Back before I started q is for quandie, I dabbled for a bit with a Facebook page. I eventually mostly gave that up because there just wasn’t enough flexibility and I couldn’t tell the stories the way I wanted to. That’s what motivated me to start a blog instead.
So anyway, those of you who were readers of my Facebook page have already heard this story … but for everyone else, it’s brand new!
A couple of summers ago, Mr. Q and I decided it was high time to go deep inside the lean-to on the back of the Carriage House and clean out whatever we found there. Now, you might be thinking to yourself, ‘hey, haven’t they lived in that house for like 27 years or something? how can they possibly not have done this sooner?’ And to that question, I really don’t have a good answer. Fear of spiders and mice comes to mind. Out of sight, out of mind is also a good one. Even I shake my head over this one. There could have been a big chest full of gold doubloons back there, and we wouldn’t have known about it (unfortunately, there wasn’t).
So, yes, high time to clean it out. Fortunately, Mr. Q took this job on while I was off at the day job (no spider worries for me!). When I got home, he said “well, there wasn’t much back there, just this bunch of old doors, what should we do with these?”
Well, if you know me at all, you know that this was nearly as good as a trunk full of buried treasure! Just look at these babies! The patina! The style! The vintage hardware!
First, I hosed them all down and gave them a good scrubbing with my trusty magic eraser. Then, I developed a plan for each one. The grey two-paneled door got a coat of white paint, then chalk board paint inside the panels. I also added an enameled metal number tag. The yellow door just got a really good cleaning and sanding. The door with the glass window got stenciled with “OFFICE”. I used my Cricut to cut the letters out of contact paper. I adhered them to the window, masked off around the outer edge of the window and sprayed a couple of coats of Krylon Frosted Glass Finish over the entire glass. Once dry, I peeled off the contact paper letters to leave “OFFICE” in clear glass.
The green six-paneled door was originally a pocket door. It had the classic pocket door handle and hardware. I am guessing that at some point there was a pocket door in my house because the style of the door matches all of my other doors. I really wish I knew where it was. Maybe between the kitchen and the dining room? Or perhaps between my study and the dining room? I don’t think I will ever know.
I turned the pocket door into a headboard of sorts. Really, all I did was turn it on its side and add the rub-on sentiment.
All that remained was to mount it on the wall at the appropriate height for a headboard.
In hindsight, this is another piece that has come and gone and I kind of wish I had hung on to it. But, because of my 1/2 story walls upstairs, this would only have worked in the master bedroom, and it just didn’t even occur to me that I could ditch my current sleigh bed in favor of this.
So in the end, all of these doors found new purposes and new homes. I may not have found gold, but I did find buried treasure of the vintage kind!
q is for quandie 