I am revisiting this older project, a repurposed door bookshelf. I’m updating all the photos, and sharing what I would do differently 10 years later. Look for those thoughts in bold text below.
This project was featured on:
Cut Door in Half to make Repurposed Door Bookshelf
I ripped this old door on my table saw with the help of a neighbor. This was a solid and very heavy door, impossible to handle by myself. Always trust your gut and ask for help if you feel the project is too much for you to handle.
When ripping a large project on a table saw, it’s a good idea to have those extra hands to receive the project.
Make Necessary Repairs
After I ripped it I needed to do a little repair on it. Some of the dowels were cut in half by the table saw.
So, I replaced the dowels, glued and taped them in place.
This door had many layers of paint. I decided to let mother nature help me “weather” the paint off. I actually cut the door months ago. Of course, I wouldn’t recommend this technique.
When it got to this point I used a paint stripper to remove the remnants of paint. Always use caution when dealing with old chippy paint.
Because it had been out in the weather for so long, I had to make repairs.
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I glued the loose joints with Gorilla Wood Glue.
Prepare Door Bookshelf for Painting
I was lucky enough to find some pink Kilz in the oops bin at Home Depot. ($5.00) Getting a really good red is hard without primer.
In recent years, I’ve learned to make my own diy chalky paint primer out of red paint, then use the red paint out of the can as the topcoat.
This is after one coat of primer, I ended up putting on two coats of primer.
I also found a really pretty red “oops” paint at Home Depot.
Add Shelves to Bookshelf
Laying the two pieces on the driveway, I began designing the configuration of the shelves.
The first step was to attach a top and a bottom. I used wood glue and drywall screws for this project.
However, these days I would definitely use wood screws.
The plywood I used for the top, bottom and shelves all came from the cull bin at Home Depot. The cull bin no longer exists at our Home Depot.
Now, I have options for smaller pieces of nice plywood at my Peddler’s Mall.
To attach the shelves I used a Kreg Jig, you can see how easy it is to use in my post titled, How To Use a Kreg Jig.
When you are building something like this you need to make sure your shelves are level. But more important you need to make sure the ground/floor you’re working on is level first!
What would I do different today? I would apply edge banding to hide the raw edge of the plywood like I did on my Tall Window Cabinet project.
The repurposed door bookshelf is coming together, but it’s getting very heavy!
Embellish Repurposed Door Bookshelf with Wood Trim
I used two scrap pieces of cull bin luan (.51 each) for the back. One piece runs from the top all the way to the last shelf. I joined the other piece of luan in the center of the bottom shelf. From the back you can see that it is pieced, but from the front it is not noticeable. I told you I DIY on the cheap, that means I’m a “use what you have” kind of girl.
Would I do that differently? Nope! I’m still that girl that uses what she has!
For the bottom trim I used some scrap molding I bought at one of our local Peddler’s Malls. You can see that the trim is definitely reclaimed wood.
For the top molding I used crown molding.
Paint Shelves
I found that it was easiest to paint this huge repurposed door bookshelf on its side while up on saw horses. I used primer on the new wood. (2 coats)
If you’re a regular around here, you know that I would definitely paint this project with my favorite Super Finish Max if I were to build this today.
This is the top. You can see where I attached the top to the door on either side.
The bookshelf is looking pretty good after 1 coat of red. You know those drop cloths everyone uses for curtains and upholstery? They make great drop cloths too!
I chose not to fill in the hinge mortises. After all, this is a repurposed door bookshelf!
I didn’t measure the height of this piece, but it looks like it is taller than a standard door.
Even back in the day, I painted the top, bottom and the back of this piece. I put the last coat of paint on it while it was upright.
Clean and Install Door Plates
Rummaging through my stash, I located two door knob plates. I’m pretty sure they were the original pieces off of this door. I stripped the paint off of them.
This is how they looked after I cleaned them up from the paint stripper. Before attaching them to the door I sanded them with a sanding sponge which makes it easier to get into the crevices.
