These chairs have needed my attention for quite a while. They were still in sturdy shape, so I knew they had a little life left in them. They just looked terribly worn out.
BEFORE: Chairs in need of love.
Supplies:
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…I’m just now realizing that I intended to use my new paint sprayer on this project, but I completely forgot. 🤦♀️ If you have a paint sprayer, you could do this much more quickly, but I used a cheap brush. You could also use painters tape if you need help with a clean edge between the different paint colors, but I always find I do okay with just a simple little craft brush to make clean lines.
Step 1: Sand and clean chairs. I took my handheld sander and went over every part of the chairs that I could. I used 80 grit sandpaper but only needed one sheet.
Sander ready.
There was some old stain peeling away that needed to be sanded. There were rough spots that I wanted smoother. And there were other places where the wood was just really worn and old, so I sanded those parts down too. Really, you want to sand all over at least a little bit to help the paint adhere.
Once the chairs were sanded, I wiped them down with a wet rag to get off cobwebs, dirt, dust, etc.
Roughly sanded.
Step 2: Spray paint the hardest parts to paint first. Really, you could paint your outdoor chairs a bunch of different ways, but I focused on how the slats ran across the back and seat. The arms of the chairs and sides of the back and seat had pieces that ran a different way, so these slats seemed like they would look good as their own thing.
I went with black. You could use any color as long as it’s a paint that’s intended for outdoor use. I had some leftover black spray paint, so that’s what I used.
For these harder-to-do parts of the chairs, I definitely recommend spray paint (or a paint sprayer 🤦♀️). Spraying on the slats was easier than trying to use a brush and get around all the sides. It was definitely faster. Did this spray paint get on the other parts of the chairs that would be a different color? Sure. But I didn’t worry about this since I knew I’d be painting the other parts next and covering the black anyway.
Basically, start painting the chairs by using spray paint in the color that you want on the majority of the chair, or the most difficult-to-paint parts of the chair. Some might say to use the lighter color first so you can be sure your other paint color will cover it, but my lighter blue covered this black just fine. 🤷♀️
Black spray paint on.
Another good reason to use spray paint first is because it dries quickly, helping you get to the next step.
Step 3: Paint the other chair parts. Once the tricky slats were painted, I took my lighter blue paint and used a brush to paint the arms of the chair, the bottom braces, and the side pieces around the seat and back. There wasn’t much need to spray this paint, since these sections were so large that a brush worked just fine. To paint where the blue met the black of the slats, I used a tiny craft brush and made clean lines of blue paint against the black.
Painted where blue meets black.
If you use a spray for the rest of the chair too, you’ll need to cover the first painted areas and tape along the edges. That seemed like too much effort, and I figured that a brush would be faster than the prep required for my paint sprayer.
Painting the blue.
I did 2 coats of this light blue, just to be sure the coverage was good over the old wood. I also had a 5-year-old helper, so I went over her areas a few times. 😬
Step 4: Seal. Once all the paint was dry, I gave it overnight to gas off and settle in. The next day, I took a clear gloss spray paint and went over every inch of the chairs to seal and protect the paint.
Once that was dry, the chairs were done! These look so much better than before, and they go nicely with the blue decor I have on the rest of my deck. I like that painting them this way looks a little more interesting than just painting or staining them one solid color too.
I let this go for way too long, but this July I finally got around to making our little dog area look decent. I also wanted to get on top of this before another rainy/snowy season when the ground becomes all muddy. Wet and muddy dog prints – not so cute across my kitchen.
BEFORE: Messy dog kennel.
The best fix I came up with was to make a pea gravel bottom instead of dirt, and I used landscape cloth to help deter future weed growth. To help hold gravel in place on the “human used” side of our gravel patio, I’d used some very handy ground cover paver forms (see picture at the very bottom), but I didn’t want to spend that much on the dog side. Long story less long, I should have spent the extra $$ and bought more of the heavy-duty paver forms, but I’d decided to try a less expensive option. You could use the less expensive forms like I did, because at the end I figured out a way to make them work almost as well. But honestly, I really like how the more expensive ones work way better and take less gravel.
