Vintage Pantry Door Makeover

Well hello bloggy friends! It's been a bit, huh? 

That's not to say I haven't been creating but things have definitely changed a bit I feel like. 
As much as I love blogging & photography & home decor, I just haven't had the energy & passion for blogging as I once did. I tried for a while to keep up and just found that I needed to step away for a bit. Posts have trickled in bits & pieces and I've been ok with that for now. 

Life has gotten crazier- the kids are so involved in so many things. 
And my creativity has turned more into creating for others lately. I've dabbled a bit in sewing because I love to make my 3 year old fun outfits. Instagram has been my outlet for a while now- posting both on my blog/creative page at Tattered_and_inked as well as posting to my Daughter's page Littlemissmaggiegrace. I love sharing outfit inspirations and mostly supporting handmade shops & mamas!! We have found so many sweet friends through the repping world and my photography passion has had an outlet in creating fun flatlays and photo shoots for my kiddos. I'd love for you to keep up with me on either of those pages!!

But that doesn't mean I haven't been working on house projects...although they have slowed a bit. I chalk it up to mostly being incredibly content. I love mixing things up and changing pieces but after settling into the 'new' house, I've been so content with how a lot of things are. 
I have big plans for some areas though!!! 

One of those areas that I've had in my head since I knew we would have an actual pantry was to replace the builder grade doors with a vintage door. I have been obsessed with this idea since moving in and luckily hubby was very excited about this idea too :) 

Here's what we were wanting to change: 

Wouldn't an antique door look so perfect here???

And the hunt began. 

After visiting tons of antique stores, resale stores & just scouting local online yard sales, we kept coming up short. 

Mainly for two reason: 

1. I really wanted a window of some sort on it. And most of those doors are outdoor doors which mean they are HEAVY. 

2. The measurements of our doorway were in no way conventional so we just couldn't find a door that matched up to what we needed. 

We finally decided to drive out to a further flea market (my favorite one!!) where they had piles of doors. 

We sifted through what seemed like a hundred dirty, grimy doors and still hadn't found one that fit our measurements. 

We decided to wander inside the store a bit and found one tucked in the back of a stall...

Great planning on the picture part, huh? Gotta love how it frames my messy paint collection. Just keeping it real, folks. 

This door was still pretty heavy but not nearly as much as other ones we had found. 

But it still wasn't the right measurements. The height was a bit shorter than what we needed and the sides were too wide. At this point, we felt a little desperate and decided that some modifications may be in order. So we nervously purchased it (vintage doors are NOT cheap, guys) and decided we'd try to make it work. Because that window, ya'll. 

And check out the original distressing & hardware...

First up, we removed all the hardware and sanded it down until it was buttery smooth. I loved the chippy look (that's what I was going for anyways) so I just removed all the flaky pieces and added a little polycrylic to keep everything in place. I didn't want to touch the original wood that was underneath the hardware... some may not like it. But it was magical to me :) 

During distressing I discovered some small layers of aqua blue paint which basically sealed the fact that this was fate for me. 

Originally I wanted to paint the door blue but since the kitchen isn't the way I want it yet (lighter cabinets and the such), I decided the distressed creamy white was just perfect. Someday I'll have a blue island to make up for that. 

Next up, we needed to make up the height problems. For the width, after we removed the hardware, we sliced about an inch off each side of the door. If you are wanting to keep the original handle/lock mechanism, this won't work out great for that. But I wasn't planning on needing it to catch or needing a turning knob. So this worked just fine. Hubby took the edges off while I nervously watched through my fingers, terrified the glass would break. Lol. 

For the height problem we actually solved this pretty easily. We took the edges we had sliced off the door and cut them to the width. We then screwed them into the top & bottom of the door. 

Several advantages to this...

1. No having to match up the paint. We were able to use pieces from the door itself so the paint colors & distressing were the same! 

2. Cost wise, duh. 

3. Perfect depth of the pieces. 

I love the pieced together look, it fits the doors look & I don't feel like it stood out much at all, other than the original hinge marks. But people haven't even noticed it until we've mentioned it :) 

I fogged the window using Frosted Glass Spraypaint on both sides so you wouldn't just see right into our lovely, somewhat organized pantry :) 

Mint blue vinyl was the finishing touch on the door. 

As far as install went, we were less than thrilled to find out that our doorframe is not perfectly squared so when we sliced off that inch, it fit perfectly against the bottom 1/3 of the doorframe and had a spreading gap between the frame & the door all the way up. Grrrrr. 

I nearly cried when we found that out. 

After a little creativity, cuss words & trial & error, we managed to minimize the gap by adding a few washers in the screws on the top two hinges. This managed to bring the door closer to the frame, enough that it wasn't nearly as noticeable. 

As far as the hardware goes, I found the perfect handmade pull when we were in Silver Dollar City over the summer. The local blacksmith there had some gorgeous pulls and I felt like it fit the door perfectly!! I kinda love the original holes left by the pull before. 

And not pictured is the most perfect vintage-inspired 'pull' sign I snagged from Hobby Lobby that we installed right above the handle to cover the huge hole left from the locking mechanism. It was the perfect fit! I'll try to get more pictures of it later- it took me a while to find it so I got excited about getting pictures :) 

The door stays in place with the original ball catches from the doors that were there previously. We just removed them from those doors and screwed them into the new door. 

The doorframe will need to be painted to match a little closer later on but we aren't tackling that until we decide what to do with the kitchen :) 

For now, check out the before & after of our pretty new door!!!

We've had it installed for several months now, pulled & leaned on DAILY and it has held up amazing!!! 

I can't tell you how happy it makes my heart having a bit more of a vintage touch in the  kitchen!!

I'll be back soon, I promise, with my fall mantle up so be checking back!! Happy Friday friends!!!

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