How to Update Flat Panel Doors on a Budget

DIY Doors by Kendra Plischke-Van Zile

How to Update Old Doors

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I've wanted to replace my old panel doors since I bought my new home a year and a half ago. They were plain and boring and none of the hardware matched.  They just looked dated and ugly, even though they were quality doors.  Some of the trim and the back side of the bathroom door had been painted before, and there were drips and smears on the wood trim from many, many previous paint jobs.

Unfortunately, I quickly discovered something I'm sure you already know - doors are expensive, very expensive - especially when you need several.  

After pricing several options, I quickly realized that I was going to need a cheaper DIY fix for the time being, so naturally I headed over to Pinterest.  I was inspired by Jenna Sue's ideas here and I loved the look of her finished product, but I didn't want to deal with the headache of removing the trim, shaving the door, or cutting a new hole for the doorknob, so I kept looking.  She also had the amazing idea to use painter's tape to hold the panels in place while waiting for the Liquid Nails to dry - Genius!

Then....guys, I went ALL THE WAY down the Pinterest rabbit hole.  (I'm sure you can relate.). You can see a collection of the many posts that inspired my final project here.

There are 1000s of posts detailing the best way to update your flat panel doors, and I took the best ideas from all of them.  The process I ended up following was most similar to Charleston Crafted here, except I miter cut the lattice and I used 3" molding instead of 4".  

Here's what I did:

Materials Used:

• Molding (I used 3" lattice strips from Menard's)
• Miter saw (I got this one for Christmas and this was my first project using it.  It worked great!)
• Liquid Nails
• Finishing Nails (with either a nail gun or a hammer)
• Palm sander and sandpaper. If you don't already have a palm sander, I highly recommend this one.)
• Tape measure 
• Level
• Valspar Bonding Primer
• Sherwin Williams Trim Paint
• Angled paintbrush 
• 4" Foam Roller
• Paintable Caulk
• Painter's Tape

Prep Work:

I started off by cleaning all doors and trim thoroughly, then I removed all door knobs and sanded everything using my handy mouse sander.  Then, I wiped everything down again to make sure I wouldn't have dust in my primer.

Measurements & Cuts:

After taking measurements, I also discovered that each of my doors is just slightly off of standard-sized doors, which would mean I would also need to fins someone to trim them for me. - Not something I was ready to undertake, so I was even happier that I chose the DIY route.  

Since all of my doors were different widths, I decided to install the trim 4" in from each side of the door, 5" from the top, and 10" from the bottom.  I measured 4" in between the top and bottom rectangles on the door.  I used painter's tape to mark the position of the trim on each door and these measurements are what looked the most natural to me with the size of lattice I chose.  That's the great things about DIY - you can make it exactly what YOU like.

I measured the rectangles based on the tape on the door measure the lattice, and cut all of the trim to size. 

Installation:

I put a squiggle of Liquid Nails along the back of each piece of trim and attached them to the doors using painter's tape.  I then nailed the trim to the door using finishing nails.  Since I didn't have a nail gun and was using a hammer, this was slow going...but the old school hammer and nails got the job done!

After installing, I filled all of the imperfections in the wood and filled in the miter seams.  Most of my cuts were good enough that this wasn't entirely necessary, but I wanted the finished product to be a seamless as possible, so I went ahead and did it.  I also covered all of the nails.

Once the wood filler dried, I sanded it smooth and caulked all the way around the interior and exterior of the rectangles created by the trim.  I gave everything a last pass with fine grit sandpaper and wiped everything clean before moving on to painting.

Painting and Finishing:

Since the original doors were stained hardwood, I wanted to be sure to use a primer that would both block the stain from bleeding through and prevent the paint form peeling right off.  Valspar Bonding Primer has served me well in the past, so I trusted it for this project as well.  I did two coats of primer and two coats of paint on the doors since they will get heavy use.  Actually, the bathroom door may have ended up with three coats of paint - I don't remember!  I just kept painting until it looked great!

I was pressed for time, and needed to get my project space cleaned up for visitors, so I ended up priming and painting the doors themselves before the trim.  Excuse the mess!  (Btw - leftover plastic tablecloths from Christmas work great as makeshift drop clots!  Who knew?)

Then, when my company was gone, I primed and painted the trim.  

It was after the first coat of primer on the trim that I started second guessing myself and thinking that it would be TOO MUCH white, even with the gray of the walls.  I started thinking that I needed that wood trim to bring a bit of warmth...but it was too late, so I kept going.

And I'm so glad I did!  Don't they look amazing?

I also updated all of the doorknobs to these and the door hinges to these, so now they all match!

             

I haven't calked along the baseboards yet, and there are still a couple of places that will need minor touchups, but overall, I'm happy with how this project turned out.  It's so much cleaner and modern!  What do you think?

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