Hi!
We've just sanded and stained our bedroom furniture to create an antique look. We bought a new white comforter outlined with a few green leaves along the top. We would like to put Roman shades on our windows as well as paint our walls a light green color. The finished look should be airy, summery and welcoming. Unfortunately, there is a door that has been sealed by the previous owners that leads to the common bathroom. We would like to remove this door (or the outline) before repainting but feel that plastering would be quite messy and a big job. Do you have any ideas for a wall finish that would cover the door outline that would not involve plastering and be less messy? My husband suggested wallpaper or some type of faux finish on that one wall and paint the other 3 walls. I don't want it to look dated with wallpaper. The room is not large. Any suggestions that would not break the bank would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!
Felicia
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Hello Feli,
An easy way to cover the unused doorway without breaking the bank is to construct a DIY headboard that would cover the door, as Elte's marketing manager Antonio Bellusci did, and move your bed to the new 'wall.' He purposely made it extra-tall, so it not only covers an unused door but also makes a big style statement.
Step by step instructions can be found here: http://www.houseandhome.com/design/diy-painted-wood-headboard
Hope this helps!
Jennifer
Web promotions editor
Hi!
Thanks for the useful advice! I really like the mural idea although I think the room is too small because the set of drawers sits in front of the door. (You can still see the top half of the door). I also like the mini shelf idea...I'd never thought of that and I thought it was also quite original. Our newest idea is pehaps removing the door frame and hinges and flattening the wall to put wallpaper on just that wall or maybe 2 walls and painting the other walls a light green. We'll see...Thanks again!
Years ago Steven Sabados did what he called a book door to cover an old doorway. Basically instead of trying to hide the door, he added some trim around and some to resemble shelves (very shallow) and painted it out so the inside (back of the shelves) was dark and the outside trim whatever colour you like. Then he took a bunch of old books (think encyclopedias which can be had for nothing if you look around) and he cut off the spines (seems to me you need something like a good saw to do that kind of work or it takes forever) and glued the spines to the door so they looked like they were sitting on the shelves. You could take a similar idea with any books or doodads that were say less than an inch thick and do something similar.
In one old house I had it had an old doorway that had been covered from the other side. The folks who did it left the door jam and trim but removed the door on the kitchen side and inserted shelves. It made for a shallow (about 4" deep) but useful open little shelf unit.
I was thinking of a troupe l'oil (sp?) pattern or something similar. It will always look like a door no matter what you do (IMO) so make it look like a different door such as a french type door looking out into a garden. If you don't think you could paint it, a mural could be a solution. There are lots of murals out there but the one I am thinking of is a pair of french doors with one door ajar with a view of gardens. My mom put that on her 2 huge sliding closet doors (5 feet or longer) at her front entrance. We even had to trim off some of the mural as it was larger than we needed. I think it looks pretty good.
Another solution would be to put a huge framed mirror in front of it. I was at Homesene just the other day and they had mirrors that were about 6 feet tall. It would be sitting on the floor and leaning against the wall but in your case try and tuck in close to the wall and then secure it somehow at the top so it does not fall over.
Let us know what you end up doing.