Supplies:
(As an advertising affiliate and Amazon Associate, I earn a small commission from qualifying purchases. But it doesn’t cost you anything extra and helps me keep up my site!)
Step 1: Clear area and level the base. I cut back a lot of plants and pulled a bunch of weeds. Our oldest dog is a digger, so I had holes and lumps all over the ground to deal with. Taking a metal rake and a shovel, I scraped along the ground and shoveled dirt around until the area was fairly level. I was careful to keep the side along our house a little higher than the rest to help with drainage.
Weeded and leveled.
Step 2: Enclose the space. The fencing that I used for the kennel area is fantastic. It can run straight or turn at angles where each section of gate connects. It doesn’t look bad if you have to fudge it a little bit by overlapping to make it fit, either. You can buy sections at a time if you’re not sure how much you’ll need, but it was pretty easy to figure out that I needed 10 ft along one side and 13 feet along the other. (The back side was just the house wall, and the last side of the dog area was already enclosed under our deck.)
Starting right against the house, I shoved in a pole/stake to hold that end of the gate in place, then connected the next section of gate with a pole running between the first and second sections. It was easy to do this in a straight line, adding sections of gate and poles until I reached my planter box at the other end. This was my 13-ft side. Here, I took another section of gate to make the corner. Then I ran more fencing along the planter box, overlapping a section in the middle to get the right overall length of about 10 feet. I had a very narrow gap at my planter box’s corner, but I just used a leftover pole/stake and shoved that into the box’s dirt to block off any escape attempts.
Installing this fencing took me literally 10 minutes.
Very easy + Looks nice + Sturdy and secure against my 65-pound mutt = 👍
Step 3: Lay the landscape fabric. I had quite a bit of this leftover from another yard project, but I had to buy a roll to finish. This is pretty easy once your ground is level, because all I had to do was roll it out from the house to the fencing on the far end. Scissors cut the fabric well, and then I took the roll and started again to cover the next strip of ground. I overlapped each strip a little bit to help cover everything, and it helped to use my rakes to hold one end down while I rolled out each strip.
It’s worth noting that I had a sprinkler head right smack in the middle of the space. When I rolled the fabric over this spot, I cut a hole and made sure the sprinkler head had plenty of room to stick through. (More on that later, as I had to take this into consideration with each following step.)
Fencing and fabric done.
Step 4: Lay out the paver forms. Again, I wish I’d bought these paver forms, but I used these more flexible forms and eventually found a way to make them work by adding these anchoring spikes. The flexible forms do NOT come with enough spikes to secure the forms if you’ve got a dog (or kids) that are rough on the space. I found after laying them and after filling everything with gravel that they too easily pulled up in the middle where there were no anchor spikes, and the forms being loose ruined the whole point. 🤦♀️ BUT, if secured with more spikes through the little holes here and there, the forms stayed quite well.
So, learn from my mistake and make sure you secure these forms down really, really well.
Use these for extra securing!
Anyway…I stretched out and unfolded the flexible forms and spread this wide mesh across the space, securing it at one end, then the other. (I now know I should have secured it everywhere I could with extra spikes, so do that now.) I do like that they come with little fasteners to attach one side of one strip to another side of another strip, and it’s pretty easy to make one, big form this way to fill the space. The material also cuts pretty easily with scissors, so you can adjust the size and shape more easily than you can with the more heavy-duty forms.
Fasteners to join sides.
Cutting here and securing there, I eventually covered my space with the forms. I made sure that a big opening allowed my sprinkler head to have space. I also made sure to add extra anchor spikes all along the exposed side to hold that down where the dogs would be running a lot.
Forms done.
Step 5: Fill with gravel. After hauling 10 bags home from Lowe’s in my Jeep, I got smart and ordered 35 more bags to be delivered so I didn’t cause a smelly mess in my Jeep. When figuring out how much you’ll need, take your square footage and look at what the bag says about coverage. I needed 130ish square feet, and it needed to be about 3 inches deep. I ended up needing about 50 bags total.
