I have an affinity for collecting old vintage doors…. And there’s only so much room to store them, so I needed to find a way to repurpose one of them. This is my side entry which is a little mud porch, and the door that EVERYONE uses. So it was a perfect spot for a conversation piece and unique bench!
This particular door came from a 1917 Mill House that I recently renovated. It was the only original door that was left in the home. Of course it was a keeper for me, and I even scored a couple extra ones from the neighbor who was also renovating.
Of course there were 100 years of paint, so I carefully stripped and sanded them down till I got to the chippy, rustic, vintage look I wanted. Then it was easy to cut the door into the sections I needed and join them together using pocket holes and screws.
Here is where I cut the door into pieces. The two bottom pieces become the sides, and the top panels become the bench and back. I have also made benches using a regular two panel door and just cutting it straight down the middle Make sure its solid wood though! lol. A hollow core door won’t work.
Everything in my house has to be a specific size, so I had to make sure that I was super careful in measuring and cutting. Its not like you can just run out to the store and buy another door with all this character and charm. It still had the original door knob and key hole.
Every door has its own character. This one had old chippy paint on one side and as I sanded, I discovered a pretty aqua paint under the white.
This one I left really chippy! It had old handwriting under the paint. I guess it was measurements? It was hard to tell but really cool!!
The bench is absolutely perfect in its new home, and is totally unique. As you can see, its impossible to create two identical benches. Even when the doors come from the same house. There are lots of other things you can make with old doors, like hall trees, bookshelves, you dream it and you can do it!
I think its a good fit! Junior does too 🙂
Have fun being creative with old doors and windows!
