Turning an Antique Door into a Headboard

For a funky and cool design idea, try turning an old door into a headboard. They're approximatly the same shape and with a little work, you'll have an interesting and eclectic addition to your home. Plus because you're reusing an old door, your headboard will be environmentally responsible and it will have a great story behind it!

I tackled this project a year or two ago when I took a full sized interior raised panel door and turned it into a headboard. I removed a section of the middle of the door (and then joined it back together) in order to make it more symmetrical and look more like a headboard. With this new project, I decided to take things in a more authentic direction- restoring an old door and using it as a headboard without any serious modification.

While this seems more straight forward, with the door I chose this was not destined to be easy. I picked the door out of a dumpster at a gut renovation of a mansion in the East 70s near Park Avenue on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. The door is short and narrow and was probably the door to a small closet, perhaps to access under the stairs. It's interesting to think about what this door has seen. It certainly has some history behind it not just because of its age, but because the neighborhood in which i found it has some of the most expensive real estate in the world.

The door is also very old. The lockset is on the outside of the door, not mortised into the door like now a days.

At this point I was a little weary of the amount of paint on the door. It was so heavy I thought the wood might be oak at first. I stuck a fingernail into it and determined it was a softwood, but the many coats of paint made the door surprisingly heavy.

I started by removing all the hardware. Look at these hinges!

Lots of paint on that escutcheon! (the key hole cover)
I'm using Citri-Strip to remove the paint. This is a paint stripper that is safer than other strippers. It's still a soup of nasty chemicals, but it's far better than the other ones on the market. It even claims to be biodegradable which is important because it's a good idea to work outside because of the fumes. While I like to avoid chemicals where possible, it's a good idea to use stripper rather than sanding to remove paint. This door is certainly more than 100 years old with 20 or more coats of paint. Most of those are certainly lead based paint and sanding would release the lead into the air. Even if you use a mask, you would still be contaminating your workshop or backyard with lead dust which would continue to poison you after you take the lead breather mask off. The smart thing to do it to use stripper which will turn the lead paint into a goop that you can collect and safely dispose of. Use safety goggles and gloves! Lead is a potent neurotoxin and is poisonous to children especially, but also adults!
I spread the stripper out with a junk paint brush.
Lots of layers of paint!


More layers!


After about six coats of stripper, pounds and pounds of paint goop and many, many hours, I got down to the wood. The rear of the door was kind of plain, but the front revealed some beautiful moldings.
With almost all the paint removed, I finished up with a sander with a lead-grade breathing mask. I used a water mister to keep the dust on the door and wiped it down with a disposable rag and washed my clothes and showered afterwards. Always be careful with things that are bad for you, like lead!

Starting to look good.
The moldings are beautiful. They don't make doors like this any more. Lots of hand sanding in the crevasses was necessary. I started with a rough grade paper and worked my way up to 220 grit. The smother the surface, the better it will look with stain or paint applied.
One end of the door was separating along the joint. This joint has a tenon that goes all the way through the door which indicates that it was hand made with hand tools without fancy door making power tools, machines and jigs. Unless you're making/buying a high end door, they don't make them like this any more. I squirted in some glue and clamped it back in place.

With the door sanded smooth, I wiped it down with a damp rag to collect dust and then I applied primer. Primer is a good idea when ever painting bare wood because it seals and smooths the rough surface and helps the paint bond to the wood surface. It should be considered a required step!

Give the primer a light sanding and wipe down the surface with a damp rag to pick up any dust. For paint, I picked a light yellow that I found in the trash a few months ago. For some reason people in New York City are always throwing away full cans of paint. Paint lasts for years so I just pick it up and wait for a project to come along.

I applied three light coats, painting with the grain, filling in the crevices first and working out to the flat sections. I painted the back side as well, even thought you wont be able to see it when mounted. A tip to save time is to paint the rear and balance it on four nails pounded into your work table and then paint the top. That way you don't need to wait for the back to dry before painting the top. The small marks made by the nails don't matter because it's the rear of the piece.
To mount the door on the wall, I decided to attach a piece of metal to the inner panel. This will act as a ridge which will sit on screws attached to the wall. Make sure that the screws you use to attach the metal are not as long as the wood is thick, or you'll go through to the other side.

When mounted, the door will sit flush against the wall because the head of the screw will come into the panel section, which would have a gap from the wall anyway. Using this method means you don't see how the door is attached to the wall but its still a very secure method of hanging a door on a wall... horizontally.

Because one panel is longer than the other, I cut the metal bar into about a 1/3rd and a 2/3rds section. I measured these distances from each other and where they fell on the door in proportion to the bed. Then I measured up from the floor so the bottom of the door would end up about at the top of the bed and then centered it with the bed. I made sure the line was level, because this isn't like a picture which you can tilt- you only get one shot at installing level screws.

Look at those hinges with the paint stripped off!

The door hung on the wall!The final result!

This was a fun project but required a lot of elbow grease. Paint stripper is not cheap (probably $50 for this project) but everything else was either free or I already had in my workshop (paint brushes, paint, scrapers, etc). If you can find a cool old door this is a great project. A lot of old doors are made of cherry or oak even if they're interior doors. If you can find these you can stain the door which will look incredible.

This is a great project for the novice handyman because you don't need any special tools or woodworking skills, just A LOT of time and effort at stripping and removing paint. But be care of lead paint as I talk about above. When you're done, you'll have an amazing headboard with a great story and a creative addition to your home.