It was heavy, dirty work, but it was satisfying to dump each bag and then spread the gravel into the forms. I made sure not to fill the circular form I’d made around the sprinkler head, and it kind of looks like a little drain in the middle.
Done! I had some hiccups with this project, but once I got those extra anchor spikes in, these forms worked pretty well. Our older dog can’t dig as easily with the forms in place, and the gravel certainly looks better than the dirt mess that was there before. The below picture was taken about a week after I finished, so you can see how I might want another bag of gravel to cover the forms now that the gravel has settled, but I don’t mind seeing the pattern of the forms a little bit. The important thing is that our dogs can’t move them anymore!
AFTER: Pea gravel dog kennel.
And in case you’re wondering, this is what the end result looks like with the more heavy-duty forms, which I used under our deck and on the side of the patio that we humans use. 🙂
I can have all the totes and buckets and containers in the world, and still my kids will end up piling their chalk and bubbles right inside our door for easy access when playing outside. And since we actually have neighbor kids to play with now (yay!), many little feet run in and out to access the pile of chaos on our dining room floor.
BEFORE: Pile of outdoor play supplies.
Combine this problem with my anxiousness over an upcoming book release, and you get me cleaning the entire garage this week in order to restore some of my sanity. 🤪
This project pretty much could be called “how I put up 2 shelves,” but we made a cute little addition that other people might find useful too.
Supplies:
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Step 1: Hang shelves. I wanted 2 shelves with one low enough to be reached by the smallest kids. I had some metal wire shelves in my craft room that I didn’t use much, so I used those. If you have some like the kind I linked in my Supplies List, those come with their own braces/hardware and are easy to install.
Taking the braces, I found studs in our garage and screwed the braces into the studs. I did use a level to make sure the shelves would be level. It doesn’t really matter how far apart you place the braces, just as long as they’ll support the length of your shelf and attach from the underside, if you have that kind.
Braces screwed into studs.
Once the braces were on, I lay the metal shelves on top.
Shelves on.
I did use one of the little things that you nail on to secure the shelf against the wall. I imagine these shelves are going to be jostled quite a bit, so that seemed like a good idea. We wouldn’t want the shelves falling on kids.
Attached to wall for security.
Step 2: Clean and decorate hanging flower baskets. Here’s the fun part. I had 2 spare hanging baskets, one for each of my girls. You could do several baskets in different sizes if you have more kids or a LOT of stuff to store. Basically, the idea was that the hanging baskets would let each girl have a way to load up what they wanted from the shelves to then take outside, and they could bring the baskets back inside and hang them up when done. It also gives them a way to claim those “special” things they don’t want to share.
Baskets to clean.
After cleaning the baskets, I let the girls go nuts with my paint markers. I thought stickers would be a fun way to decorate, but for some reason they weren’t really into that. 🤷♀️ You could also write your kids’ names on the baskets or write what they’re supposed to hold. For us…we went for lots of color.
They humored me with one sticker 😆
Step 3: Make spaces for baskets to hang. My metal shelves had very narrow spaces, so I needed to make wider spaces for the basket hooks to hang from. Plus, I wanted the girls to know exactly where they should hang. So, I took wire cutters and easily enough snapped off one wire for each basket. These were on the front side of the shelf, not the main top.
Sidenote: Your shelves might have more spaces between the wires, but I still like making the space extra wide so the kids know to hang them in the same place. This keeps the baskets from hitting anything stored under the bottom shelf.
Snipping wire to make space.
Step 4: Hang and fill! When the marker paint was dry, I hung the baskets in place. Then my girls helped me carry all their stuff to the garage, and we arranged their chalk and bubbles stuff on the lower shelf. Some bubbles specifically belonged to my 5-year-old, I was told, so those went straight in her basket. My 6-year-old’s rock collection went in hers. 😬
On the top shelf, I put some of our sports equipment and games. These are used less often right now, and since I usually play with these things with the girls, I’ll be there to get them down anyway. You could put the 2 shelves at the same level, but we had space under our kayak, so this worked. (Also, this top shelf could be placed even higher and used as a “husband shelf” with his own basket for golf balls or whatever…hypothetically…if your husband also needs help with organization. LOL)
AFTER: Shelves and baskets for outside toys.
