Early last spring my husband, Ed, saw an used garage door stacked along the wall at the Lima ReStore. He was interested in a replacement part for a garage door we had in use, but he thought there had to also be some use for those large heavy horizontal door sections. After several additional visits to the ReStore where he continued to be drawn toward that door, we decided to take it home.
Work Begins…
Creativity Begins… The glass pane section was Ed’s starting point. He removed the top board of the panel that was held in place with large screws and set the glass panes aside for later. Over the course of several days, he stripped the black paint to uncover the natural wood grain, sanded the wood, applied a dark walnut stain, and top coated the wood with polyurethane. A local glass store cut a piece of mirror for us to replace in the middle section. On the ends, we inserted the original glass panes to use as picture frames. Backer board behind the matting and art work gives those panels additional support. The finished piece now hangs in our living room, though I am still looking for the perfect piece of artwork to add at one end.
Elegance on our living room wall…
Ed then created a mirrored piece for my daughter’s dining room, cutting the width down to two panels. This piece was stained grey, and the two particle board inserts were replaced with custom cut mirrors.
Our daughter’s dining room mirror (above her ReStore Upscale buffet!)
More Door Sections – More Ideas!
Three horizontal sections remained. I joined Ed to creatively repurpose those sections for our daughter’s neighborhood yard sale.
More Elegance… The panel Ed finished for the sale was identical to the one we hung in our own home. I added geometric wrapping paper behind the clear glass that could be changed out by a new owner.
Ourdoor Décor…The horizontal section with the most weather damage was finished as a fun outdoor piece to hang on an exterior wall or backyard fence. I lightly sanded the wood frame and added a grey stain. The two end panels were painted green, and black wire flower baskets were mounted below those panels. Pictures of flowers cut from magazines and catalogs were glued to the center panel, and spoons were bent and mounted in the vertical cross pieces to serve as votive candle holders between the panels. I painted the original door handle a fun sunny yellow. Everything was finished with several coats of durable polyurethane to protect the piece from sun and rain.
Organization Central… The final section was cut down into two single panels that became message centers. One has a combination of chalkboard paint and corkboard with hooks on the sides. The other has a fun floral print fabric folded to insert cards, mail, and pictures.
All of our materials except the mirror panels and additional glass panels were either purchased from the ReStore or repurposed from other projects and uses. Ed enjoyed finding buyers and making deals to get the pieces sold. He even threw in delivery and installation for one customer. We recovered enough from the yard sale to cover all of our expenses (including what we kept for ourselves) and give us a little mad money to spend at the ReStore for our next project!
A few weeks later, Ed found an even larger wooden garage door, 5 panels wide, at the ReStore….
by Michelle Boyer