Interior Door Makeover

If you’re looking for an inexpensive and simple way to upgrade ugly hollow core doors, check out this easy interior door makeover before spending cash on replacements. This DIY door makeover makes such a huge difference, you’ll forget your old doors ever existed.

Check out the video tutorial: https://youtu.be/DuAFzP_xuqY

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Before

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Before, our doors were faux wood, hollow core and ugly as could be. I had begun priming our doors before I abandoned a painting project for this more dramatic transformation. I included an image that more closely resembles my interior door’s beginning state.

The Planks

The first step to take in your door refesh journey is to purchase the correct wood for making the planks. If you take a peek at our video tutorial, you will get a glimpse of our MDF drama. For the sake of this tutorial, I will only be recommending that you use thin Sande Plywood. You can pick up Sande Plywood at your local building supply store. We found ours at Home Depot in 1/4in x 4ft x 8ft dimensions at $19.99 per sheet. We ended up using three sheets for our entire project.

Cut your plywood into strips using a table or Skill saw. We cut our strips into 6 inch planks, but you can use whatever width suits your fancy. In this interior door makeover I didn’t bother to play mathematician and figure out exact dimensions. We opted to cut one plank slightly thinner than the others. To find this width, dry fit the other planks and measure the remaining space.

Hollow Core Door Prep

To prep your ugly doors for ultimate wood glue adhesion, you will want to sand the surface with a course grit sandpaper. I went in with a 50 grit and palm sander and quickly worked over my doors. You don’t want to sand through whatever thin door skin you’re dealing with, so don’t go too crazy with this step.

Thoroughly clean any sanding dust off of your doors. Measure the length of your doors and cut the planks down to size. Sand off any rough edges left by the saw and glue the planks to the door.

Glue Your Planks

We used a nickel spacing in between the planks. So grab a nickel, or a whole jar of nickels if you’re just that rich, and stick them between the planks as you place them.

A wood glue will work the best for this interior door makeover. Tightbond interior wood glue worked really well for our project. An important step when gluing the planks is to use a sponge brush to spread your wood glue out into an even layer. This will give you a stronger bond between the plank and door.

Prime, Paint, Stain

Allow your wood glue time to dry, and then move on to priming. This is an optional step as you may be able to tell by my the pictures that the Sande Plywood could also be stained and look great. I used an oil based Kilz primer, and I was very impressed with it’s quality.

If you are adding width to your door, you will need to remove the door jamb pieces and set them aside for later.

Re-hang your no longer ugly doors and paint them. You could paint your doors outside if it’s not raining in your neck of the woods. I used Rodda Unique II Semigloss Enamel paint for my interior doors because of its high durability and easy to clean qualities.

Upgrade the Hardware and Replace Jamb

Replace the door hardware and collect the jamb pieces you removed earlier. You can save a lot of coin by spray painting your original doorknobs rather than replacing them.

The Finished Door Makeover

After any touch up painting to the door frame, your DIY door makeover will have transformed those ugly hollow core doors into something worth sharing your home with. I can’t believe how much this interior door makeover boosted the aesthetic in our space. Especially considering that our hallway is one of the first things you see as you walk in.

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