Can’t wait for the neighbor kids to visit and try this out! After I get more smaller baskets, I might even make one for each kid, since there’s room to hang more.
And before you ask – yes, someday we will paint the garage. 😂
Opening our sliding door for the dogs was starting to take up approximately 82% of our day, and my kids and I were sick of it. But those sliding door inserts with doggie doors in them are NOT cheap, so today I figured out how to make one myself. I had scrap wood, paint, and window screen, but all total this project would only have cost me $85 – certainly cheaper than the $175+ doors I’d shopped for!
Supplies:
(As an advertising affiliate and Amazon Associate, I earn a small commission from qualifying purchases. But it doesn’t cost you anything extra and helps me keep up my site!)
Screen (cheapest to get a replacement kit like this one)
Paint
Staples
Scrap wood
Tools:
Tape measurer
Drill
Staple Gun
Miter saw (or something to cut the 2x2s)
BEFORE: Having to open the sliding door for our dogs.
Step 1: Measure for the doggie door insert. Since this doggie door was only about $56, I opted to buy this part rather than try to figure out how to make one from scratch. It worked perfectly, so I’m glad I saved myself the headache.
First, I measured for 2x2s that would attach across the top and bottom of the doggie door. I wanted my long side pieces to also attach tightly, so I pulled the wood in a bit to allow room for the side pieces to go all the way down. Starting at the bottom, I measured from the bottom corner screw hole to the other bottom screw hole. This was 14 inches. The same was true for the top – 14 inches.
Measuring for the top and bottom pieces.
I wanted a third piece at the very top of the whole insert, so I planned for another 14-inch piece there too.
As for how tall the insert would be, I noticed that my sliding door’s frame would perfectly fit the 2x2s inside the track at the top as well as along the side where the door would normally close. I had about an inch of depth inside the tracks, so I made the tall sides of my door insert a half inch shorter than the whole height from the bottom of the door to the top inside the track. This would let me install the whole insert by pushing the top piece up inside the track, then lower the bottom piece in place so the whole thing would sit on the bottom track but also stay in place at the top, just inside the tracks. As for the side, I could just slide it over into that track space where the slider normally closed. By doing this, the insert would be held in place at the top and along one whole side, and that would make it easy for the sliding door itself to gently hold the other side in place.
So, this height for the 2 sides needed to be 76.5 inches.
Step 2: Cut the wood. I cut three pieces of 2×2 down to 14 inches. Then I cut two more to 76.5 inches each. That was it!
Step 3: Paint. In all honesty, I didn’t paint the wood pieces until I had the whole thing assembled and the screen on, BUT it would be much easier to do now, before you have to worry about slobbing paint on the screen. 🤦♀️ I’ll save you that trouble by telling you to paint your wood pieces at this point rather than later.
Step 4: Place wood pieces around the doggie door and secure. This was SO much easier than I’d feared, and I did it all on my living room floor in about 15 minutes.
(Note: If you buy a doggie door like the one I used, be sure to remove the solid insert that normally would be used to “close” the opening. You might not be able to get it out once the whole doggie door frame is assembled. I completely discarded mine, since I’ll just take my constructed doggie door out of the doorway entirely when I don’t want the dogs to use it.)
Anyway, by pulling the two sides of the doggie door slightly apart, I could set the bottom piece, top piece, and side pieces in place evenly (where normally the doggie door would fit inside a normal door). My 2x2s wouldn’t fit all the way inside like a normal door because the screw hole things get in the way. But the 2x2s set inside enough to hold in place so that I could screw the two sides of the doggie door back together and the whole thing held tightly.
First, I held one hand pushing on the doggie door’s frame to be sure it held the bottom 14-inch 2×2 pinned in place, and then I screwed the bottom section of the doggie door together by using the screws provided.
Once the bottom was secured, I did the same along one side, again holding the frame tight to be sure the long 2×2 stayed in place. Most importantly, you want to be sure the corners at the bottom line up nicely. (See picture below.)
