Tutorial: DIY French Door Curtain Alternative

At the beginning of the month I blogged about the lack of cover on my bedroom's French door. Unfortunately I have to pass by the door to do pretty much anything in my room so the lack of privacy was an issue. 

My interim solution was to drape a curtain over the top of the door... As you can see, it was more of an eyesore than a solution. 

I pinned around for ideas but kept in the back of my mind what Daniel from Manhattan Nest did to his French doors in his old apartment. I knew that solution would let the light come through, be easily removable, and most importantly, look great (hopefully!).

So I looked into his original source (Jessica, from How About Orange) for the project and it turns out it really is an easy process. I made a few modifications to their process because both Daniel and Jessica said they made way too much of the paste that sticks the fabric to the doors.

Here is my revised paste:

1. Boil 2 cups of water
2. While the water is boiling, stir 1/8 cup corn starch into 1/4 cup cold water
3. Add the boiled water and mix it up
4. Wait for it to cool down

While I waited for the paste to cool, I took the measurements from one glass panel on the door and used those measurements to make a template on a thin piece of cardboard (think cereal box thickness). The fabric I used was a basic white 100% cotton twin bed sheet and I ironed it thoroughly. Using my template and a pencil, I outlined my template onto the fabric, but drew it about 0.5 cm bigger on each side of the template so that I wouldn't have any gaps once the fabric was pasted onto the glass. It's definitely a good idea to test paste one or two pieces before you draw out and/or cut the rest of the fabric. That's how I figured out to cut the fabric slightly bigger than the glass panel. 

Once the paste was cool, I slathered it onto the fabric with a pastry brush until the fabric was fully saturated. I worked on big plastic bag so I didn't make a mess. I placed the fabric on the door and used an old metropass (any plastic card will do) to gently smooth out the bubbles. Have paper towel or a cloth on hand because most of the paste will leak out! 

I let it dry over night and am SO pleased with the results!!

Here is a close up of the fabric

And here's what the door looks like from the other side of my door with the hallway light off and on

Total things needed for this project and their costs:

Cornstarch (already had)

Water 

Fabric (bought a 100% cotton white sheet for $8)

Bowl (already had)

Pastry brush or paint brush (already had)

Sharp scissors (already had)

Paper towel or cloth (already had)

Total cost for this project: $8!

Difficulty* of the project : 3

(*1=breathing, 10= tightrope walking across high-rises on a windy day)

Notes: Even halving the recipe, I still had a lot of paste left over, but I wouldn't have reduced it any further. 

Here is the before and after side by side so you don't have to scroll up and down :o)

French Door Cover Up

My new bedroom has a 15-panel French door...and the glass has no cover whatsoever, which is unfortunate because I pass by the door to do, oh just about everything.

Going to the bathroom = passing by the door

Going to the closet = passing by the door

Computer = door

Sitting on the couch = right in front of the door!

Refer back to my bedroom layout, you can see what I'm talking about...

Don't get me wrong, I'm not a private person. I have no problem with my family seeing me in my skivvies. But on the other hand, my family is as nosy as me and I have more than one time passed by the door and been greeted with someone *coughMichelleandMomcough* pressed up to the door like this:

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...or some derivative of this, and it has literally given me nightmares, so it's about high time I do something about covering up the scary faces creating some privacy.

I have a black-out roller blind from Ikea (I can't remember which one) that we used on the French door we had in our apartment, but I don't really want to put holes in this door. My interim solution is quite horrendous and involves a curtain thrown over the top of the door:

I love what Daniel from Manhattan Nest did on his set of French doors in his old apartment.

 I also checked around on Pinterest and saw this cool idea:

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What do you think? Both are screw-less options and can be removed without causing damage to the door. Should I go the fabric route à la Daniel or should I put up a picture/map? Even as I type this, I think I'm leaning more towards the fabric route as it will still let in the light... But I'd still love to hear your opinions!

