Final Touches to the Penthouse Suite - A New/Old Door

One of my loves and specialties is creative, sustainable interior design.
I love turning trash into treasure--making something beautiful
out of something forsaken.

Almost everything in this penthouse suite
came to us second hand, or was being discarded. at the @gardenofeden

I designed and laid this paper floor out of brown craft paper and glue
which had very little impact on the environment, especially in
comparison to purchasing a manufactured floor.

Now to add the final touches, I've chosen an old wooden door
that was destined for the landfill as a real statement at the entry.

Since it's always a trick fitting an old door into an old house,
we chose to first hang the door to be sure it would fit into the existing frame,
and swing and close properly. One of my @gardenofeden playmates worked on this project with me.

We then took it down, scraped, sanded, nailed and glued it back into shape.
We sanded it back down mostly to the wood,
leaving a touch of the old paint for a distressed look
to match the semi-rustic feel of our home.

We liked the feel of its history,
so didn't want to strip it completely.

It has a frosted, embossed glass which we re-secured into place,
nailing and glueing the wooden frame tightly around it.

We gave it a couple of coats of polyurethane to set the paint remnants,
and give it a protective seal.

Then we hung it in place at the top of the stairs.
The darkness of the wood matches the hand-laid paper floor,
and the white ties in the white trim.

We still have used vintage handles to secure,
new strike plates to properly install,
filling of the old strike plate holes and groves that no longer work with this new door,
and adding some touch up paint to the frame.

We're pretty excited about how the door is upgrading this space,
and ties in with the two pieces of sustainable trash art that hang over the day bed.

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Hanging doors is something I've never done before,
though I've seen many people struggle with installing them in an older home.
Shifting of the house over the years and lack of squareness to the openings,
utilizing pre-used doors and hardware,
combined with trial and error due to lack of experience
keeps things very interesting indeed!
It seems there are always surprises that
come about that take creative solutions and
more time than expected.

But with perseverance and excitement about the project,
we'll get it done with a high-level final outcome,
especially since it was just trash to begin with.

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for holding space for the process of creation,
for providing the materials for all of my design projects,
and for always being my support on every front.

I'm super grateful for @quinneaker for setting the sustainable standard,💛 Love you Quinn! 💛