Screwing parts together with wood in place.
Once the bottom and one side were done, I took my second 14 inch piece and fit it along the top part of the doggie door. Pushing the frame down to hold this 2×2 in place, I pushed the last side piece in place as well, again making sure the bottom corners of the 2x2s were even. Then I screwed the doggie door’s top together, and that other side.
Doggie door with surrounding pieces on.
Lastly, I put the very top 14-inch piece in place and made sure the corners lined up with the ends of my long side pieces. Then I used my drill to screw in 1 screw at each end.
Insert frame assembled!
Top piece attached.
Step 5: Add a screen. We had a scrap screen door lying around that had never fit right over the door to our garage, so I cut off a section of that screen. If you need to buy screen, it’s fairly inexpensive to get a repair kit for a screen like the one I linked in my supplies list. You want to make sure your section of screen is a little bigger than the actual opening, so I measured for 53×16 inches and cut the screen down to that size.
With my frame lying back-side up (the side that will go outside), I positioned the screen over the open space of my frame. Then I used a staple gun to staple the screen edges into the wood frame. Pretty easy!
Screen stapled on.
After the screen was on, I took a few scrap pieces of wood and set them around the edges, over the staples, to really hold the screen in place and keep it secure. These wood pieces I nailed on with a few little nails. (You could also use wood glue, but I’m not that patient.) Just be sure not to place the wood too far to the outer edges, where they’d be in the way of the 2x2s fitting inside your door’s tracks. You could skip this step altogether, but I wanted to help my screen stay as secure as possible.
Back wood pieces covering screen staples.
Once my whole doggie door insert was assembled, I carried it to my open sliding door and lifted the top so it slid up a little into the top track, then I moved the insert to sit on the bottom of the doorframe, and finally I pushed it over to fit inside the track along the wall where the door would normally close. It stood in place pretty well like that all on its own, but with the sliding door closed against it, it was really secure.
My 5-year-old gave it a test run, and she reported that it worked great! 😂
Trial run.
That was it (after I painted 🤦♀️)! With the sliding door closed tight against the insert, it looks pretty even – like it belongs. And I’m really glad the insert stays put in the door’s track system even when we open the sliding door wider, because now we can still open the slider if we humans want to get outside too. I only remove the insert at night or when it’s raining and the dogs don’t want outside anyway.
AFTER: Doggie door insert – always ready!
I’m happy to report that the dog in the picture figured it out pretty quickly. Our younger mutt is less sure about this thing, but hopefully she’ll get the hang of it. 🤞
One of my favorite ways to screw with my husband is to text things like, “Do we have a crowbar?” Oddly enough, he replies, “Why?” very quickly.
Today I managed to complete my project without needing a crowbar, and honestly I was a little surprised by how easy it was to tear out a doorframe. But the old doorframe had annoyed me ever since we took the door off for our basement stairs to be open. I wanted to do something unique and new here instead, since obviously those hinge holes and the extra moulding don’t look great.
Similar to how I’d created my “live edge” side table, I decided to cut boards with my jigsaw to make surrounding trim that looked like rough, naturally unfinished wood.
Supplies:
(As an advertising affiliate and Amazon Associate, I earn a small commission from qualifying purchases. But it doesn’t cost you anything extra and helps me keep up my site!)
Eight 1x6x8s (3 for the doorframe, 2 for the front trim, 2 for the back trim, 1 for the front trim, and using the scraps to finish everything for the back and decorative top trim pieces)
Step 1: Tear out the old doorframe. This took me about 10 minutes. I used a utility knife to cut all around the exterior of the trim that surrounded the door. I did this to help loosen the boards from the wall and also to make sure it didn’t pull paint off when I pulled the wood free.
Next, I took a long flathead screwdriver and pushed it behind the trim, then used it to pop the trim off the wall. I did this at the middle, top, and bottom of each side, and this was enough to pull loose the small nails holding the trim in place. I did one side of the door, then the other, and finally took it off at the top.
Loosening trim.
After removing the trim from the front of the door, I did the same for the backside of the doorframe – the side you see when coming up our stairs.