Red Repurposed Door Bookshelf
I never really put much thought into how TALL this piece was going to be. It really is big.
Don’t you love how the door knob plates turned out? Chippy is good, but sometimes I don’t want chippy.
The door is old and has a few flaws, but I think it’s age adds character. I think about how many times it was slammed by young’ns running in and out. It makes me think about how it may have been adorned for Christmas, and Autumn. The stories this old door could tell!!
This was the first piece of furniture I ever painted RED, but it was not the last. Have you seen the Red Toddler Bed Made from a Door?
Gail Wilson is the author and mastermind behind My Repurposed Life. She is obsessed with finding potential in unexpected places and believes that with a little hard work and imagination, any old thing can be made useful again, including herself!
Gail reinvented herself during a midlife crisis and has found purpose again. She hopes you will find new ideas for old things and pick up a few tools along the way.
53 Comments
I absolutely LOVE the red color! It really pops. And, I noticed the door is real wood, not hollow. That makes it extra sturdy. Now, we need lots of small craft ideas on how to fill all those shleves!
Great job! You put alot of hard work into this piece and it turned out great. If your readers wanted to try to do something similar but lack the table saw to rip a full-size door, there is an alternative. Bi-fold doors can also be found in solid wood. These would allow the builder to have two door panels on each side without cutting and would provide extra materials. They wouldn’t be the old door like you used, but they could accomplish a similar look by adding the old hardware. Some hardware stores still carry the old hardware if it can’t be found. I know it is carried by most Ace stores, but is only available in a shiny brass. Just wanted to throw out that alternative for those who can’t go into a big project due to lack of tools or space (apartment). You did a fantastic job and loved the detailed instructions. Thanks for sharing this.
I appreciate your input. You make a great point. I wish I had some bifolding doors in my stash right now, I think I need to hit up the Habitat ReStore! 🙂
gail
What a creative idea! I would have been nervous to go with such a bold color but it is truly beautiful. Great work
Love the shelf, and your curtious reply to someone who didn’t exactly earn a curtious reply, but I have learned that you learn more about someone by what they say about someone else than you do about the person they are talking about. So kudo’s to you. I have a suggestion for paint removal. Buy a heat gun and a good scraper. They cost about the same as a gallon of paint striper and last for years ( I’ve had mine for over 10 years) then you don’t have all the mess or smell of bad chemicals and it is amazing how well the paint just bubbles up. I scrape off as much as I want off and then lightly sand the residue. Anyway it has worked well for me. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you for your very kind comment. 🙂 I have recently acquired a paint gun, but I’ve never used it to remove paint. I look forward to putting it to the test. Stop by the home page this week to enter LOTS of fabulous giveaways! almost $2000.00 as I celebrate four years of blogging.
gail
I love what you have done with the doors. I have a few that I am considering turning into a corner shelf, but I am not sure if the old paint on them is lead based…do you have any suggestions?
I like the way this piece looks, but the fact that you only glued it together and did not use any mechanical fasteners proves that beauty is only skin deep. I expect the girls who bought it to discover the poor build quality of your shelf the hard way. Shame on you. Thrifty is one thing, downright cheap is another.
Apparently you didn’t read my entire post. I used screws and wood glue. We all know that wood glue is what really holds a piece together in the long run. I used pocket hole screws for the shelves, this piece was built to last.
gail
And here I thought our door shelves were an original idea! I had never seen it done before. Huh. Our shelves were actually an after-thought, to the shoe storage bench we made. ( http://houseofjoyfulnoise.com/doors-to-storage-literally/ ) I love the bold red color! I thought you were going to distress it down to reveal some pink. How funky that would have been. lol. No surprise this sold right away.
