You just want to take care of that part now so that you don’t have to sand down your beautifully painted door at the end and repaint (even though I have had to do this and it’s not the end of the world).
Step 4: Give the door a good sanding/wood fill if necessary
You just want to make everything nice and smooth, especially the edges of the door that can be a bit rough. If you are using an old door that is a bit banged up, that is fine – you’ll see here that we had a bit of a mishap cutting the hole for the doorknob (maybe you don’t want me to tell you how to do this part after all), but you’ll be amazed at what some wood filler can do. Fill any nicks or dings (or giant holes), sand that puppy down smooth, and you’re ready for the fun part!
Step 5: Lay out your design, trace, and glue down
Just as it says, lay out your shapes until you get them how you like them, trace them to help yourself keep them aligned, and then use a little wood glue (I’m hearing my elementary art teacher saying “just a dot, not a lot!”) to glue them down. Weigh them down (being careful not to let them slide) and just wait until it’s all good and dry. And just a reminder from a sometimes scatterbrained DIYer – make sure you are gluing to the correct side of the door since you already have your doorknob cut! If you’re paying attention, these progress photos are actually for the sister door of the finished door I’m showing because I didn’t take photos on the first round of doing this project (and the knobs are on different sides).
Step 6: Wood fill/sand if needed
If your shapes aren’t touching one another, skip this step, but, if they are, you’ll want to wood fill the tiny gaps and sand to get that seamless look. Don’t forget to do the sides where the shapes come together too!
Step 7: Paint
I plan to experiment with more matte finish paints, but, for this door, I used a satin finish. I chose Behr Autumn Fest for the color. I got really excited and ordered this little paint sprayer with really good reviews, but, halfway through the project, I abandoned it and just simply painted thin coats and sanded in between. So, this is what I would suggest because you don’t have to buy anything new. Just paint thin coats (and be a crazy drip monitor around the edges of those shapes) and lightly sand in between coats. This will give you a beautiful finish even though it will look like crapola at first. See, crapola, don’t worry, it will be beautiful!
Step 8: Add hardware, hang door, and gaze adoringly at your new door
Pop on your hardware and hang that door! I’ve used Nostalgic Warehouse knobs all over my house and I just love these. And gaze adoringly… now!
Yay, you! You did it, and now you want to do more, right? I have to say, it is one of things in my home I get the most comments on when people come over. I hope you enjoyed this little project – I’d love to see what you came up with!
Find your own or try some of these out!