With the trim all off, this exposed the doorframe’s 2 sides and top piece. I could see the ends of the drywall on either side of the doorframe now, plus a little of the 2x4s that the frame was nailed into. This is where I might have used a crowbar, but the back of a hammer worked just fine. Once the frame’s pieces were detached, I pulled them free and disposed of them.
Now I could see my naked space that needed a new frame.
Frame removed.
Step 2: Measure and cut new frame pieces. The 2x4s plus the 2 sides of drywall meant I had slightly over 4.5 inches of width to cover all around the sides and top of the doorway. I started at the top, which was 34 inches across.
Measuring for width.
So, first, I went into my garage and cut a 1x6x8 board to 34 inches long. I then used my table saw to cut this 6-inch width down to a little over 4.5 inches. (Remember, boards aren’t actually 4 or 6 inches wide when you buy them, so I’d bought boards at the 6-inch width to have some wiggle room, since I knew I’d need them wider than 1x4s.)
Taking this board to my doorway, I held it in place, made sure it covered the ends of the drywall evenly/exactly, and then used a few small nails from my nail gun to secure my board to the top 2×4. You could just use the Loctite adhesive if you don’t have a nail gun.
Securing top piece.
With this top board in place, that left 81 inches along each side of the doorway. So, I went back in my garage and cut 2 long 1×6 boards to 81 inches each. Then I used my table saw and again cut them down to a little over 4.5 inches wide.
Back inside, I position one side’s board in place – covering the ends of the drywall entirely again – and nailed it into the 2×4 behind it. I nailed at the top, bottom, and one in the middle, and this was plenty to hold it on. Again, you could just use the Loctite if you don’t want to do nails, but they do help hold it immediately.
I then repeated this for the other side.
Main pieces of the doorframe were done!
Main frame attached.
Step 3: Measure and cut “live edge” side trim pieces. For the trim around this doorframe, I started with the side pieces rather than the top. Again, I wanted them 81 inches long to cover the ends of the doorframe’s side pieces. So, I cut 2 more long 1×6 boards to 81 inches.
As for width, you could make these trim boards however wide you want, really. Since I was using 1×6 boards, I decided to leave them about that wide all the way up. But the trick here is to use a jigsaw and cut a purposefully wavy, NOT straight line all along one side of each side trim board. Just be sure you keep track of which board will be on the left and which will be on the right – you need the straight side of each to line up with the doorframe’s side boards for a smooth, straight corner.
I thought about drawing a line to trace along each board with my jigsaw, but I realized that following the grain lines made the most sense. This helped as a guide and also looked most natural once I was finished cutting. Basically, just cut with a jigsaw along lines nearest the outer side of the board.
Cutting along grain lines.
I cut my 2 side trim boards this way and then sanded down all my edges really, really well.
Step 4: Adjust baseboards. Once my side boards were ready, I took them to my doorway and stood them near each side. Since the baseboards on either side of the doorway obviously had run all the way to the old door trim, they needed to be shorter in order to fit my new, wider trim pieces. I measured the bottom of my board for the left piece and found it was 4.5 inches wide. So, I measured from the outside edge of my new doorframe to 4.5 inches over the baseboard. Marking with a pencil, I then carefully used my multitool to cut the baseboard at that mark. Once it was cut, I pried the cut section off the wall.
Removing baseboard.
I did this for the right side of the doorway too, and that side was 5 inches.
You could just take off the baseboard entirely, measure for new pieces, and install them in place. Since my doorway has corners close to either side, I didn’t want to deal with cutting and replacing all those angles, so I just used what was there and cut it shorter. 🤷♀️
Step 5: Attach the side trim pieces. With my baseboards now the right size so my trim could fit in place, I lay my first piece on the floor, back side up. I then used Loctite construction adhesive and dabbed it around on this backside of the wood.
Prepping trim piece.
With that ready, I lifted the board and set the bottom in place first, then slowly pushed the board tight against the wall, making sure to keep even with the outer edge of the new doorframe. Again, your live edge-looking side of the board should be the farthest side of the board while the straight-cut side is along the inner part of the door.
