Covering Mirrored Closet Doors

by Joy Peters Kurtz

Mirrored closet doors can date a room. Here's how to cover them, without permanently damaging or changing anything.

The picture above is my original project, five years ago. These have been covered for five years, with no problems whatsoever.

Mirrored closet doors can simply be turned around. The actual mirrors are on the other side of these doors. Take both hands on each side of one panel, gently lift up and pull the bottom towards you. Since they have rollers on the bottom, you can actually roll them to your workspace.

Find a place out of the sun where you can work with the door flat.

As you can see, this is the original covered panel. Below I simply pulled a corner, and it peels right off.

The next step is to place your fabric over the door. My original project was much more complicated, since I needed to match up the pattern on three doors. I'm doing plain white this time, so it's much easier. I used Joann Fabrics Home Decorator material. The stuff that's on the rolls in the back of the store.

Trim around the panel to a couple inches.

Don't worry about gentle wrinkles, but do iron out any serious ones. You can iron right on the panel.

Now it's time to mix the cornstarch glue!

This is all you need.

Put 4 cups of cold water in a nice deep sauce pan. Add 1 1/2 cups of corn starch and mix until it's a smooth, milky texture. It'll look like fat free milk.

Over a medium high flame, stir constantly. This takes about 5 minutes. It'll seem like all the sudden it gets gluey and the texture goes from milky to almost solid feeling. Take it off the heat and continue to stir vigorously.

Wait until it's cooled a bit before working. Here's what it should look like:

With your fabric still in place on your panel, pull back about 2' of fabric and spread the mixture.

I spread a thin layer all over the panel, and use my fingers to make sure there's a nice thicker coating towards the edges. Then flop the fabric back up and massage it in place. Running fingers in the edges to make sure the fabric is really sealed.

Continue down the panel, pressing and massaging the fabric in place.

Take a razor around the edges (nice and sharp) and cut off the extra fabric. Let dry. In an hour or two you can roll it back to the closet and rehang.

Here's the question I'm sure that's on your mind - why the heck am I doing plain white? Well, I just got a handmade vintage double wedding ring quilt for my room, and that just doesn't work with the current fabric. I'm going to do something interesting over the white, just not sure what yet.

Have fun!

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Frequently asked questions

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3 of 19 questions

Debra on Mar 24, 2020

Do you think I could use contact paper and get the same result or at least close to it?

4
Shannon on Mar 20, 2021

I have 2 sliding mirrored closet doors I need help making them look better any other ideas? Thank you

4
PATSY on Nov 21, 2021

Can date a room? You know they still sell these to install today, right?

3

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2 of 59 comments

Sandra Dunhill on Nov 26, 2022

I'm looking forward to replacing my current doors with the mirrored doors to grab more light in my room. I like the way mirror doors make your room look larger, too.

1 Reply
Sandra Dunhill on Nov 26, 2022

Your idea is easy and useful to know, when or if I get tired on the mirror doors.
Thank you for sharing!

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