Repurposed Mirrored Closet Doors

Abraham Hopkins of Design on a Dime shows how simple it is to repurpose dated mirrored closet doors.

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Repurposed mirrored closet doors
Materials:

3" medium-density fiberboard (MDF) strips or scrap wood
heavy-duty panel adhesive
brackets for dowels (Hopkins used copper tubing caps that he tweaked)
drill
screws
skill saw
1/8" thick plywood (Hopkins used mahogany)
paintbrush
oil-based stain (Hopkins used Minwax brand in American Walnut)
water-based polyurethane
weenie roller (paint roller with a small tubular pad attachment resembling the size and shape of a hot dog; can also use a standard paint roller)
sheer fabric for curtain panels
sewing machine or needle and thread
5/8" wooden dowels
5/8" nail-gun nails
nail gun

Steps:

1. Remove mirrored doors from the track and flip over so that the backside becomes the front side.

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Figure A

2. Adhere the medium-density fiberboard (MDF) strips or scrap wood pieces to that new front side of the mirrored doors using heavy-duty panel adhesive. Be sure to leave a gap between the bottom piece of MDF or wood from the sides of the frame large enough to fit a 5/8-inch dowel covered in fabric (figure A).

3. Use a drill to attach brackets to the inside top portion of your newly mounted inner frame. (To avoid the expense of brackets, Hopkins used the end caps of some copper tubing and cut out a side section large enough for the dowels to slide through.)

4. Use a skill saw to cut out the mid-portion of the plywood one inch wider than the MDF frame behind it. Use a paintbrush to apply oil-based stain to the newly created door skin. Finish by applying two coats of water-based polyurethane with a weenie roller.

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Figure B
5. Use a needle and thread or a sewing machine to construct the curtain panels with a finished edge on each side and finish off by adding rod pockets at the top and the bottom. Be sure to make the panels two to three times wider than the inside of the door(s) you wish to cover. That ensures that the material can be bunched together for a softly pleated look and that the sheer material to the door itself is not see-through.

6. Insert a 5/8-inch wooden dowel into the top and bottom of the rod pockets (figure B) and fan the panels out evenly.

7. Slip one dowel into the inner bracket of the top of the frame and the other dowel into the gap left at the bottom of the frame. Nail both dowels into the top and bottom pieces of the frame using a nail gun to further secure the panels.

8. Secure the plywood door skin(s) onto the MDF frame with the same heavy-duty panel adhesive, followed by the 5/8-inch nail-gun nails. Place doors back on the sliding track. Be sure to shoot the nails at an angle so they don't puncture the door skins.

* Note: Nails for nail guns come in different tones on the nail heads to camouflage their appearance in the wood.