The Loctite only takes about a minute to hold the board in place, and I added a few nails at the bottom, middle, and top where this trim board stood over the inner frame’s board. This helped create an extra-tight hold on that corner where the boards met.
I repeated this for the other side.
Step 6: Measure and cut top trim piece. I came up with a few different ideas for how to do the top trim. You could easily measure from the outer sides of each side piece, cut your top piece to that length, cut a wavy edge for the very top side, attach it in place, and be done. That would look cool too, and uniform all the way around. OR, you could get a really wide piece of board and make a gigantic burl-looking top piece to go across. There are a lot of cool ways you could cut and shape the top!
I decided to create a little shelf along the top. I measured the whole way across – from the far side of the trim on the left to the far side of the trim on the right. I then added a few inches so the shelf would be a smidge wider, at 45 inches.
Taking the leftover 1×6 that I’d used to cut the doorframe’s 34-inch top piece, I cut this to 45 inches. I then used my jigsaw to cut a live edge along the board. I sanded that too.
BUT I added an extra cut and used my table saw to cut 1.5 inches along the straight side of that board. This created 2 pieces from my top 45-inch board – one straight at 1.5 inches wide and another at about 3 inch with one straight side and one live edge side. I did this so the shelf wouldn’t stick out very far but still create enough of a space to set picture frames on…or whatever decorations I could come up with later.
I sanded all these edges.
Top pieces.
Step 7: Attach the top pieces. First, I dabbed Loctite along the backside of the straight 1.5 inch piece. Then I dabbed the adhesive along the straight edge of the other board – this would become the backside of the shelf.
Climbing on a stool, I held the piece with the live edge so that the live edge faced out and the straight edge (with the adhesive) touched the wall. I made sure to position this board so that an equal amount overhung each end of the side trim pieces that the shelf board sat on. I then used my nail gun and shot a few nails down through this top shelf piece into the tops/ends of either side trim piece.
With that on, I quickly took the 1.5 inch piece and set it evenly on top of the shelf board, tight against the shelf board to help hold it down in place. I used a few nails to help the Loctite hold this board against the wall.
Attaching shelf and top support.
Step 8: (Optional) Add decorative boards to top. Really, you could just use a wider board than that 1.5 inch piece along the top as a support. What I did was use 2 of my scrap pieces to create little live-edge sections for along the top, sitting on that 1.5 inch piece. This just added a little more height to the overall doorframe and a bit more character. I did stain these before attaching them just to be sure I got in all the little nooks I’d cut. Then I put Loctite on the backs and set them in place, holding them against the wall for a minute until they stuck. I didn’t bother with nails.
Adding little top pieces.
Step 9: Repeat steps 3-8 for the other side of the doorway. I plan to do something completely different on the inside of our stairwell, but to finish framing your doorway with trim, just repeat these same steps for the other side. If you don’t want a shelf on the other sides, just secure one board along the top, with the straight edge along the doorframe’s top board and the live edge side at the very top. Otherwise, do everything exactly the same as above.
Step 10: Use wood filler. This was a quick step, but it makes a big difference in the final finish to have all you nail holes filled in. I also used it in places where there was a little gap between the boards at the corners.
Be sure to use wood filler that takes stain or paint!
Step 11: Stain or paint. My husband came home in time to provide input, and we agreed to stain the wood in a dark walnut, which is what I’ve used in our nearby kitchen and also our nearby living room. It just ties in nicely. I was worried that the dark stain would hide some of the boards’ character, but the unique knots and such still stand out just fine.
Stained cool spot.
I first put painters tape around the trim, just to be safe. (You could stain or paint the boards before install, but I liked it all being connected first to flow together better.) Once my walls were safe, I used a small brush and stained it all, including the ends and the top of my shelf.
Done!
AFTER: Live-edge wood doorframe.
This has way more character than our old doorframe (with the unused hinge holes and unnecessary moulding) and I really like how it ties in with the wood elsewhere in our house. Plus, the little shelf can be decorated differently for holidays or changing seasons. Now I just need to buy more decorations. 😉
