Creative Ways To Repurpose Your Old Doors & Windows
When having windows and doors replaced, it's difficult to figure out what to do with the old ones. You can throw them out or burn wooden ones, but it seems like such a waste of perfectly good materials. If you're interested in doing some amazing projects with your replacement windows or doors, here are a few amazing ideas.
Doors
Coffee Table
A wooden door is perfect for making a coffee table. You can salvage some table legs from a coffee table, an end table, or just about any other piece of wooden furniture with four legs. Paint the legs and the door whichever color you want them to be. All you have to do after that is screw the legs onto the table. You can do different decorative things to the table to make it the way you want. One fun thing you can do is make a mosaic pattern. If the door had windows, you can glue the mosaic pieces over the windows. If not, just glue them into the grooves in the door's pattern. You can also paint it and do a distressed look, or just simply stain it a beautiful wood color if the wood and the grain are both in good condition.
Room Divider
If you have three or more doors that you want to give new life to, try making a room divider. First, paint and decorate the doors to your liking. Once they look the way you want, putting them together is fairly simple. Make sure the middle door has hinges on both sides. Each of the other doors should have the matching hinges on one side each. Hinge the doors together just like you would hinge a door in your doorway. Now, you can set them up anywhere in your home as a unique room divider.
Windows
Coat Hanger
One great use of an old, wooden window is a coat hook. You can use any type of window for this project. It doesn't matter if it has just one piece of glass, two pieces, or four separate ones. The different style of window will only matter if you want to do something specific for the décor. If it has one piece of glass, you can paint the glass with a couple layers of chalkboard paint. You can either write a sentiment that stays in place or your family can write messages to each other. If it has two or four pieces of glass, you can put a family photo behind one, paint another with chalkboard paint, and cover another with a patterned wallpaper. The possibilities are endless. To turn it into a coat rack, either buy hooks from a craft or hardware store that you can drill into it or purchase decorative door knobs are bulky enough to hold coats or jackets.
Easel
Another fun thing that you can do with windows is make an easel. You will need two, rectangular windows that each has one large piece of glass. In the middle of a short end of each window, screw on a door hinge. On the opposite short end, screw in two legs. Now you can stand the windows up like an easel with them hinged together at the top. Paint the glass on one window with 3-4 layers of chalkboard paint. Paint the glass on the opposite side with 3-4 layers of whiteboard paint. From here, there are many different things you can do for storage. You can screw a wooden board to each window so it sets under the easel. However, you won't be able to fold it up if you decide to do this.
Replacing your windows and doors is necessary if you are beginning to get drafts or you just want an energy efficient upgrade. However, there is no need to throw out the perfectly good old ones. You can try these and many other projects around your home to save money on décor and start a new hobby.