Thank you Gail for the Inspiration you are giving me. Today especially has been a hard day so I sat down to browse your site and read some past Blogs and I am already feeling better. I want to and will do an old door piece like this one day. Thanks so much for the step by step pics. Got my feel good on now thanks to you:) Have a GREAT weekend. barbhearts@aol.com
This door had many layers of paint. I decided to let mother nature help me “weather” the paint off. I actually cut the door months ago. Of course, I wouldn’t recommend this technique.
I absolutely LOVE the red color! It really pops. And, I noticed the door is real wood, not hollow. That makes it extra sturdy. Now, we need lots of small craft ideas on how to fill all those shleves!
Great job! You put alot of hard work into this piece and it turned out great. If your readers wanted to try to do something similar but lack the table saw to rip a full-size door, there is an alternative. Bi-fold doors can also be found in solid wood. These would allow the builder to have two door panels on each side without cutting and would provide extra materials. They wouldn’t be the old door like you used, but they could accomplish a similar look by adding the old hardware. Some hardware stores still carry the old hardware if it can’t be found. I know it is carried by most Ace stores, but is only available in a shiny brass. Just wanted to throw out that alternative for those who can’t go into a big project due to lack of tools or space (apartment). You did a fantastic job and loved the detailed instructions. Thanks for sharing this.
Jason,
I appreciate your input. You make a great point. I wish I had some bifolding doors in my stash right now, I think I need to hit up the Habitat ReStore! 🙂
gail
What a creative idea! I would have been nervous to go with such a bold color but it is truly beautiful. Great work
Thank you Pam, I appreciate your comment.
gail
Love the shelf, and your curtious reply to someone who didn’t exactly earn a curtious reply, but I have learned that you learn more about someone by what they say about someone else than you do about the person they are talking about. So kudo’s to you. I have a suggestion for paint removal. Buy a heat gun and a good scraper. They cost about the same as a gallon of paint striper and last for years ( I’ve had mine for over 10 years) then you don’t have all the mess or smell of bad chemicals and it is amazing how well the paint just bubbles up. I scrape off as much as I want off and then lightly sand the residue. Anyway it has worked well for me. Thanks for sharing.
Linda,
Thank you for your very kind comment. 🙂 I have recently acquired a paint gun, but I’ve never used it to remove paint. I look forward to putting it to the test. Stop by the home page this week to enter LOTS of fabulous giveaways! almost $2000.00 as I celebrate four years of blogging.
gail
I love what you have done with the doors. I have a few that I am considering turning into a corner shelf, but I am not sure if the old paint on them is lead based…do you have any suggestions?
I like the way this piece looks, but the fact that you only glued it together and did not use any mechanical fasteners proves that beauty is only skin deep. I expect the girls who bought it to discover the poor build quality of your shelf the hard way. Shame on you. Thrifty is one thing, downright cheap is another.
Apparently you didn’t read my entire post. I used screws and wood glue. We all know that wood glue is what really holds a piece together in the long run. I used pocket hole screws for the shelves, this piece was built to last.
gail
how much did it sell for?
$75
how sad is that! ALL that work!
And here I thought our door shelves were an original idea! I had never seen it done before. Huh. Our shelves were actually an after-thought, to the shoe storage bench we made. ( http://houseofjoyfulnoise.com/doors-to-storage-literally/ )
I love the bold red color! I thought you were going to distress it down to reveal some pink. How funky that would have been. lol. No surprise this sold right away.
Really a great way to reuse a piece that would otherwise be wasted! Very inspiring, thanks for sharing 🙂
Lucia
Thank you Gail for the Inspiration you are giving me. Today especially has been a hard day so I sat down to browse your site and read some past Blogs and I am already feeling better. I want to and will do an old door piece like this one day. Thanks so much for the step by step pics. Got my feel good on now thanks to you:) Have a GREAT weekend. barbhearts@aol.com
Great project! We have a couple of doors sitting around and trying to decide what to do with them, so this might be the project we go with!
Jeff
It is absolutely gorgeous!! I love the red! I never think outside the box like this…I wish I were more original.