Old Doors Give New Life to Backyard!

7 Materials

$150.00

10 Hours

Easy

We had an old pool deck that we needed to remove and this left open a huge empty spot next to the patio. I wanted privacy, but couldn't afford a privacy fence. I bought these old doors (they have crystal door knobs!) for $10.00 a piece! I thought they would be perfect way to make a cool fence! What do you think????

old doors give new life to backyard , container gardening, doors, gardening, repurposing upcycling

Removed the deck. Removed all the dead plants/weeds. Added new dirt to "build up the area and make it level"

I washed the doors and sanded them lightly. I applied a coat of polyurethane over the entire doors. Some people wanted me to paint them...I decided against painting them. I love the different wood tones, so I left them in their current state. If you look close enough, they have crystal door knobs!!!

My hubby and son built frames for the doors. Because the ground sloped downward, it was a little bit of math to have them "gradually" go down so it looked good (and we didn't have to build up the dirt on the ground...) We set them in concrete.

We had 7 doors total. One of the doors was skinnier than the others (Middle Panel)....so we decided to put three together in the center with the skinny door in the middle and then make two additional panels, with 2 doors each. We attached them easily to the frame. We attached window boxes (plastic) to the middle of the doors and secured them. To make sure they were not so heavy, we added plastic water bottles to help "fill up the space" and then dirt. If you notice the "welcome to my garden" - that was an old screen that I painted the scene on and it goes lovely with my "vision."

I put a little bench in the corner. If you notice the big "flower" on the shed wall...I got this little gem at a Junk Jaunt (held in September in all these small Nebraska towns) -it was something used for harvesting, that they turned into art and welded it into a shape like a flower!!!
The final step in the process was adding the rest of the mulch and we found buried in the dirt some left over stones/pavers all broken up. Perfect! Placed those around the area. Added $1.00 solar lights for the Dollar store and then our Aldi Store had Solar Spot lights (not shown) that I added at the end...they light up the doors at night. Those were $6.99 a piece.

3 of 28 questions

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Christina Rose
on Feb 28, 2018

My daughter bought a Victorian fixer upper house in San Francisco. She would like to restore it with Crystal doorknobs. Would you want to remove them and sell them? Do they have working hardware?

4

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- Renea Roberts
  on Aug 16, 2018
  
  I buy and sell doors and knobs, faceplates. Stay away from the glass that's sold online and in stores. They look fake compared to the real thing. I'm on Pinterest, FB, Instagram.
  
Nancy Havener Ware
on Mar 1, 2018

Did you put the doors upside down on purpose?

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- Barb
  on Apr 3, 2018
  
  I think the doors were put that way so the flower boxes would be in line with frame of the bottom of the door section.
  
  I think I would paint them white on the side you look at and dark on the back side to help preserve the wood for a little while . Then I would plant some Ivy or a nice flowering vine and ivy both .Plant them behind the door and train it up and over to the front side of the door cascading down on either side of the planters and the top of the door so pretty looking .
  
  You can put those eye hooks up the back then use flower wire to train the vine up and over . I Really think it would add some class to the project. Something to make it even more of a focal point in the yard .Love the little bench over in the corner nice touch there with the flowers you planted.
  
  1
Nan34181903
on Oct 10, 2018

show me how to make a back stop for a horseshoe pit?

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2 of 327 comments

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Elaine Sheehan
on Sep 19, 2018

Boy, did you ever give me food for thought! Thanks for the info on the framework.

1
Tana Bouquet
on Nov 3, 2018

Your door idea is so cool.