What to do with some awesome antique doors?

July 10, 2010 2:45 PM

What to do with some awesome antique doors?

We spent today cleaning out my grandma's basement. While we were cleaning we came across five of these great wood framed doors with large glass panels in them. They're about 7' x 2', some of them have a keyhole on them, and all of them have nice brass hinges. There are also a few with locks that you would slide into the top and bottom of the door frame to secure one half. They're of some age as the glass has that flow downward look that gives it the ripples and also small infrequent bubbles. Everyone in my family wanted them but I was the only one with space at home for them.

Picture 1
Picture 2

What I'm posing to the hive mind is what the heck I should do with them? Some project to put them in my living room would be great where I could see them. I don't have a lot of space to make them into a room divider but I thought of securing them together and putting them against my living room wall.

I also love to do Postcrossing and have about 100 postcards that I thought about attaching to the backside of them and using them as a display for all the cards I've received. I love these doors how they are and would prefer to leave them in the condition they're in (not take them apart), but am game to hear any and all options. Thanks in advance for your thoughts!

posted by msbutah to Home & Garden (8 answers total)

Mrs Geezer and I were at a quilt exhibition when we looked across the street at the back door of a junk store where there were three old doors propped up against the wall. We paid a pittance for them and, after a lot of work, they now serve as a floor-to-ceiling headboard behind the bed, with all of the old hardware still in place. I think the idea of putting the post cards behind the glass would work well in that context.
posted by Old Geezer at 3:25 PM on July 10, 2010

Your postcrossing idea sounds right. Don't have postcards or anything else touching the glass - not good for their preservation in the long run. Mount them on foamboard sized larger than the glass and attach in such a way that there's an air space, just as in a proper pictureframing job. I would start collecting antique postcards and mixing them in.
posted by beagle at 3:33 PM on July 10, 2010

If those were mine, I would sand them, stain them or paint them to make them look even more antiquey, buy some cool fabric (Ikea is good for this) to mount behind the glass, then hang them (possibly horizontally) on my wall.
posted by emilyd22222 at 4:21 PM on July 10, 2010

I'd love to turn some beautiful doors into beautiful tables.
posted by aniola at 5:39 PM on July 10, 2010

A friend mine did exactly that aniola, put a glass top an inch or two over the door, and they are dining room tables
posted by timsteil at 5:58 PM on July 10, 2010

My dining table is a door my grandfather converted into a table. He traded some work with a blacksmith who made him the legs in return for some of Grandpa's cabinet work.

A friend of mine does some beautiful work in stained glass. She got a hold of a set of old doors and replaced the glass panels with stained glass. Now when you look at the doors, it looks like you're looking at the moon peeking through a tree's bare branches in winter.
posted by onhazier at 9:36 PM on July 10, 2010

Attach them by their hinges and make an accordion-fold room divider/dressing screen.

Or hang them by the ceiling with near-invisible wire to where they hang about 5 inches from the floor.
posted by sourwookie at 12:47 AM on July 11, 2010

*ahem* I meant attach them TO each other by their hinges...

(sorry. you know, zig-zag style)
posted by sourwookie at 12:51 AM on July 11, 2010