French Door Headboard

The apartment we lived in had a solid wood bedroom door that didn't let the evening light into the rest of the apartment (the window was west facing) so I found a French door on Craigslist and had my dad and Kevin install it. It brought in so much light and made a world of difference.

When we moved, I replaced the French door with the original door so that I could take the French door home with me. I knew I wouldn't be able to install it anywhere else as a door (its dimensions are non-standard and we had to cut a quarter inch off of one side at the top to get it in the frame at the apartment), but I still wanted to use it in some capacity.

Enter Pinterest.

I love searching for inspiration on Pinterest!

I found these French door to headboard designs that look pretty cool.

I love this one because it's symmetrical, whereas most of the ones I saw weren't. Most French doors have a bigger wooden panel at the bottom and the door knobs aren't installed exactly in the middle. This is something that can easily be fixed with a wood circle insert and some wood filler (for the handle) and a circular saw (to remove the longer wooden edge), but I guess some people want to keep the entire length of the door.

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I love the idea of this one! Installing a light where the door knob was - ingenious! But as you can see here, this headboard is asymmetrical....argh!

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While searching around on Pinterest, I also found this DIY headboard that would be pretty awesome to make! I love the built-in lighting and built-in bedside shelves.

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They would work great with the Brimnes bed we have from Ikea. While the bed is great for storage, having the two large drawers on either side of the bed means we can't have traditional beside tables because they would impede the opening and closing of the drawers.

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I also really like how the bed looks with the corresponding headboard from Ikea, but I don't think I like the placement of the chest. It would need to be a good 10 inches away from the bed for the drawer to open properly and I don't think I have the space to add a 20 inch clearance on either side of my bed.

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What headboard and/or bedside shelf choices would you pursue if you were me?... I need advice!

Favourite Nooks

I had two favourite areas in my apartment: The view from the living room door and the view from the bed. 

I loved the  view from the living room door because I got to see my pretty mirror (a Craigslist find) and my shelf (the very first thing I ever spray painted) with the candles and bamboo plant (that Kevin gave to me when I started my current job).

I loved the view from the bed because I could see the lamps (Craigslist) with the shades I recovered, the French provincial dresser (Craigslist) that I painted (in the tiny bedroom and it took me days), the lamp shade that I bought from Ikea and added to the gross brass wall light fixture (that I spray painted black) and the French door (Craigslist) that my Dad helped install and cut a thin strip from because our door frame is crooked.

Unfortunately, I never did take a picture from that angle - but I sure did appreciate it while lazying around in bed on the weekend :-)

These areas will be missed!

Do you have an area in your house that makes you smile or that you're proud of?

If I Were the Landlord Series - Part 4

Our house is divided into two units - first floor and second floor - and we share the same entrance. We have an exterior porch door, and interior porch door, then a shared hallway, and finally there are two doors side-by-side that lead to the two units. Our door opens directly to a flight of stairs because we're on the second floor.

The issue here is the interior porch door. The porch is very bright (it's on the east side of the house and has wall-to-wall windows facing west, north and east), but as soon as the interior door is closed, the hallway turns into a black hole. The interior door has a small crescent window at the top, but it doesn't let in nearly enough light.

Consequently, every time Kevin or I come home, we have to turn on the light, and I know the light shines into this bedroom (our landlord's bedroom has two doors - 1 in his unit and 1 that leads into the hall - he doesn't use the hallway door), but the alternative is to stumble around in the dark and wake him up with all the noise... it's a lose-lose (for him).

If I were him, I would've installed a door that was at least half-glass. It would have let in a lot more light and it's much more appealing visually. It also would've allowed us to see who was at the door when we opened it. Even if the glass were frosted we would've been able to tell who it was by the blurry outline. Consequently, I never opened the door unless I knew for sure who was on the other side. Call me paranoid, but I didn't want to take any chances!

Aren't these doors gorgeous? Also, this is why I love Pinterest. Search for "glass front door" and you're instantly taken to gorgeous entryways.

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p.s. I haven't posted in a few days because I've been very busy with the move! I'll post on that later :-)